Raavanan - Dus sar wale

It is Mani Ratnam's modern day reproduction of one of the most epic mythological stories.
Having said that, I was a touch disappointed towards the end but we will come back to it later. For one, I felt Mani Ratnam need not have to so strictly stick to the Ramayan story through out like the nose reference to Surpanaka (Priya mani) and Monkey like behavior of Karthik (reference to Hanuman) At least I was happy seeing a slight deviation towards the end.

Vikram really proved as why he was worth the billing. He was splendid throughout. Even though you feel that the movie might fall apart, you can never stop enjoying watching this guy act. He grunts, he shouts, he howls, he says that 'buck buck buck'. He does everything in this movie to make that character work. I can't wait to watch his performance as Dev in the Hindi version.

Prithivi does a decent enough job as a tough cop. No one seems white/black in this movie. Everyone seem to have a gray shade to their character. Dev is not all-good and Veera is definitely not as bad as Raavanan (from the Mythology). Aishwarya justified her role.

One more disappointment was that few songs were never fully shown. Veera veera was part of the initial credits. Kaatu sirukki only had an old lady humming it once in the movie. I wanted to hear Shankar Mahadevan/Anuradha Sriram's version. Only three songs Kodu poatta, Kedakkari and Kalvare had some screen presence. Usire Poghudey had a couple of dialogues in between.

The big plus of the movie was the Cinematography and the camera work (V. Manikandan and Santosh Sivan) which were ably supported by the splendid background score by Rahman.
I have definitely heard a lot of bad reviews for this movie and know that many people felt cheated and disappointed at Mani's work. As I said earlier, it could have been better. But I guess it works for some and doesn't for the rest. Whatever it is, it was definitely worth a watch for Vikram's acting and the way in which a bright and green rural India was shown through out.

And namma makkal inum thirunthavey illa, do you know who got the loudest cheer in the movie? No, not Vikram, not Prithvi, nor Ash. It was Ranjitha!!

Paranormal Activity - Movie review

There has been a lot of hype for the movie. Tags like "Don't see it alone" "Nightmares are guaranteed" have been generously thrown around.


Well, the movie never gave me nightmares, actually not even made me think about it again.
I read that the movie gave the chills to a director who made one of the best horror movies till date, the Poltergiest.
May be watching it alone might have had some effect. It had a few scary moments and the climax was little disturbing.
Towards the end of the movie, you get a little tired of the lead pairs that you actually want the demon/ghost to thrash them so that at least then they would abandon the house or do something really solid to get rid of that thing.

The ghost psychic who runs away saying that this is the work of a Demon and he is not a demon expert was funny and frustrating. He could have been of a little more help for sure being in the Paranormal business for so long. He says that his presence in the house angers the spirit more and more. They could have very well met somewhere outside and discussed about this. I don't understand why they want to do everything inside the damn house.

Couple of moments were really creepy like when Katie wakes up and keeps staring at Micah for hours together at night.
The movie might not work so well with the Indian audiences as we do not come across such situations frequently. A couple of people all alone in big house. House fully made of wood where you can hear a lot of squeaky noises. And for sure if it happened in India, first thing in your mind would be to vacate the house and go and stay with family with more people around. Not sure how much this would work but at least the demon would have had more people to scare this way.
We really don't know the background history about the pair. Katie's family survived the inferno when she was young and shifted to a new home. I guess there must have been more people out there to support them.
Overall it was a decent movie with few scares. And would work more if you were a couple like that leaving alone in an almost deserted home somewhere in the US.
Watch it alone at night and check if it works for you :-)