CHINKS IN THE AMOUR
Almost nothing goes right in a love story about two people who are wrong for each other.
May 7, 2007 – A RECENT ISSUE of Anandha Vikatan featured an interview with the actor Simbu, and when asked about his much-publicised love affair that ended just a little while ago, he had this to say: âEn kaadhal ellaame nijam! Ippo vilagi nikkalaam. Aana ellor manasukkulleyum oru theatre irukku. Adhil dhideer dhideer-nu pazhaya padam odum… thavirkave mudiyaadhu.â? This has got to be one of the great quotes about romance and the movies, for what heâs implying is that theyâre inseparable. Even if weâre not physically inside a theatre or in front of a television set, we can never prevent flashbacks from occurring in our minds, inside our heads. (Of course, these replays neednât always be about love â you could be remembering the face of the auto driver who drove you home and then arm-twisted you into coughing up an extra fifty, but who wants to hear a great quote about that?) The movies are made for romance. Thereâs something about seeing a love story unfold on the screen, as opposed to merely reading one â and that comes from the little things the actors do. The way the girl smiles, say, or the way the boy belts out a line of a dulcet duet, or the way the violins behind the scenes hit a high when boy and girl come together… And then I went and saw Unnale Unnale, and everything Iâve rhapsodised about this far went poof into the stale air of the cinema hall. At one point during this frustratingly ragged film, I actually thought Iâd be very happy if I never saw a love story unfold on screen again.
Unnale Unnale details a love triangle that centres on Karthik (newcomer Vinay, who delivers his lines of dialogue as if chewing invisible food with his mouth open). Heâs a compulsive flirt who falls in love with Jhansi (Sada), whose puritanical attitudes towards itches south of the navel would make the Victorians appear a bunch of naked hippies. A girl is entitled to her views, of course, but whatâs galling is that weâre asked to buy this love angle as if it were actually possible. Thereâs not one scene â one scene â that tells us why these two would consider spending a minute in each otherâs company, let alone a lifetime. Conventional wisdom is that opposites attract, but many people whoâve been in love will tell you that opposites, sometimes, merely repel â and badly too. Director Jeeva â what a comedown from the immensely likeable 12-B and Ullam Ketkume â builds his entire first half around the fact that Karthik and Jhansi met and loved and split up. He wants us to have visceral reactions about this arc of the story â but how can you even begin to care about plot points that were telegraphed to you the minute you laid eyes on these characters? So we move on to the second half, where Karthik and Jhansi meet again in Australia â only this time, thereâs Jhansiâs colleague Deepika (Tanisha), who falls for Karthik even as she tries to patch things up between him and Jhansi. Again, none of this plays out in a manner thatâs remotely probable or engaging.
The great tragedy about Unnale Unnale is that, had it worked, it would have been one for the ages â despite liberal helpings of entire scenes (and concepts) from Dil Chahta Hai and Kal Ho Naa Ho and that silly Jennifer Lopez rom-com where the heel of her shoe gets stuck in a manhole cover. I donât recall many Tamil movies that were about falling in love with the same person all over again â the first time without a clue about him, the second time after fully knowing what makes him tick (and knowing that this time around, thereâs competition). But the performances are quite bad and none of the actors makes it easy to care about how they end up. Vinay is personable enough (in the tradition of Jeevaâs other softie heroes like Shaam and Arya), but the only towering aspect about him is how tall he is. (This results in one of the big laugh-out-loud moments, when he stands in the way of a friend and the latter exclaims, âDei… building maadhiri nikkaadhe!â?) Sada walks through the entire film with a single expression, a wrinkled-up nose and perpetually pursed lips that make it appear that sheâs just walked into a particularly nasty cloud of flatulence. And Tanisha is absolutely dreadful. The movements of her lips have nothing to do with the lines sheâs supposed to be delivering, and my instant thought was that she has a great future ahead of her if she ever decides to take up playback singing for Tamil cinema.
Harris Jayaraj, as always, gives Jeeva a superb soundtrack, but the songs donât really acquire a life of their own with the picturisations. Ilamai ullasam, for instance, is clumsily staged at the scene of a wedding, and Vaikasi nilave is one of those generic warrior-and-princess conceits that has been yielding diminishing returns since Thalapathy. But why moan about the music, which at least provides a happy diversion from the talkie portions! Itâs been some time since I saw such a concentration of crackpot ideas (read cinematic contrivances) in a single place â like Jhansi hiring a hooker to test Karthikâs resolve, or Karthikâs friend (a listless Raju Sundaram) going on and on about the fun they had with girls at a party (naturally, Jhansi is within earshot), or Jhansi getting inspired by the science behind insemination attempts at a bull farm, or the fact that everyone is connected to everyone else (the girl that Karthik meets on a plane just happens to be his ex-girlfriendâs colleague-to-be, and so on), or the twisty climax that must have seemed good on paper but comes off as utterly flaky on screen.
And did I mention that everyone talks and talks, and when we think theyâre done talking, they pick up where they left off and talk some more? They talk about the differences between men and women. They talk about the nature of love. And Iâm sure thereâs a whole bunch of other things they talk about, except that I stopped listening at some point. Jeeva knows that heâs dealing with a visual medium â how could he not, considering how wonderful his cinematography is â and yet he stuffs his film with endless variations of the same bit of dialogue, and after a while, you get the feeling youâre seeing the same scene over and over. There are some good funny bits, especially at the beginning, but the one sequence I took away was the one that introduces us to Karthik. Just a minute earlier, weâve seen a boy and girl (boyfriend and girlfriend?) quarrelling. We donât know who these two are â we see them from a distance, and their dialogues are drowned out by music â but it appears that the boy is pleading with the girl to forgive him for something heâs done, and she refuses. So the dejected boy turns away from the platform theyâre on and walks onto the street blindly, right in front of an oncoming car. And as a crowd gathers around the grotesquely spread-eagled accident victim, we notice that one of the curious faces belongs to Karthik. He looks and he walks away, unaware that very soon heâs going to get hit by a truck himself (figuratively, of course). This sequence tells you everything the film is going to be about (the vagaries of love, and such), and it accomplishes all of this without a single spoken word.
Vijay
May 8, 2007
Baradwaj, considering that you review Tamil movies once in a bluemoon, why this film? You could have atleast reviewed Mozhi, even if it was’nt as great as it was hyped to be. Or did you do this as part of your job and had no choice?
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brangan
May 8, 2007
Vijay – this came about because it’s the only New Year release that seemed worth watching. About Mozhi, I’ve been asked to write something for the paper (not a review, more like a set of thoughts… I’m not quite clear myself). But one film I’m hoping to review sometime soon is Chennai 28. Seen it?
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sivaramakrishnan
May 8, 2007
I am still waiting for the review of mozhi from you.u have reviewed some pretty ordinary movies and came up with insightful reviews.wondering why u feel mozhi isn’t worth the effort. it was a rare good movie amongst all the masala entertainers(which i love).and chennai 28 was rocking.waiting for the review.
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Ravi K
May 9, 2007
That about sums up my opinion of the film. What an insipid love story. No motivation for either of the two protagonists to love each other, with a lot of scenes strung on a clothesline-thin love story. Throw in some cliched sequences of misunderstandings and the hero stalkerishly pursuing the heroine and you have a mediocre film.
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Balaji
May 9, 2007
Another Tamil movie… another damning review… Fully justified ofcourse 🙂 all the talking really got to me too. i really felt jeeva thought of himself as Tamil cinema’s answer to John Gray 🙂
Since u didnt like ‘paruthi veeran’, ‘mozhi’ or ‘veyyil’ all the much, a question for u… what would u say was the last Tamil movie u really liked? I’m just curious about how far back u’d have to go 🙂
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Zero
May 9, 2007
I haven’t seen this film yet, but Chennai 600028, for me, is easily this year’s best film! (I might even add, the best Tamil film since Kaadhal!) Such fun. 🙂
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brangan
May 9, 2007
sivaramakrishnan: If that piece on Mozhi doesn’t happen for the paper, I’ll write a review for the blog.
Ravi K: “insipid” is right. I was quite shocked that this came from Jeeva.
Balaji: I guess the disappointments with Tamil movies are greater for me, in a way, because I pick and choose the ones I want to watch and review (based on names and early reports), and then when they turn out like this… aaargh! But last year, I quite liked Pattiyal, VV (to a large extent, but then I’m a big Kamal fan :-)), Pudhupettai too (though no one else seemed to like it). I didn’t *hate* Veyyil or Mozhi – they certainly had their moments. It’s just that they were so much lesser than what they could have been.
Zero: I’m dying to see this one, but I’ll temper my expectations regardless 🙂
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Padawan
May 9, 2007
Spot on! Even I felt that the scenes from DCH and KHNH came of poor in this movie. And there was absolutely no reason for Karthik to start of on Vaikasi Nilave just because Jhansi borrowed that red gown from Elizabeth Hurley. She did not look any better!
And what was that so-called comedy track with Raju Sundaram and whoever played Vaidhi? And the way Vinay pronounces “brahmithen”…it felt like “braahmi taen”! Heroines in tamizh cinema can survive without pronouncing Tamizh (So tanisha has a bright future!!) but Vinay…chance a kidaiyaadhu. The cinematography was pleasing to the eye but aren’t most movies come with best camera work?
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Padawan
May 9, 2007
style alone cannot save this movie….
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Ravi K
May 9, 2007
Jeeva’s previous films:
12B- Though a remake of the core idea of Sliding Doors, it was nonetheless something very interesting and different for Indian cinema. It deftly combined the traditional needs of a Tamil film with the “what if” device of showing both tracks of Shaam’s life.
Ullam Ketkume- Not as unique or innovative as 12B, but still an enjoyable college youth film. Laila was annoying, though. I hate most of these “bubbly” ‘characters that come across as mentally ill 🙂
I hope UU is just a misstep for Jeeva.
About Vinay. I hate to write off people in their first films, so I don’t. He had flashes of charm in UU, but like you said, the most striking thing about the guy is his height. Hopefully he’ll be better in future films. I’m not sure why Jeeva has tended to cast these “blank slate” actors like Shaam, Arya, and Vinay.
Balaji: “nother Tamil movie… another damning review… ”
These days if you’re watching Tamil movies for anything more than the a/c or for mere timepass you’re not going to be happy. I don’t mind if a film has timepass and eye candy as a goal, but when a film purports to be a serious film about relationships or something else and turns out to be a poorly written, half-baked film, its frustrating. Especially from a good director.
Wasn’t Pattiyal a remake of Bangkok Dangerous?
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Balaji
May 10, 2007
Ravi, i’ve been writing reviews for a while(geocities.com/bbreviews, in case u want to take a look – bharadwaj, sorry about the plug) and felt exactly the same about 12B, UK and now UU. i’m hoping its just a misstep too.
and yes, ‘pattiyal’ was supposed to a remake of BD. haven’t seen BD but heard so from some commentors who had.
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Vijay
May 10, 2007
I didnt feel 12B itself was anything close to a great effort, considering the premise was ripped off. The movie did’nt have any anything unique other than the premise which in turn was ripped off and was badly executed. The last scene was goofed up with the director mixing up the Simran character from the 2 different scenarios together.No wonder the movie bombed.
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selva
May 10, 2007
Agree with your review. Except Harris, there is nothing really in this movie. If many can call Minnalae as a cliched product, I am wondering what term they will use for this movie. Main problem is the starcast. Very poor. The hero reminds you most of the choclate boys not limited to ajith,madhavan and shaam. (The very first image that you have in ur review will give everyone as if Ajith is asking something from Sadha)
One more film in which Harris’s work goes to the mud ! Whether they are copied or not (JUne pona = All Rise Blue) they still work and they are cool !
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brangan
May 10, 2007
Ravi K: Don’t even get me started about Laila. If she came across as “mentally ill” in UK, what would you term her performance in Pithamagan. Oh, the horror, the horror 🙂
Balaji: Let me throw the question back at you, for you haven’t been exactly gushing of Tamil movies either 🙂 So how far would *you* go back to name good Tamil films?
Vijay: I actually liked 12-B a lot. It was a good adaptation with a solid back-and-forth screenplay.
selva: Could you point me someplace I could listen to All Rise Blue? Thanks.
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Zero
May 10, 2007
Ha ha, I *hate* Laila’s “acts” and antics (calm, coy, loud or bubbly) in general. Her presence and the KKHH “inspirations”, is one of the main reasons why I didn’t enjoy Ullam Ketkume much.
But, I actually enjoyed her (way-over-the-top performance) in Pithamagan, may be, thanks to the funny lines and nice dubbing (if one would overlook the forced lip movements). 🙂 I thought Bala used her well to play that silly loudmouth kid.
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Ravi K
May 10, 2007
Balaji, I am actually a long-time reader of your reviews, and occasional commenter on your blog.
Baradwaj, Laila in Pithamagan was incredibly annoying. I get vaitherichal every time I see her in anything!
So what exactly plagues our Tamil cinema? For one, I think people are so tired of the usual fight scenes and vulgar skin show, double meaning dialogues, etc. that they desperately praise a relatively clean film like UU (gratuitous strip club scene notwithstanding) to the heavens. So what if the film has no violence or vulgarity? Shouldn’t a film be defined by what is in it rather than what it lacks? Is the fact that Vinay doesn’t beat up a bunch of rowdies any consolation for the poor script?
Tamil cinema also has never really had a tradition of “parallel” cinema the way Hindi, Malayalam, or Kannada film had. Few Tamil filmmakers think outside the formulae of action-romance masala or clean family entertainers. Hindi cinema has a fairly recent legacy of filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Sai Paranjpe, etc., some of whom are still remembered by young filmmakers and still occasionally make films. We still see unconventional Hindi films like RDB and Black Friday every now and then.
Are these good observations or the crazy rantings of a lunatic? 🙂
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Vivekanand
May 11, 2007
u ve save me again..saved some 1k+ in ticket money..lol..
so tamil movies too goin the hindi way?:all glitz, glamor n tech but no storyline or performance to talk abt?(in other words, plastic n hollow..)
agree with selva..tat song is a rip off of all rise..of course some wud call it “inspired by” but being a HJ basher, i stick to my view 🙂
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selva
May 11, 2007
Baradwaj,
I have the song. I will upload it in a site and will post the link here.
It is not an exact copy. But an inspiration (too much though). Even the flow and pattern present in BLUE – ALL RISE song is same. The flow of lyrics and the pauses and everything is same. Actually, HJ had rendered the tune and the basic things. June pona is a refined version of Blue – All Rise. The prelude is different.
I also heard that “Ilamai Ullasam” is an inspired version of AARON CRATER. (Not sure since I don’t have the source)
P.S: ll post the link once the upload is over
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selva
May 11, 2007
Baradwaj,
Here is the link to download BLUE – ALL RISE
http://share.up1file.com/download/fJI3MIWtGV
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Vijay
May 11, 2007
“Vijay – this came about because it’s the only New Year release that seemed worth watching. ”
brangan, not quite. Did’nt you read about Chennai-600028?
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Balaji
May 12, 2007
Baradwaj, I think I’ve been a little more gushing of Tamil movies than you 🙂 I did like ‘mozhi’, ‘paruthi veeran’, ‘veyyil’ (hence my mention of them in my question to you). Also ‘pattiyal’, ‘pudhuppettai’ and ‘chithiram pesudhadi’. But for a movie I really liked, I guess I’d have to go back to ‘Imsai Arasan’. Btw, did you watch/review that one??
Ravi, good to know. Thanx 🙂
Vijay, I think ‘Chennai 600028’ was released a couple of weeks after Tamil New Year day.
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RaviKrishna (not to be confused with the other Ravi K)
May 12, 2007
“Sada walks through the entire film with a single expression, a wrinkled-up nose and perpetually pursed lips that make it appear that she’s just walked into a particularly nasty cloud of flatulence.”
he he. Was this in the printed edition. I somehow can’t believe this will go to the print edition.
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brangan
May 12, 2007
Ravi K: good point there about the lack of a parallel cinema tradition in Tamil cinema. I can recall the likes of Rudraiah, but they fell badly by the wayside.
Vivekanand: “1k+ in ticket money”? Where do you watch films saar?
selva: Thank you so much for the link.
RaviKrishna: I did this review for the blog. There’s someone else who does Tamil reviews for the paper.
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bart
May 12, 2007
Just saw the movie and have just one sentence on ur review. “I second it”.
Too many inspirations, picked up gags, dialogues (repetitive), suddenly sprouting songs – a below average affair.
This is exactly why “Mozhi” seems such a superior movie! ( a movie with similar pretext – love story without violence et al)…
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Vivekanand
May 13, 2007
I had promised some frnz tat i wud take them to this movie..was waitin for ur review actually…:D
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suchitha
May 14, 2007
I agree with the review for the most part. What annoyed me most were the characters themselves. Karthik was a flirt, a liar, and didn’t try to understand Jhansi, so it didn’t make sense to me that every other line in the film was “understand Karthik.” And Deepika has no values whatsoever. Sada acted okay though.
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brangan
May 14, 2007
bart – ah, that Mozhi bait again… 🙂
suchitha – “understand Karthik” Yeah, that was a laugh. I don’t think even the screenwriter understood Karthik.
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Karthik
May 23, 2007
Jeeva’s target audience is college girls and who are less forgiving when it comes to cheezy flicks like this. I agree there are simply too much coincidences with no real direction. But i must hand it to Jeeva’s camera work and HJ’s unique, somewhat cliched romantic songs with cheezy vocals.People must be tired of watching vishal carrying an aruval slicing and dicing the enemies. If i want to criticize a film i can critcize even a “supposedly” good film by picking on each and everything. Moment you know the director is Jeeva you should know what to expect. A handsome hero and couple of heroines who don’t go crazy when they lose their love. This movie kinda reminded me of David Mamet’s About Last Night starring Demi moore and Rob lowe. I am not going to be too critical of the movie. I am not sure how exactly it is different from ullam ketkume! Jeeva as usual focussed more on the movie being both visually and musically rich and colorful leaving out plot development, character development. To be honest you don’t need a big review for a move like this which has a paper thin plot.
But i agree Malayalam movies are cut above the rest. Especially the movies Perumazakkalam, thanmarathu were daring ventures which none of our Tamil Nadu producer will have the guts to let anyone direct movies like that.
By the way guys none of the artists used their own voice. They had dubbing voice.
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Indra
May 27, 2007
I second suchitha. Vinay is being projected as a “good flirt” and Sada is expected “to understand” him. Deepika is an absolute hopeless character. No wonder Karthika and Deepika fell in love finally. Songs and Camera effects are the only plus to the movie.
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Sridhar Visvanath
June 13, 2007
Good review. Someone mentions about hindi films in the same line as Malayalam movies. Boy, let me tell you. Hindi movies are the worst. They spend tons of money, everything looks too grand. But the story (if there is one )is really hollow. In that light, tamil movies are good, they have more hep than Malayalam and in that regard it is good. While I love Manichitrathaazh, Chandramukhi has the right amount of grandeur. So, if you watch Chandramukhi before Manichit..it is a good exp.
Summary: This is an extremely great period for tamil movies, Mayakannadi is good, Pudupettai is good, Mozhi is good though over-hyped, Chennai 28 is the best of the lot. Sivaji will rock and Dasavatharam will make you wonder. All kamal comedies with Crazy are some of the best in the world (considering that sex, religion and so many other subjects are taboo in tamil to make fun of).
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Sridhar Visvanath
June 13, 2007
And Ullam Ketkume, that comedian with Kamal mods etc was awesome. Great find. Sujatha sir’s dialogs were gr8. Fun movie. Laila was mentally retarded, but considering her performance in other movies, in UK atleast she fits that character.
Note: I do not consider Kal Ho na Ho, or Kuch Kuch as gr8 movies. Just sentimental wasted Shahrukh. Only DDLJ is good of those movies.
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divya
June 18, 2007
hey guys, tamil movies do hav a lotta potential yet 2 b tapped. movies lyk unnale unnale wil certainly bring disgrace 2 d avid movie goers…if nt 4 d music, d film dusnt dsrve a 100-day stint!
consider mozhi, veyil, whch dsrve a standup appreciatn 4 d gud wrk!
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Poorvi
July 16, 2007
We got the DVD of Chennai 28 from our friendly neighbourhood Indian store only to find that the DVD inside had 12B/Unnale Unnale.
So we watched 12B (interesting copy of Sliding Doors) and are unable to finish watching Unnale Unnale.
My God – its below all reasonable expectations – no storyline, no characterisation, repetitive dialogues, expressionless actors…. there isnt even one good reason to watch the movie! Why Jhansi keeps getting angry with Karthik but continues to meet him again and again is beyond understanding. Tanisha has no role of substance (not surprisingly) — her intro scene at the airport reminded me of intro scene of Rani Mukerji in Hum Tum, the supposed comedy scenes of Raju Sundaram were really lame – and the main ‘stars’ of the film Sada and Vinay were just terrible!
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james bind
August 13, 2007
fuck off you bastered
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krithika
August 23, 2007
This is a beautiful image
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Ganesh
October 26, 2007
I thought the movie was wonderful. I saw Dil Chahta Hai and though some scenes had their motivation from other movies, I thought the movie was out and out worth watching. The scenes, moods and the environment depicted suited the story very much. I thought Vinay was very nice and Sada acted the role to perfection. It was thoroughly entertaining at least for me.
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ashrudhi
July 28, 2008
unnale unnale is a nice movie.the songs of this movie is fantastic no words to say the role of vinay is superb i like the song june ponal and the comedy going between vinay,raju sundaram and sathish was too good and also the dance of sathish is fantastic.
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Lalitha
October 6, 2008
I actually really liked this movie, and felt really sad for Sada in the end. I don’t think any other actor could have pulled of Karthik’s character as well as Vinay, because Vinay had the “naughty yet sweet guy” image that suited the character. I thought Sada in particular did a really good job of portraying Jhansi, and I liked how the movie was realistic for once.
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harni
April 16, 2009
Cant rate dese songs..coz such a awesome song…Really Enjoyin A Lot Even Now By Hearin and Finally Vinay Smile really Attract and Pulled Me
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Raghuraman Jayaraman
June 1, 2019
I guess you have given your review genuinely.. but understand that it is a cult movie of our generation!! When we loved the movie… your review doesn’t make any sense to us now .. so shall I review your review ?
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