Spoilers ahead…
All we ask of a comedy is that it keep us entertained. At least, this is what I ask. Not plot. Not acting. And certainly not whether it “makes sense.” I was doing some idle YouTube-ing a while ago, and came across this scene with Kallapetti Singaram and two others. They’re villagers, and they’re in the city for the first time. Inside a posh hotel, they see a man step into an elevator. The doors close. When the doors open a little later, a woman steps out. They think the elevator is a magic gender-changing box, and as none of them have had much luck with women, they hatch a plan… I cracked up. This is all I want, really – a series of silly “bits” like this one, strung up to feature length.
Unfortunately, Yuvaraj Dhayalan, the director of Eli, gets tangled up in the mechanics of a dense plot that’s – are you ready for this? – based on The Departed. Vadivelu plays a small-time conman named Eli who’s asked to infiltrate a criminal organisation, etcetera. There have been films (the Pink Panther series, the Austin Powers movies) that have mined comedy from crime, but just about nothing works here. Eli is full of scenes that go on forever – and for no reason. It begins with an AIR broadcast in which someone goes on about… the evils of smoking. Why this PSA in a comedy? Just because the villain (Pradeep Rawat) is a cigarette smuggler? I’d have preferred a PSA about the two-and-a-half hours that loom ahead.
No one seems to know what to do with this material. The director keeps adding masala elements like action scenes and songs. You’d think these would be comic action scenes, comic songs. But only occasionally. The rest of the time, it’s all played depressingly straight. Even Vadivelu is stranded – the gags he’s in are shockingly weak. He gets a scene where he romances Sadha (she’s the moll, I think) to the strains of Mere sapnon ki rani. He lip-syncs the whole song, as if the mere idea of Vadivelu in a Rajesh Khanna scenario is automatically funny. It is – for about ten seconds. But like the rest of the film, this bit too goes on forever.
KEY:
- Eli = rat; sorry, too depressed now to think up anything clever
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Rahini David
June 19, 2015
After watching the elevator comedy, I was about to request a full length piece on such comedies. It was a good laugh and such youtube videos strung together with a few thoughts about comedy then and now would have made for great reading. I wish you didn’t use it in the first para of Eli review.
Similarly, the piano songs. Great topic, unfotunately I will soon forget the movie’s name and would have no idea where the thread went. 😦
It is true. I do protest too much. 😀
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udhaysankar
June 19, 2015
I had an really strange experience with your review. I read seriously ‘unfunny’ as funny. I was like ‘oh! really?’, ‘is he trying to write an spoof review’, ‘Is he too frustrated with comedies in tamil cinema,that he finds this funny’, ‘Or has he become too old??, and lost his touch’, before my mind could read it as ‘funny’…
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venkat ramanan
June 19, 2015
Sorry to intrude into your activity, I was actually looking up for your review of PREMAM, but i think it has released without subtitles. Ever since i saw it almost a month ago, a lot has happened. The film is being appreciated like anything, industry big names are pouring their appreciation, meanwhile Alphonse Puthren wrote an open letter to Rohit Shetty on how to portray another Language (A Substantial Character of premam is in Tamil), all this while the film’s appreciation has reached a sort of frenzy, Tickets are still hard to get. It is projected to cross bangalore days and drishyam. I think while both BD and Drishyam are well made films, Premam is a well made + seriously Crowd Pleasing one. The film is definitely going into a “vera level” territory. If possible do not miss it in theatres, maybe put a review later with subs 🙂 Thank You BR.
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MANK
June 19, 2015
Brangan, there was a similar elevator scene in the bachchan starter yaraana
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gvsafamily
June 19, 2015
OMG!
The Amala shocker hasn’t even been processed fully yet and now Sada paired with Vadivelu?!
(shrieks in horror, passes out!)
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Ram Murali
June 19, 2015
“…Eli, gets tangled up in the mechanics of a dense plot that’s – are you ready for this? – based on The Departed”
–> What the heck?! So, “Eli” is about a rat (in gangster parlance)?!?!
On a related note, I don’t know if you guys have heard of this reviewer called Prashanth. He does 5-10 minute video reviews of movies online. He’s quite good. So, he posts a tweet about the trailer (I think) of Eli saying that Vadivelu seems past his prime or something of that sort. The director of “Eli” actually replies with something obscene like, “Can I call you an a**hole if the first show is Housefull?” Prashanth coolly tweets a pic of a near-empty theatre in Thirupur. Guess who had the last laugh?!
Yuvaraj Dhayalan avargaley, MakkaL Theerpey Mahesan Theerpu. Looks like Eli is Gaali. You can call me whatever you want! Everything’s in place for me the last time I checked. I mean, my brains, my wit, etc. 😉
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Jeeva P
June 19, 2015
Vadivelu still has his form intact in the film. But it was like Dravid playing against England in 2011 trying to save India but in vain. I really miss him as a comedian cum actor. If he is back as a full time actor, he will dislodge the depressing Santhanam. The response in the theatre I watched was okayish. He still has a strong fan base.
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Anuja
June 19, 2015
Think the saddest thing about the film is the plight of Sadha, reduced to playing a moll forced to enjoy the romantic overtures of a Vadivel. I’ll admit (grudgingly) that Vadivel may have had his humorous moments on the big screen and is a highly successful comedian even though his brand of humour makes me want to gag but seeing him do anything close to romance (even the suttum vizhi soodare spoof in Pokkiri) gives me a bad case of the creeps. So I feel for Sadha, I really do.
If memory serves Sadha became quite famous for telling Jayam Ravi to Get lost (Pooooo ya pooooooooo…. or something). Then after a flurry of forgettable films, managed to land herself a passable role in Anniyan, a Shankar film no less, which had to be the high point of her career. Too bad she could not consolidate her position in the industry on the strength of that blockbuster. She could be annoyingly cutesy but at least none could fault her pronunciation of Tamil words which is more than you can say for the Alabaster automations who have invaded the industry. Tant pis!
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Ram Murali
June 19, 2015
@Anuja – While brangan hasn’t called Sadha an alabaster automaton, you should read his review of “Unaale Unaale” to see how much he “appreciated” her performance. Flatulence and performance, while they rhyme with one another, don’t go too well do they!
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gvsafamily
June 19, 2015
Yeah… I am just thinking which is a worse plight for actresses/ heroines – ‘promotion’ as hero ‘s mother or demotion (that is a word, right) as comedian ‘s pair…
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newbie
June 19, 2015
Hmm, haven’t seen the movie yet but was mildly labouring under the illusion it could potentially be a ‘Spy’ sort of well-made comedy movie, which also pairs an unconventional comedian with classically handsome mainstream actor(s). Would we ever think Jude Law or Jason Statham demeaned themselves or were reduced to play sidekicks to Melissa McCarthy? At least I don’t; so I don’t particularly feel Sadha made a wrong choice to be Vadivelu’s heroine. But I do feel she did make a terrible choice being in the movie at all judging by this review.
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Viswaram
June 19, 2015
Wow! Seriously do not understand ppl’s outrage at Sada being paired with Vadivelu. So it is ok for heroines in their teens to be paired with 60+ year old mass heroes, but somehow absolutely disgusting that an actress be paired with a talented actor who happens to be a comedian? Don’t know if this is bigotry or stupidity.
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gvsafamily
June 20, 2015
newbie/Viswaram –
We are not talking of Hollywood where it is perfectly normal for a married woman in her forties to get to play the lead with no less than Jude Law & Jason Statham as her co-actors. (She incidentally was Zach Galifianakis’s pair in Hangover III and no one has absolutely any complaints)
But it is the Tamil movie industry we are talking of. Where good roles for female actors are anyway hard to come by and the female actor’s worth is measured by one thing and one thing only – and that is who is the male actor she gets to be paired with. So in that terms, from Vikram to Vadivelu is certainly a fall from grace for any one. Will Sada now be in contention for any of big hero projects as female lead? No. Whatever little chance she might have had is also now gone. Her trajectory will now follow the predictable one-way (sister, mother or more insubstantial pairings followed by total disappearance from public eye) path. And that is the unfortunate part.
And no one said that this is any less shameful than girls in their twenty being asked to pair up with actors in sixties.
You know what else outrages me?
…in general, the continuing sorry state of women in Tamil Cinema!
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ThouShaltNot
June 20, 2015
It’s more fun to crank up the outrage meter, dare I say, than to sit through a Vadivelu routine these days. The “Vaigai Puyal” is now a mere tropical depression. Or not?!
In general, the comedian is no longer content with playing the sidekick, he has to be the main man. Why languish in relative obscurity (only the Tamil heroines deserve that), when you can self-mock and self-abuse your way into the forefront of people’s consciousness? The main men had their own methods to this madness. Inanity is the new superstar.
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dpacsaml
June 21, 2015
Indha elevator scene ku Eli eh paakelaam polle irukku
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Pranesh
June 21, 2015
Off topic: I saw Premam because someone praised it in this thread. It was a terrible, terrible movie, IMO. Malayalam directors seem to be getting praise for what Tamil directors did two decades ago. I wish you review it just to read what you think about the general trend to praise anything Malayalam.
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Ravi K
June 22, 2015
ThouShaltNot wrote: “In general, the comedian is no longer content with playing the sidekick, he has to be the main man.”
I don’t have a problem with this as long as the movie is good. It would be silly if Vadivelu tried to play a masala action hero, but if he’s the main character in a comedy, what’s wrong with that? Comedy shouldn’t always be relegated to an afterthought sidekick role.
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sachita
June 22, 2015
Sada was what caught my attention too when I read the review, but then didnt think she deserved the heroine in Shankar movie tag in the first place – obviously the requirement for that is not acting chops just glam quotient. Just think she didnt even quality for that.
Remember some vikatan review mentioning her as Sada.
Surprised there are Sada fans.
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KP
June 22, 2015
So which one are you 🙂
http://www.sify.com/movies/vadivelu-calls-critics-as-psychos-and-sadists-news-tamil-pgwkfajfgiahc.html
KP
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ThouShaltNot
June 23, 2015
I don’t have a problem with this as long as the movie is good. It would be silly if Vadivelu tried to play a masala action hero, but if he’s the main character in a comedy, what’s wrong with that?
The issue is less about whether funny man can play main man (or vice versa) than about dishing out tripe, most of which passes for comedy these days. Tripe when stretched into a full length film (rather than a filler) becomes insufferable.
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saimali
June 26, 2015
I remember the vikatan review! “sadaa? Uhuum. Romba saada!”
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