At last ... a good movie

At last, my blog silence is being broken. And it is very very rare that Abi and I write about or read the same thing on the same day!! Usually such joint ventures happen only for the events at Isha but not for a movie. It does today at least for a movie that made me feel pensive and happy at the same time. By the time it ended, there were so many nice memories that it is hard for me to pin-point what I felt was right about the movie.

This is about "madrasapattinam". The writer/director Vijay has taken the art of taking a tried-and-tested story adapted from different movies (I can immediately recall Lagaan and Titanic) with a kaleidoscope of emotions, brilliant screenplay and exemplary acting to new heights! Arya and Amy certainly steal the hearts of audience, their romance palpable but so decent that it puts all the signing-in-the-rain-dancing-around-trees directors to shame. I knew Arya was a very good actor from 'Naan Kadavul' itself and he has proven himself again now.

The kind of art direction that has gone in deserves the best awards if not at the international level, definitely at national level. To reproduce the Madras or Madrasa pattinam (current Chennai) in such brilliance is a stupendous effort indeed. No wonder the audience were glued to their seats watching images of the erstwhile Madras and current Chennai 'after' the movie was over and the names were scrolling on screen.

GV Prakash deserves a special mention for sure. The BGM was the closest somebody could get me to remember the maestro himself. It is as good as it gets. Though Udit Narayan's nosy song was funny for me, there was an earthy feeling about the music and the song lyrics too were cool. One that strikes a chord: "will turn into the breeze and enter your breath, I refuse to come out though" - nice creativity! (pardon my crude translation)

Abi has already touched upon the goose-bump-scenes of this movie in her blog entry:

http://abi-passion.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-am-hungry.html

I should mention this - by the 'intermission' time, I was wondering what more is left in the movie. By the time it ended, I was surprised that there was not a single moment where I felt it is dragging in the second half!

Yes, the puritans may say the storyline is predictable and even claim it is a copy-cat reproduction from other movies. Who cares? Not me. I thoroughly enjoyed this roller-coaster ride into the past of Chennai or Madras as I fondly remember the city am born in.

I am absolutely surprised that none of my friends recommended the movie to me! Well, may be our audience has gotten so used to the hit-n-run action kind of movies that such good ones slip out unnoticed. I certainly would recommend this to anybody on any given day, if not for the story, just for the 'fexy' action :-)