Saturday, November 24, 2007

Polladhavan Review

In continuum with my previous post, this movie really impressed me - in spite of having Dhanush in it and also the fact that I saw it in a crappy streamed format online.

The story is pretty similar to bicycle thief and deals about Dhanush's irresponsible life, his quest to get a Pulsar and the happenings thereon. Dhanush pretty much manages to be convincing as the wastrel guy - I think he has played this role once too often and even then, manages to make you take notice. His acting notwithstanding, there are certain aspects to his dialog delivery and facial expressions which Dhanush needs to avoid. His performance really stands out in the scene he revolts against his father. The comedy sequences work almost most of the times - except for some mokkais from Karunas. Dhanush has also made an effort to improve his physique and in the climax fight, his physique adds some credence to the fight (I generally believe fights shouldn't be more than 2 or 3 punches long). I really like Dhanush for trying to choose stories intelligently (thiruvilayadal arambam, Polladhavan kinds). Its definitely good that he has come out of the Sullan - Parattai engira azhagu kinda nonsensical scripts. Not everyone can fit all roles. So if Dhanush can make himself a niche hero, good for him.

The love track is a total spoiler and the movie could have been much tauter without it - and the heroine's only capability seems to be able to do some on-edge-of-vulgarity dance steps in the songs - zilch emoting and non-existent good looks - it seems to be a good decision by Gautam to drop her from Varanam Ayiram.

Amongst other performances, Daniel Balaji (this guy always comes as a drug addict on screen and plays it pretty convincingly too) and Murali (Dhanush's dad) are good. Bhanupriya comes in a role tailor made for Saranya (roles whose only selavu is 25 litres of glyrcerine). The other small characters like Santhanam, Dhanush's sister are easy and are not the usually over-the-top characters that we are used to. A bow to the director for sticking to believable characterizations.

What's this new trend of Tamizh movie villains talking tamizh in a contorted accent? His tamizh pronounciation itself warrants the horrible death he dies in the movie.

Songs from G.V. Prakash Kumar, who had superb outings in Kireedam and Veyyil has dissappointed and generally, the songs itself are speed-breakers in this movie - the most irritating being the item number - I seriously don't know why this item number was placed there - the song, dance and the "item" girl sucked big time.

On the whole, this movie is good enough to be seen once - and perhaps is Tamizh Cinema's answer to the Six Pack Khan.

Rating - 3/5

0 - Horrible/Pathetic
1 - Bad
2 - Okay
3 - Good
4 - Excellent
5 - Amazing


LKS




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5 comments:

Blogeswari said...

I thought 'Engeyum eppodum' rocked!
kazhudaikkum teryuma karpoora vasanai?

Sudha said...

Nice review

D LordLabak said...

Murali Dhanush's dad? Is it "aatthadi pavadai kaatthada" murali you're talking about?
And banupriya making the debut as a "market pona andha kaalatthu heroine"....make this movie a must watch for me.

Swetha said...

I watched polladavan too and guess of the diwali releases, this one was good !

Unknown said...

Dude...i can see u hate Ramya/Divya...But the film was overall good with superb narration and realistic touches....unlike sum Vijay or Ajith Films......Ur review doesn't higlight on these aspects.....