Patchaikili Muthucharam – A review

Every time Gautham Menon makes a movie, he makes me cringe. He has this amazing ability to come up with an interesting plot and then find an ingenious way to screw it up.

Patchaikili Muthucharam starts badly, gathers pace, reaches a high and then fizzles out. Gautham is obviously in a haste to bring in his favorite actress. So, a receptionalist has to say that Sarath Kumar is flirty, for us to know that he is. Sarath Kumar has to tell us he is crazy about his wife, for us to know that he is. Indian cinema has always relied more on dialogues than emoting and scenes to get the message across. And then Sarath Kumar looks completely lost here. So this entire first act looks contrived, but Gautham can be forgiven for the next one hour makes you sit up.

This is Gautham’s ode to Jyothika. This is as much her movie as Sarath Kumar’s and Gautham has tried his best to give her big farewell. She acts well in parts, but doesn’t really manage to get more than a couple of expressions. But the plot unfolds well, if you can forgive the acting. Sarath Kumar comes up with a really subdued performance and he delivers and this hour makes up for the most interesting part of the movie. The reasons and the set up for Sarath Kumar and Jyothika to cheat on their respective spouses is much better than movies like KANK. The places, the dialogues (most of what I could hear from the crappy print) and the situations are very believable.

And then the twist. I think Gautham realized that almost everybody would have guessed it by now and so does not make a big deal about. But I think that is also the reason why the movie dragged on for another half hour.

The funny thing is that this movie will again be touted as really sound movie and will get raving reviews. I can take it when a really crappy movie becomes a huge hit, but I find it really difficult to digest the fact that what could have been a great movie, fails to deliver and still gets touted as a great movie. For some reason that bugs the hell out of me.

Vetayadu Vilayadu

Please forgive me for what I am about to do, for I cannot believe I am doing it.

Vetayadu Vilayadu is a crappy movie. Crappy story line. Crappy screenplay. Crappy dialogues. Crappy direction. Crappy acting. Very crappy acting. Crappy music. Everything about the movie is crappy.

This could be because I had very high expectations from the movie. Well, not really. From Kamalhassan, yes. From Gautham Menon, no. I am no fan of his direction. Minnale was a good movie because of Vivek and the music. Kakha Kakha was a very average movie. From what I call a “movie technique” it was a crappy movie. On the same grounds Vetayadu Vilayadu falls flat on its face.

It has a set of half baked characters in a less than half baked plot. Indian directors, except a very few, have no idea what character development means. If someone is a psychopath, they do weird things for no reason or rhyme. And they talk about “path breaking” research, when they hardly have any time for killing everyone who seems to come across their path. Kamal comes up with a performance worthy of a movie in the late 80’s. I am going to stop with that and not say anything more bad about his performance for old times sake. I have no inkling why Kamal accepted the movie. It was a Fanaa all over again. To Gautham Menon, using terms like “forensics”, “semen” and “state-wide alert” means making a hatke movie. The camera work is pretty nifty at places, but they have over done it.

The surprise package is Jothika. She comes up with a surprisingly controlled performance. Yes, I used the word surprise twice. Even though she has very little to do, she seems to be the only sane person in the movie. Her husband, or should I say ex-husband, is another story all together. And the two negative characters, the less said about them the better.

A comment at the end of the movie by a friend of mine sums up the movie adequately: “I can accept the fact that Gautham Menon couldn’t come up with a new story, the least he could have done is come up with new names for the characters.

It was a complete disappointment.

Ahista Ahista

The title is highly suggestive of the pace of the movie. The movie ambles along, but manages to sustain your interest

First, it is an Abhay Deol movie, from the first scene to the last and he has done a really good job for someone acting in his second film. Like B said, he seems to be the only Deol who knows how to act. Soha Ali Khan comes up with a very good performance herself. The director seems to have loved her expressions and focuses on her face on quite a few scenes in the movie, but very justifiably so – a solid performance. The bandwala, the little kid, the muslim friend and his mom all have come up with memorable performances. The only misfit and the most visible mistake by the director is casting Shayan Munshi. He is a total miscast and there is absolutely no chemistry between Soha and him. It might have been so because the director did not want any.

The direction was really good for a debutant. It was as if the director had decided that he would make a completely logical movie and he has managed to stick to it till the end. You can definitely find a few loop holes if you look just a little harder, but I have decided not to. The screenplay and the dialogues are even more impressive. The story though simplistic and oft seen before, stands apart because of the dialogues, or rather the lack of them. Watch out for that scene in the end where Abhay asks Soha if he really loves him. This is one of the simplest scenes ever taken in bollywood in the last two decades.

The music is very decent, if you can ignore Mr.Reshammiya’s voice in most of the songs. Overall, a very good watch.