Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/sarkar-movie-review-vijay-murugadoss-keerthi-suresh-varalaxmi-sarathkumar/
T
his seems to be the year for NRIs plunging into the muck of Indian politics. We saw it in Bharat Ane Nenu. We saw it in NOTA. We see it in Sarkar (Authority), directed by AR Murugadoss (with a mile-long opening note acknowledging screenwriter and filmmaker Varun Rajendran, whose Sengol was apparently based on the same idea). Vijay plays a hot-shot tech CEO named Sundar Ramasamy — no relation, I presume, to Sanjay Ramasamy, that forgetful chap from that other Murugadoss movie — and people call him a “monster”. This isn’t about his appearance, of course. Trim away a few flecks of grey, and the fortysomething Vijay wouldn’t look out of place in a college. The monstrousness refers to Sundar’s appetite: he gobbles up companies and is always on the prowl for more prey. Indian corporates are terrified when they hear Sundar is coming back to Chennai. Is he going to have them for lunch?
No worries. Sundar just wants to cast his vote in the assembly elections. He cares about democracy. One would be happier if he cared similarly about his carbon footprint — he consumes tons of jet fuel in order to spend a few hours at home — but I guess nobody’s perfect. Besides, consider the fact that Sundar lands in India and heads to the voting booth even before visiting his family — that’s how committed he is to the electoral process. There, he discovers that someone else has voted in his name. Sarkar, which Murugadoss co-wrote with Jeyamohan, doesn’t waste much time in setting up its plot. There’s a song-and-dance in Las Vegas, to establish that Sundar’s world is filled with limos and incredibly fit backup dancers. And then, boom, we’re in Chennai. Even the heroine angle (with Keerthy Suresh) is handled smartly. Sundar already knows her, so there’s no distracting falling-in-love nonsense. Her name is a stroke of genius, given that her character has practically no gravity and is only asked to orbit the hero. It’s Nila.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Voldemort
November 6, 2018
Whoa! What a satisfying review. Light years better than the movie.
One would be happier if he cared similarly about his carbon footprint — he consumes tons of jet fuel in order to spend a few hours at home — but I guess nobody’s perfect
LOL. It was totally unbelievable that a “corporate criminal” would care to waste precious time to come all the way home and vote.
And I see now why there was word that it is the story of Sundar Pichai.
ARM : Tamil born guy – check. CEO of a big multinational inc – check. Let’s change the name slightly. Remove Pichai, how outrageous it is to suggest that our Thalapathy has such a name! Okay, Sundar alone sounds so soft-ish. Yeah, I know. Ramaswamy from Ghajini.
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Voldemort
November 6, 2018
Her name is a stroke of genius, given that her character has practically no gravity and is only asked to orbit the hero. It’s Nila.
What imagery saarji!
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jaga_jaga
November 6, 2018
How did you miss that Komalavalli is Jayalalita’s original name?? Was the miss to play it politically safe or just didn’t strike??
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brangan
November 6, 2018
Oh, almost all the names in this film have been borrowed from real life. Did you see the line about the black and red sari? That was her… 🙂
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Anu Warrier
November 6, 2018
Loved that your advice to Vijay’s potential rivals is to learn his smooth dance moves. 🙂
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jaga_jaga
November 6, 2018
aah oops!! I did miss that, ha ha!
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kaizokukeshav
November 6, 2018
I don’t understand something here. Why are NRIs the new CMs ? Does it mean Indians living in India has zero understanding of what India is ?
Overseas people coming from US, UK and ruling India… isn’t this a textbook definition of invasion on India ? Just asking !
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Dracarys
November 6, 2018
@kaizukokeshav even the NRI plot point is inspired from our own history. Ever heard of the biggest colonial import by name M.K. Gandhi? 😀
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krishna prasad
November 6, 2018
Excellent review. By now we Al know what to expect from vijays movies these days.Only in what quantity and quality it’s gonna be dished out is the question mark. They have the best of everything from actors to music directors to producers. But the output seems to be like a kwid coming out of a Mercedes factory. Jus wish he does a small no expectation Sachin r atleast a thuppaki now and then to keep fans like me happy. At present, i guess it would be as wishful as expecting it to snow in Chennai
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yesterdaysnewspaper
November 6, 2018
Grammar doubts time!
The hero is always three steps ahead, and his enemies look like clueless fools — even the character played by Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, who hisses like a snake but is defanged by the writing.
Isnt the “but” used in this sentence a misfit?
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Dracarys
November 6, 2018
Yeah…talk about work pressure to deliver on and in time ..’but’…! 😀
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jaga_jaga
November 7, 2018
@yesterdaysnewspaper:
Do snakes have butts??
if they don’t then, how come their butts be defanged?
So I guess, “but” is right here!!
#hopefullysomeonefounditfunny
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bart
November 7, 2018
Nilava vachu kavidhai… You too a poetu, saar..
P.S.: Some name pondering.. Sundar Pichai + Sanjay Ramasamy = Sundar Ramasamy, satisfies not only ARM but Jeyamohan (cowriter) as well, as Sundara Ramaswamy was his writer mentor. If you shorten that, you get, voila! SuRa, which satisfies the hero himself.. (not sure of the audience though 🙂 )
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Enigma
November 7, 2018
The millions of rupees spent on the making of this movie could have been saved had the government changed the laws allowing NRIs to cast their votes in the Indian embassies located in their respective countries of residence. Unfortunately, due to the inadequacies if our laws, the masses have to suffer three hours of torture with the ‘thalapathy’ (LOL) droning on about values, leadership etc.
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HN
November 7, 2018
sargunam IAS – sagaayam IAS
komalavalli – Jayalalitha (donning attire of Chinamma)
Narayanaswamy – Narayan moorthy
Ipodhaikki ivalo dhaan name spotting as of now.
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brangan
November 7, 2018
bart: One numbers Nobel Prize for that bit of “name pondering” 😂😂
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sanjay2706
November 7, 2018
So here we are! The people, vexed and annoyed at the failings of the political system and desperate for a change, seek solace in demagogues who rise and take advantage of the situation and bring “reality TV” into the political system. The parallels with what is happening in USA and around the world is evident.
I have doubts in democracy right now, which doesn’t seem like a good solution.
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therag
November 7, 2018
So you can’t vote in an Indian embassy? Thought that would have been first on Modiji’s agenda considering that the NRI community (at least stateside) leans pro-BJP.
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balamurugan15
November 7, 2018
Vijay’s blazer in Sarkar is in itself a metaphor for the movie:
It’s tailor-made for him, only him.
You’re made to stay with it for far too long that you start feeling uncomfortable.
There are few cozy pockets/dialogues that come in handy – eases things a bit.
It’s a typical wedding reception blazer one -time use/watch.
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Monty Python
November 7, 2018
Varungaala Google CEO Thalapathy Vijay Vaazhga! Let me be the first to propose Thalapathy for this and would urge the board of directors to consider appointing Vijay for this position. Considering political ambitions of Vijay (et.al. of course), and the art of trivialization which these people have mastered along with the art of acting, I do not think this to be a long shot. In fact, Google manages far fewer employees than TN government. And Google CEO is expected to enjoy with babes in Las Vegas, deliver punch dialogues, etc.
“Farce” would be an understatement for movies like this and the support it gets from the so called fans.
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Dyne Chennoth
November 7, 2018
Hi sir,
In the movie its shown that the corporate companies are afraid of Sundar coming to India. anyhow he comes to India on election day every year to cast his vote, if so why are the companies so much tensed about his arrival? or is he coming for the first time on election day to India?? not clearly specified in the writing I guess. need to know your opinion on the same
Thanks
Dyne
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Mythili Rajagopal
November 7, 2018
“Her name is a stroke of genius, given that her character has practically no gravity and is only asked to orbit the hero. “. Left me in splits 🙂
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Enigma
November 7, 2018
@therag, yes. It was promised a long time ago but nothing has happened. But ‘NRIs’ in the states would aspire for and take up US citizenship right? Wouldn’t bother to vote in Indian elections.
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MANK
November 7, 2018
I can’t believe murugadoss made this crap. What a complete waste. I never thought he would become Vijay’s stooge , peddling his political nonsense and even putting in an appearance as one of his followers. What happened to the guy who made thuppaki. And for a mass masala star, Vijay has the most ridiculous mannerisms. More often behaving like a spoiled child and destroying the punchlines and masala moments. Corporate monster, my foot. This dude’s not even going to take over the neighborhood supermarket
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brangan
November 7, 2018
MANK: For you:
http://www.vulture.com/2018/11/carlitos-way-scarface-and-brian-de-palmas-power-fantasy.html
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MANK
November 7, 2018
Thank you Brangan. I never tire of watching and reading about Brian de Palma films. More so about Scarface and carlitos way. Carlitos way is perhaps his greatest film – according to him it is – or his second best after Blow out. Perhaps it’s a sin to discuss these films in the darker thread😃
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MANK
November 7, 2018
Make that sarkar thread. Auto correct can sometimes get metaphorical😂
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Srinivas R
November 7, 2018
“This dude’s not even going to take over the neighborhood supermarket” – had me splits.
It is a little depressing that Vijay is the leading star of Tamil Cinema. What is it that people like in him? Great dancer of course, but how does he inspire this much mad following with a quarter of Rajini’s screen presence?
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praneshp
November 7, 2018
@mank: what surprises you that murugadoss made this movie? He has been making shit movies with a couple of positives for a long time now, with at least two, if not three, allegations of plagiarism. This is exactly what I expected out of him.
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Meera Corera
November 8, 2018
When Vijay gets awarded best actor for Mersal who can stop him make Sarkar? But everybody is using cinema as a pavement for a political entry… Vijay probably is the least suited. His speech at the Sarkar audio launch and his pachchai tamizhan strategy might please his fan base and who knows how they might reward him? Meanwhile for the next two years we will see his propaganda in full form.
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bart
November 8, 2018
The movie, which appears bold externally, is full of spinelessness. The writing takes convenient corners and Vijay is full of dubious integrity, accounting for his actions off-screen as well.
Blue Sattai has given a scathing review with many agreeable points again.
A PC was needed to make this movie plausible or palatable – PC Sorcar!
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Thupparivalan
November 8, 2018
Srinivas: It’s fate. Vikram, whose acting chops are miles ahead, and is also a terrific masala film actor is doing droll like saami square. He can do comedy, action, romance better than both of these two. He can do son of soil type stories and also classy stories. Compare that to vijay whose punch dialogues sound like he has a rod stuffed in his bum. Is the lack of specific identity vikram’s downfall? Or is it his decision to not make political speeches and corny thangachi sentiment a part of his films?
Also, the pans audacity to compare Vijay and Ajith to Rajni and Kamal makes me want to puke.
Mank: You have always have too much faith in ARM. I understand there’s no one making real good masala anymore, but even thuppakki is not that high a bar.
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MANK
November 8, 2018
Praneshp,. One can hate murugadoss for so many reasons. But he doesn’t pander to the stars. thuppaki was a good film with Vijay playing a character, same with Mahesh in Spyder. But here he is fallen so low , maybe Lower than the likes of KSR or Suresh Krishna did with Rajni.And may be rajni even has the stature to carry it off. But cooking this up for the likes of Vijay . Horrible.That was what I was most upset about.
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Kay
November 8, 2018
What is it that people like in him? Great dancer of course, but how does he inspire this much mad following with a quarter of Rajini’s screen presence?
Did you see Namitha’s latest video? Although I don’t agree with her views, it does seem like those are some of the reasons for Vijay’s success (based on my interactions with his fans).
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brangan
November 8, 2018
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Lankesh
November 8, 2018
BR, I saw your video on Behindwoods about Sarkar. I reread you article ‘Let’s talk about Bias’ which I then thought was an excellent response to unfair criticism. But, after looking at the video I feel that either a) You are much elated about your fantasy of politics being run like a corporation projected in this film that you are much more forgiving about ‘form’. For example, in your article you had said: “My interest in Mani Ratnam has to do with my perception of the job of a director, which is to bring a 2D page on the script to 3D life on screen, using the language and tools of cinema (and not mere words).” and “But I am a film critic, not the editor of the opinion page of a newspaper. My concern is: “How is this story told in this medium?”” Now, can you apply these comments to this movie and say how Murugadoss has per’form’ed? Because, many times in this movie’s 2nd half, I felt like watching Samuthirakani. The way in which you seemed to be searching for positive aspects to speak about, in the Behindwoods video, was a bit surprising. b) Sun Pictures or other backroom boys had REQUESTED you to speak about the positive aspects of this movie.
Considering that I have never seen you discuss about 1 movie specifically in another channel, I have this doubt. If true, I am quite worried.
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Aadhy
November 8, 2018
Hope Behindwoods releases a new video of this discussion with Abishek’s part cut out of it. That dude is insufferable.
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Honest Raj
November 8, 2018
… but if we have to put up with them, this kind of information is vastly preferable to Samuthirakani’s forthcoming lecture on, say, how we should love and respect caterpillars because they grow up to be butterflies.
🙂
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Honest Raj
November 8, 2018
I recently went through the comments section of a YT video – where somebody called Atlee a plagiariser. A Vijay fan came out of nowhere and argued that Mani Ratnam, too, is a plagiariser. Further, he went on to say that Atlee has an “international award” to his name while Mani Ratnam has none.
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Honest Raj
November 8, 2018
@ Aadhy: I don’t know but I have a strong sense of dislike for this guy ever since his Mani Ratnam interview in 2015 (after the release of OKK ). All the while, I thought I was the only one who couldn’t stand him.
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Srinivas R
November 8, 2018
About VIjay’s popularity, TN Govt has helped his cause immensely by creating a ruckus for every silly movie of his. I still haven’t figured out what the fuss was about Thalaiva. They are on it again for Sarkar.
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Aadhy
November 8, 2018
Honest Raj: This guy is an incoherent motormouth. He has no control over what he’s saying, is irritatingly intrusive in discussions, does mugastuthi (what’s the right English word?) to his interviewees at a cringey level, and worst of all, uses random high sounding words and a pseudo-intelligent tone to conceal his BS.
“ All the while, I thought I was the only one who couldn’t stand him.”
Oh he’s been trolled left, right and center on social media. A lot of people also called him out on his sexism in the Andrea interview. But he does have a huge following just like our thalabadhy and his fans.
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MANK
November 8, 2018
I disagree with a few things you said in the interview Brangan
MGR films, particularly after he launched ADMK , from ulagam suttrum valiban to madhuraya meetta sundarapandyan, they all had propaganda and image building, but they never became lecture sessions like this one. The messages were cleverly and subtly pushed through without being totally in your face. Even when we had titles like oorukku uzhaippavan, neethikku thalaivanaga etc the films had a certain integrity. There were characters and a definite story. Not like these films that Vijay is making. This is just propaganda and more propaganda. Not to mention stupidly referencing real life characters and events
Secondly one may get a basic idea of the film from the trailers, but there is a difference between a well known director making a massy film with a mass star and designing merely a propoganda vehicle which we know only by watching the film
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Voldemort
November 8, 2018
Nice video, BR. Why did they choose you and Abhishek Raja together? Would’ve been super fun if it was you and Bluesattai Maaran. 😛
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Voldemort
November 8, 2018
Abhishek keeps looking at you BR and you nod fervently. LOL, why does he say “Sir oda permission oda solren”?
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Voldemort
November 8, 2018
“30-35% of GDP in tamil cinema avarkittendu varudu.”
ROFL.
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TheManWithTwonames
November 8, 2018
Aadhy, Honest Raj: Abhishek is all fluff and no substance. I would rather let blue sattai exasperate me with his reviews, cause he’s really honest and clear.
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Kay
November 8, 2018
“does mugastuthi (what’s the right English word?)“
Sycophantic? Fawning? Toadyish?
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praneshp
November 9, 2018
@Thupparivalan: It’s a bit of fate, and a lot of Vikram choosing the absolute worst scripts to work with. Ignoring a Vikram movie is about one of the safest things you could do post Anniyan
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Siva
November 9, 2018
bart, HN: Continuing from your list of name spotting/pondering/propaganda, here are a couple more. So far, we have:
Sundar Ramasamy = Sundar Pichai + (Sanjay Ramasamy OR *Traffic Ramasamy)
*The Hindu’s Srinivasa Ramanujam had pointed out this Traffic Ramasamy name-spotting in his Sarkar review.
Possible reasoning behind the naming:
Because, our superhero(!) is not only a tech giant (a.k.a THE most intelligent CEO in the world a.k.a Genghis Khan of corporate world a.k.a …. as he likes to call himself … Caaaarpparratttte Kirrrriminal 😀 ), but also secretly an ‘activist’, who flies his private jet from the U.S to India just for casting his vote!
GL = GoogLe
Incidentally, our Sundar is the CEO of an organization, very conveniently named “GL” ( probably not(!) related to GoogLe in any manner? 😀 ).
Komalavalli = Jayalalithaa (donning Sasikala’s latest attire, who herself originally modeled said attire from her ‘Udanpiravaa Sagothari’)
Sargunam I.A.S = Sagaayam I.A.S
Narayanaswamy = Narayan moorthy ( HN, I don’t remember a character by this name from the movie. Who was this, again?)
T.N.Chaari = T.N.Seshan (Or was it V.N.Chaari? Wikipedia says so. But I remember seeing it as T.N.Something)
Chief Election Commisioner, played by actor Rajesh — who magically says okay to anything Sundar says in court. Sundar has an attorney. But of course Sundar does all the argument in court anyway, in Tamil(!). And then said attorney looks at him in awwwe …. What a man! 😛 We also get a line where Sundar is being told something along the lines of, “Thank God you are not an attorney” 😀
AE.MMK (அஇ.மமுக) = Ruling AE.ADMK (அஇ.அதிமுக) + TTV Dinakaran’s AMMK(அமமுக)
Villain’s party name
Real world incident = Stacks of cash in container trucks
If only A.R.Murigadoss had spent as much energy in the screenplay as much he has spent in real world references, Sarkar could have been somewhat of a plausible movie. Now, it appears as though he accidentally stumbled upon this one thing called “Section 49P”, and then built all of these crap around it. But then, who else can carry around crap with more pride than our superhero? 🙂
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Siva
November 9, 2018
Kay, Aadhy : ” “does mugastuthi (what’s the right English word?)“
Sycophantic? Fawning? Toadyish? ”
Ass Kissing?
(I know, that’s not one word 😀 )
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sanjay2706
November 9, 2018
So much hue and cry over a mediocre product. For people who are fans of Sir David Attenborough, the new TV Series is coming this week.
This has more character development than any other movie I have seen in recent times.
Turn on your TV Sets (wherever you are) and get immersed in nature (while hearing God’s voice)
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Rad Mahalikudi
November 9, 2018
MANK: MGR films, particularly after he launched ADMK , from ulagam suttrum valiban to madhuraya meetta sundarapandyan, they all had propaganda and image building, but they never became lecture sessions like this one.
I agree with MANK. We keep quoting MGR on how he used Cinema to achieve his political ambition, but his movies while had his messages were never preachy and fully political. We will see flags getting flashed for few seconds, Arignar Anna photos, MGR referring to Anna or Kanchi Thalaivan, but the content would be rooted to family dramas and no larger than life (other than his heroism). Those will be limited to few scenes. Yes, we will get a song or two where he will be aspirational. We would get “neenga nalla irukkonum” in Idhayakani movie but that is it. Rest of the movie is a regular thriller fare. IIRC, MANK can correct me, MGR never directly criticised DMK or Karunanidhi or policies in his movies. His focus would be on what he would do if he comes to power (in a song mostly). One could watch his movies without getting bombarded with political overtones. Even now I enjoy his movies and don’t even notice the messages. Like MANK said, they were subtle.
I am yet to see a decent political movie like “The Kingdom” or “All the President’s men” or a comedy like “Wag the dog” or a thriller like “Absolute Power” rom Kollywood.
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Srinivas R
November 9, 2018
The best political movie from kollywood is Muthalavan. A stretch from the bus strike to the ensuing caste riots to govt inaction is one of the best scenes in cinema about political state of TN. I also quite liked Makkal Aatchi by RK Selvamani, though it was a tad amateurish. It mocked politicians of all parties.
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rudhresh123
November 9, 2018
Absolutely spot on about lacking punch. I felt that the opening song dance was badly made, ackwardly danced by vijay. I think that by then my attention span died. Because the beginning was so bad, I gave up on the film. Whatever the film gave after that, I couldn’t take in.
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sachita
November 9, 2018
Came here looking for vijay bashing but looks like there abhishek bashing as well – . Saw this interview of his some time ago and have been super irritated with him from then on – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEj7gaQoxsY – from 7.30-8.30 – what the hell? how do you brand a whole set of heroine like that?
Should he even be in media if he is this irresponsible with the words?
( have only watched few of his interviews depending on the celebrity but cant understand the fan following)
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Alex John
November 9, 2018
“The big problem in this long film is that there are no surprises”
“and I was especially surprised by Girish Gangadharan’s (Angamaly Diaries) cinematography”
Phew! BR is human too!!
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MANK
November 9, 2018
Agreed with Rad, More than criticising others, MGR was keen to show what he can or will do . the more explicit propaganda was limited to unveiling the party flag in the logo of Emgeeyar pictures in USV or showing the party symbol in a song sequence in Netru indru naalai. Even during that period, he did films like Sridhar’s Urumaikural and remakes of Zanjeer and yaadon ki baarat which didn’t have any political angle. The only difference being, keeping his stature as south India’s biggest star , he would do double roles. So he played roles of both Bachchan and Pran in Zanjeer remake
The only thing that amused me about the final stage of his career is , that for a man who was worshipped as a god, he didn’t shy away from being sexually intimate with his heroines, who by then where more than 30 years younger than him. I would love to know how the rabid MGR fans at the time processed this , particularly with his emphasis on thaikkulam and all. Wonder whether he did as a means of asserting his youthfulness and virility when he was close to 60.
Like this beautiful MSV composition from Naalai namadhe sung by yesudas. You could see the censor cut at the end of second charanam where he rips of Lata’s blouse
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IMPa8e7SwOI
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Rad Mahalikudi
November 9, 2018
MANK: The only thing that amused me about the final stage of his career is , that for a man who was worshipped as a god, he didn’t shy away from being sexually intimate with his heroines, who by then where more than 30 years younger than him. I would love to know how the rabid MGR fans at the time processed this , particularly with his emphasis on thaikkulam and all.
MANK, I wanted to call this out in my comment (that is the reason to mention Idhayakani!!) to make the point that his focus was more on movie story than political message as main theme, but held back!! His focus has been always entertain the audience. USV (Ulagam Sutrum Valiban) was MGR’s version of James Bond movie in Tamil (a decade before Kamal’s Vikram). On your query, my take is this wasn’t taken seriously at all. Good to check reviews of these movies from that time though. For example, “Ithuthan mudhal rathiri” was a hit song that time, again sung by Jesudas!! Idhayakani has similar rip scene in “Idhazhe idhazhe” song. To say it in Tamil, “Puratchi Thalaivar pugunthu vilayadi irukkaru”, Idhayakani matched soft porn mallu movies of that time!!
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Rad Mahalikudi
November 9, 2018
BTW, Idhayakani has another great number “Inbame undhan per vallalo”. Great music by MSV. One of my favourites.
Getting back to Sarkar and political movies in Tamil, what irks me is they take a serious social issue and use that to sell a Star. Yes, I do fall for it while watching the movie. Like In Kaththi, the flashback with farmers does bring tears. But then rest of the movie is so childish / amateurish. Most of the time, violence (beating up) is shown as the solution. I feel letdown exiting the hall. While I understand movie is a fantasy world, I consider taking a serious social issue that impacts millions of people to hoodwink audience as cheating, if you are not going to treat it with seriousness. Felt the same with movie Sivaji. Muthalvan worked till the interview scene, post that it was downhill for me except those where Raghuvaran was on screen. OTOH I prefer movies like Dhool, where issues are localized, no grand scheme or aspiration, and was a great masala. Hero is not there to save the world, he is focused to solve his problem. They work for me.
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KayKay
November 9, 2018
“MANK: The only thing that amused me about the final stage of his career is , that for a man who was worshipped as a god, he didn’t shy away from being sexually intimate with his heroines, who by then where more than 30 years younger than him. I would love to know how the rabid MGR fans at the time processed this , particularly with his emphasis on thaikkulam and all”
Hahahahahahahaha…….that’s something I’ve always wondered too. In fact I love that Yesudass song from Naalai Namathe (I must say, right up to his last movie, an MGR soundtrack boasted an amazing hit to miss ratio) but took me a moment to process the ending when I first saw it years ago…Woah! The man spent the night with the girl!!!
And check out this song from Idhayakani. From the 3 minute mark, it becomes an unabashed exercise in ogling by the Vaathiyaar, since the girl helpfully sheds her clothes to get into a swimsuit.
It’s amazing that he didn’t catch any flak for this. Sign of the times, i suppose. “Me Too” in that era probably meant ” My turn to grope that young hottie”
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MANK
November 9, 2018
. i suppose. “Me Too” in that era probably meant ” My turn to grope that young hottie”
Hahahahaha. That’s typical Kaykay
Yes, would Rajni or Vijay be willing , to be photographed from between the naked legs of the heroine, today. Something to think about
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Anu Warrier
November 9, 2018
“Me Too” in that era probably meant ” My turn to grope that young hottie”
Damn you, Double K! I’ve just spluttered my coffee over my keyboard! 🙂
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Siva
November 9, 2018
MANK, Rad Mahalikudi: Both of your assertions of Mr.M.G.Ramachandran are spot on. Most of his movies ultimately had only one theme — be good, do good.
And we only know too well about the current state of affairs. Today’s self proclaimed superheroes(!) seemingly have only one agenda — to somehow become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. And their strategies are very simple.
1) MGR said be good, do good. Our superheroes are not saying, but showing, that you can be as bad as you want and do anything you want. Just make sure the end result goes your way. Everything is me, me, me, me. Just make sure you shower a few scenes where you are singing about the poor or helping the poor, scenes where kids in the movie love you for no apparent reason, scenes where you save a poor person (preferably farmer) who is almost beaten to death by the villain (with bloody face and all) or, like in this movie, saving a poor, burn-victim-kid who happily bowed down to her father when he wanted to torch her alive. That’s it, you are good to go. Your target audience now will forgive you for praising yourself throughout the movie. Because now you are not just a bad boy, but a bad-boy-savior. Piece of cake!
2) Could you imagine MGR mouthing swear words? Our guys today, willingly throw in a ‘oth*‘ or ‘vakaa‘, just for fun. Because they very well know that only the audio will be censored there. And that their lip movements are more than enough for the so called masses they are catering. Their target audience will catch the swear word in no time. They masquerade this behavior in the name of appealing to their fan bases, portraying themselves as one of them or, in the words of this movie’s superhero: “thara local”. And impressionable little kids watching this crap with their parents will have something elemental subconsciously registered into their minds — “It is okay to swear like our superhero does”.
Our superheroes of today are not just sinking to the level of their target audience, but are also making sure said audience’s intellect stays exactly where it is now — forever. Because if they are educated and empowered — they will call out these screen saviors’ duplicity 🙂
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Siva
November 9, 2018
Hey one more spotting (I guess!) …. this time, on the look and attire. It appears that our superhero had done the so called salt-and-pepper style (both beard and hair) by heavily modeling Sundar Pichai. Incidentally, in this photo that Mr.Pichai has recently shared on Twitter, he has also done the same blazer-jean-shirt attire combo that our superhero wears for most of the first part of the movie. Well done, A.R.Murugadoss 🙂 . Why did they lose the specs, though? 😛
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Thupparivalan
November 9, 2018
MANK: They didn’t call him ‘vaathiyaar’ for nothing.
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meera
November 9, 2018
Sachita: that video link you posted is “I have no words”! He has his wife sitting next to him and these are the words he describes for heroines… I can’t even begin to explain!
But I have found this guy to be gratingly annoying for his self proclaimed brothers and sisters in the Tamil industry and his self proclaimed yet dubious knowledge of cinema as a craft… this is the era we live in… muzhusa molaikarthukulla perusa mollaiknum… 🤦♀️
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Kay
November 9, 2018
Does anyone else find these English subtitles for songs hilarious? I find them very funny and entertaining. More than the songs sometimes.
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MANK
November 9, 2018
Siva, great comments agreed on all counts. Also MGR refrained from smoking and drinking on screen. But look at here, at a Time when even Rajni has stopped making a show of his smoking, Vijay has gone and picked up exactly that. Nothing wrong in a character smoking, but glamorising it the way he is doing it here is the problem
They didn’t call him ‘vaathiyaar’ for nothing.
LoL, true that
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Shankar
November 9, 2018
All that name speculation was hilarious…maybe ARM plans to do a Night Shyamalan and make the third part of a trilogy, in the future, with the two Ramasamys…ala “Glass”! 🙂
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Ravi K
November 10, 2018
Siva wrote: “Our superheroes are not saying, but showing, that you can be as bad as you want and do anything you want. Just make sure the end result goes your way. Everything is me, me, me, me. Just make sure you shower a few scenes where you are singing about the poor or helping the poor, scenes where kids in the movie love you for no apparent reason, scenes where you save a poor person”
Isn’t this a metaphor for Vijay’s career? The son of a successful producer/director makes crores upon crores from mediocre films, but by putting on a phony “thara local” act, his fans think he’s one of them and empty their pockets. Eerily similar to “the Genghis Khan of the corporate world” inexplicably also being shown as a deeply caring person, when in real life such a person would be the VILLAIN, not the hero. What’s next for Vijay, playing a Jeff Bezos-like character who also stands up for workers’ rights?
Kay wrote: “Does anyone else find these English subtitles for songs hilarious? I find them very funny and entertaining. More than the songs sometimes.”
Pyramid is notorious for these awful translations. I remember one particularly hilarious one in Sonnabadi Kelu from “Singaravelan.” The line “seval kitta neeyum kunji kolava venum” was translated as “you have to show your love to cock” 😀 😀 😀
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Siva
November 10, 2018
MANK: True that. I too don’t see why he would stylize smoking, of all things macho. I mean, aren’t his self-praising punch dialaaks and ‘parandhu parandhu’ stunts with the help of ropes and landing beds/airbags macho enough?
A funny tidbit I came to know about modern cinema stunts —
A few years back, a friend of mine once worked for a visual effects company that took care of certain aspects of CGI for Hollywood as well Indian movies. In that company, he was part of a team called the “String Removal” team. Their only job was to remove/erase the ropes, strings and other safety harnesses (from the finished product) that actors wear while performing ‘flying’ stunts. It was funny for me to know this little detail, which since then has prompted me look out for the String Removal team in the end credits of Hollywood movies 😀
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Balu
November 10, 2018
Poor Vijaykanth 🙂 In all these comparisons of Vijay with Rajnikanth and MGR, he is not even mentioned when last half of his career was just propaganda movies to build up his political career. Whether he is Police commissioner or election commissioner his only objective was fighting the political powers and now no acknowledgement for his efforts 😉
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Jayendran
November 10, 2018
You forgot Vijay’s lawyer Jethmalani
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Siva
November 11, 2018
Ravi K: ” What’s next for Vijay, playing a Jeff Bezos-like character who also stands up for workers’ rights? ”
😀
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Anuja Chandramouli
November 11, 2018
“Me Too” in that era probably meant ” My turn to grope that young hottie”
Oh KayKay!! That is so bloody hilarious 😂🤣😂🤣You really should comment more man!!
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harish ram
November 11, 2018
Since we have gyrated towards MGR’s leelaigal, I want to share that people of that time did know of his personal life and soft porn visuals. My grandparents never allowed the ladies in the family to watch MGR films. Only after marriage she saw his movies in theatre (2nd run). Politically too he was taken to task by Kalaignar for his playboy life on n off screen. Somehow people didn’t mind. My guess is that, people of that time just took it that big people are allowed relaxations from societal norms.
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Honest Raj
November 11, 2018
Sattam En Kaiyil was the first Tamil film to feature a kiss scene. MGR, who was the then CM, insisted the scene be removed from the film as it was against Tamil culture. However, in the Hindi remake, Yeh to Kamaal Ho Gaya, Kamal faced no such issues. Bollywood gave him the much needed freedom. This could probably be one of the reasons for his strong association with Bollywood in the 80s. Okay, digressing a bit. 🙂
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Thupparivalan
November 11, 2018
harish ram: Haha, The irony in Kalaignar accusing MGR of being a playboy. Both of their private lives were rife with rumors of infidelity, with kalaignar especially famous for having someone in every district he visited for pracharam. It was sort of an open secret for those who were in politics at that time. With amount of power both those men wielded at their peak, they could afford to do a lot more nasty things than infedility with multiple women.
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Thupparivalan
November 11, 2018
I know I sound like Samuthrakani in Vada Chennai, 🙂 but it is crazy how much those in power could get away with in the pre-internet era.
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rsylviana
November 11, 2018
@Balu – Exactly ! With this much of critcism about Sarkar being solely a self-propoganda movie , I’m surprised nobody is discussing about Vijayakanth who did it blatantly. Although I haven’t watched Sarkar yet, I assume its because it takes itself too seriously whereas Vijayakanth’s films strictly fall into the “so bad its good” category. Once during college, me and my friends were stuck in our hostel due to the rains and decided to watch Virudhagiri(“Taken” remake). We had a whale of a time watching Captain unabashedly and shamelessly propagating himself.
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Aadhy
November 12, 2018
Sarkar didn’t disappoint me one bit on how I expected it to turn out. Right from the moment junior artists recite thalabadhy’s character notes one after the other on cue, “monster, playboy, Genghis khan etc.” , I thought this would be a lip-smacking ‘so bad it’s good’ entertainer. It was indeed fun for a while especially when you get those ‘there’s a song/fight in next 5 minutes’ predictions bang on. And then comes the second-half. Isn’t it cute when a director and an actor with a combined 50Cr+ salary tell the have-nots & beneficiaries to burn their received freebies? Of course my friends and I are going to destroy our amma laptops, the only laptops we had till about 5 years back, in which we wrote our jobs’ and Masters’ applications. We will break those Kalaignar TVs, the only entertainment we, as day-scholars of a govt. college located in a remote small town (and a million other families), had. My friends from other farther towns have planned to burn their used free bus passes. My juniors have planned a protest to stop the supply of subsidized rice to those small eateries we frequented, and also shut these places down while they are at it, damn those government-provided grinders and mixers they used. Freebie schemes and casting votes for money are apparently the same, after all. Also TIL it’s feasible (and totally sensible) to run a state with ideology-less independent candidates from not just a few, but all 234 constituencies. Only if the movie threw more light on how this ‘merit-based’ ideology-less government would make its state-level policy decisions and scheme implementations, I would’ve been more enlightened. Maybe I’m expecting too much political depth in a mass hero movie and in reality no one, expect ADMK, takes it seriously. Maybe I should just look at it as entertainment and talk about the totally sensitive way a child’s charred face is revealed, to totally not manipulate the audience along with the hero’s totally fisherfolk-family.
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Manikandan
November 12, 2018
Girish gangadharan > Jeyamohan> ARR>Vijay>ARM – Sarkar – terrific crowd scenes and light play through out with punctuated digs against all Dravidian parties
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Siva
November 12, 2018
rsylviana, Balu: I guess part of our collective madness on thalavali could be due to this. In my opinion, when it comes to Gabdain, we kind of give him half a hall-pass, not just because his movies doesn’t take themselves seriously, but also because we kind of do not take the man itself seriously. It is like something we would do if one of our old uncles dresses up and tries to act all hip and young — we would dismiss it (mostly) with a good belly laugh behind his back. On the other hand, what makes us go all ninja keyboard warriors when it comes to thalavali — again, in my opinion — is because we know he’s got this huge potential to be something more. Someone who could feature in true, honest movies. Someone who could use his enormous, humongous star-power and fan-following to make meaningful movies. Someone who could feature in hard-hitting, real movies — which will not lower his star-power or fan-following by any significance or number. Someone who does not take his audience’s intellect for granted. Someone who does not want his fans’ taste in movies to not improve. Someone who does not cheat and trick his audience into liking him.
But that is not the hard truth, isn’t it? After all, thalavali reached where he is now just by making sure he defied all the ‘someone who could’ from above, while simultaneously making sure he did all the ‘someone who does not’ from above. Just because that is how he got here, it doesn’t mean we would want him to continue being that way.
I am not sure if it is — especially now — fair or not, for us to expect such things from him. I guess we kind of already know, that it is our own utopia. And that he is going to continue to be this way, regardless of whether or not any audience with even little traces of a brain — likes his ways. And that he is not going to change — like, for ever.
But we don’t really have a say in the matter, do we? We end up watching him even though we fume about him later — even if it is at an exclusive, closed forum like BR’s. At times, we kind of end up watching him — even when we do not want to (read due to fans in our own families). I can see it is madness — in its own way — to seek utopian desires fulfilled from an actor of his stature. But my point is, what I stated earlier. We get mad, because we believe that he’s got potential to be much more than what he is subjecting himself to (and in turn us) right now. And because he could do it without losing anything he has right now. Even though we might not agree we believe such a thing is possible. Even if this belief of ours is on a subconscious level. So I believe, this belief is where our anger toward him stems from. At the least, I guess that is what I believe — is happening here. 🙂
P.S: I don’t think this applies exclusively to Mr.thalavali. We could apply the same logic to the walking punch dialaak, Mr.mandavali as well. As well to puratchi thalavali, and all of the various other ‘valis’ of Kollywood. Basically to anyone who misuses their star-power to dish out crap after crap after crap after crap. To anyone actor who tries to trick or fool us into liking them.
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shaviswa
November 12, 2018
Someone told me that this movie was better than Mersal. Now that set me thinking……. 😐
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Srinivas R
November 12, 2018
@Siva – my anger against Vijay is not because of any hope or expectations about his capability or interest in making better movies or respecting his fans.
It is more of helplessness that this guy is such a big deal in TN, so much so that some people willingly breaking their laptops. I am appalled at the “fans” who gulp down nonsense like doctor should take 5 rupees as fee (Mersal) or one should not care about saving money (Bhairava) from a guy who takes home about 15- 20 Cr for every movie he makes.
The blatant hypocrisy and the brainwashed masses who follow this hypocrisy like lambs to slaughter is what annoys me. I have not seen any Vijay movie in a cinema hall after Thupakki. I watched Bhairava on TV. The content of Vijay movies are all over the internet, so one doesn’t have to watch the movie to know how awful they are.
I guess my anger against Vijay is also a fear for a society in which half baked ideas propel an undeserving guy to the status of leader of masses.
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shaviswa
November 12, 2018
After watching a few of Ajith’s movies – Mangatha, Arambam, Billa 2 – I decided to stay a safe distance away from his films. Arambam was my last. Even when Yennai Arindhaal got some decent reviews, I was still having my withdrawal effect from the previous films and I did not want to complicate that by watching yet another Ajith film.
I think I have come to that conclusion with Vijay now after watching Thalaiva, Theri and that horror of horrors Mersal. I decided that that was it. No more Vijay movies for me. No more Ajith movies too.
I prefer to be sane than resort to self-inflicted torture. These are the times when I pity BR. What a bad career move for the man!
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Eswar
November 13, 2018
Vijay appears to be the kind of artist he wants to be. He seems to be playing to his strength, thereby keeping his producers and fans happy. If one believes in trickle down economics, Vijay has probably helped many families get their daily bread. He has money and fame. And now he is in search of, probably, the only missing piece — power.
Vijay is neither an economist nor a public policy expert so his movies are not going to speak about right policies. But then neither his fans nor his critics are all literate in economic and public policy. Even if he makes an economically sound argument, people leaning on left economics are not going to like right economics and vice versa. So why bother even try to make a meaningful economic or policy argument.
There is no hypocrisy in him earning in crores and asking others to give away freebies. Even well paid economists make that argument. No freebies is a correct economic policy among certain school of economists. This is not to say Vijay has sound economic ideas. May be he is inspired by Friedman. Or he doesn’t know who Friedman is. Either ways it’s irrelevant.
Spreading half baked ideas can be dangerous.But to stop that a) one should be aware it’s half baked. b) one should have the skills to be aware that it’s half baked. The Dunning-Kruger effect. When neither the disseminator nor the receiver is capable or unwilling to evaluate the idea being discussed then spread of half baked information is likely to continue.
The best way to appreciate a Vijay movie is by not watching one. The second best way is to go enjoy the entertainment, if one is built for it, and come back without taking it seriously. Either ways the onus is on the audience and not the entertainers themselves. Responsibility begins at home.
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Siva
November 13, 2018
Srinivas R:
Agreed.
The reasoning behind your anger is true. And the fear is real.
The situation is grim and it breaks my heart even when the literate, well educated and otherwise sane people fall for the hypocrisy.
Then again, like I said — my alternative narrative was more of an utopian fantasy on a long lost cause. You know, what could have been 🙂
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sanjay2706
November 13, 2018
“There is no hypocrisy in him earning in crores and asking others to give away freebies.”
The hypocrisy is not related to that. Below are some of the hypocrisies of tamil cinema
1) Income Inequality – Preach about equal society, but pays astronomical salaries to stars. The Income ratio of a light boy to a star would make your head spin so fast.
2) Profit driven system – Preaches to people that profit making is sin, points out the so called conspiracies of corporations in most movies, while ignoring the fact they follow the same principles. Hiring the talked about and popular actress/comedian, pricing tickets according to demand. The industry basks under capitalism, while criticizing it.
3) Women centric issues – Preach about “Pengal namm Kangal”, but turn a blind eye to #metoo. This is not unique to Tamil Cinema though.
4) Social Inequality – Preach about having a casteless society, while bashing brahmins.
5) Meritocracy – Preach about “merit based” and yet have reservation based on caste, and not on economic status. Preach about “qualified people for Politics” while projecting themselves.
I am sure my friends here will add more points 🙂
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Srinivas R
November 13, 2018
“Spreading half baked ideas can be dangerous.But to stop that a) one should be aware it’s half baked. b) one should have the skills to be aware that it’s half baked. The Dunning-Kruger effect. When neither the disseminator nor the receiver is capable or unwilling to evaluate the idea being discussed then spread of half baked information is likely to continue.” -Very well said.
The problem here is that a whole bunch of people believe that Vijay is a political messiah based on these half baked ideas.
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mathblogger57
November 13, 2018
Sarkar definitely fails as a movie. But it can be appreciated for its social message. One can only hope that hardcore Vijay fans follow his words and vote without taking money.
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Balu
November 14, 2018
@Eswar – Articulated very well!
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therag
November 14, 2018
@shaviswa, welcome to the club. I’ve also temporarily added Kamal to the list. I won’t watch any new releases of his.
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shaviswa
November 14, 2018
@therag
My tolerance levels with Kamal are much higher thanks to the body of work that he has. Yes – he is testing our patience with films like Viswaroopam, Thoongavanam, etc. But Papanasam was good. Another couple of duds from him and I may add him to the list. 🙂
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Eswar
November 15, 2018
Hi BR. Not sure if I am diluting the thread. If I am diluting, then I am happy for this to be not published.
— —
@sanjay2706 I see what you mean.
In my view many of these hypocrisies are a reflection of the society. At least in parts if not entirely. People in cine industry also come from a society. So they are likely to exhibit the tendencies of the society they come from. It is more prominent when they do because they do it from a position visible to everyone. I would guess there are other industries where the pay gap is proportionately huge as well. for example the pay difference between a top executive and a janitor in an IT company. The top executive or the company may very well be talking about income inequality in their circles but wouldn’t have done anything about the pay of the Janitor.
Similarly for capitalism as well. People while enjoying the benefits of capitalism also question the need for it. I see people bashing capitalism while enjoying their Thai food in a private restaurant. It is like Kamal promoting Communist/Socialist ideas in a privately ventured film.
Reservation is a complicated, multifaceted topic. So depending upon which view one holds it can or cannot be hypocritical. But even here the idea is same.
Cine artist, most times, are only holding a large mirror up against the society. What we see in the mirror in many ways is only a reflection of us – – the society. When a larger portion of the society changes the image in the mirror will also start changing.
— —
@Srinivas R. It’s probably because they lack a messiah of such a stature outside cinema. Since there is no real messiah in their real world they mistake the dummy for the real one.
— —
@Balu – Thanks
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Kay
November 15, 2018
Watched the movie finally. I ended up comparing each scene with its real life incidents and ended up being a spoilsport for those who enjoyed it.
But everything aside, can we just take a moment to talk about the shitty lyrics? Thoroughly disappointed by the unintelligible and lazy writing.
Case in point:
I just love money ma
Money ma, money ma, money ma
This is on par with Siva Karthikeyan’s ”I’m so coool”
Thou shall not – Where are you?
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Ravi K
November 16, 2018
Eswar wrote: “Similarly for capitalism as well. People while enjoying the benefits of capitalism also question the need for it. I see people bashing capitalism while enjoying their Thai food in a private restaurant. It is like Kamal promoting Communist/Socialist ideas in a privately ventured film.”
Now we’re really getting off topic, but in a capitalist society there’s no option to not participate in it. We have to buy clothes, eat, use a cell phone, etc. Even if we want to boycott particularly awful companies like, say, Amazon, so much of the internet’s traffic goes through Amazon Web Services that it would be inordinately difficult to avoid using websites hosted by them.
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ThouShaltNot
November 17, 2018
Kay, pudhu pada paatu varigalin meedhu irukkum ungal edhirpaarppu viyappukuriyadhu. When it comes to lyrics, I detest the newfangled nonsense. For good lyrics, it is mostly songs from a decade (or two) earlier and going backwards. But I get it that maybe hope springs eternal 🙂
As for Vijay, the one thing that is still redeeming in any Vijay song is the Vijay dance (have not seen Sarkar). In the early phase of his career, this sensitive sapling enjoyed playing soft roles. For quite a while, schmaltzy romance was the ticking heart of his movies. But the Vijay pendulum has violently swung from the extremes of “Nee kaatrru naan maram, enna sonnaalum thalai aatuvaen…” mushiness to the extremes of “Naa adichaa thaanga maata, naalu maasam thoonga maata…” bullying. Paatta kaekkum bOdhey adi vizhara maadhiri irukku. Edhukku veen vambunnu avar paatu variyayae vitaachhu ! Quite likely, the latter day Vijay (lets call him Veera-Tamizhan Vijay), if he were to meet the Vijay of yore (let’s call him edho-kaadhal-kadhai-ellaam-padichchi-manasa-keduthukutta Vijay or SheSaysSheSays baashaila sollanumnaa ayyOO-semmma-cuute-illa?! Vijay), would squirm and run away as far his legs can carry. Let’s revisit one (or maybe two) of this early Vijay’s songs below and rub it in (yes, Raja was still composing some nice tunes for Vijay movies):
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ThouShaltNot
November 17, 2018
One more Vijay song from his early years that shows his unwavering devotion to love 🙂 He is in such an exultant mood (Shalini “yes” sollitaangalaan), bridge maela gudhichi gudhichi, etti odhaikara maari dance aaduraaru. Shalini kku “samaththaa” idli (I think) vera ootaraaru. LOL !
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Siva
November 18, 2018
ThouShaltNot: ” the latter day Vijay (lets call him Veera-Tamizhan Vijay) ”
More like Vethu-Buildup Vijay.
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Viv
November 19, 2018
I think BR must have been in quite a forgiving and generous mood while penning this review.
The film was a massive assault on our senses and sensibilities.
At the very least Sura or Kuruvi had half decent songs & choreography. Nothing worked in this one for me. One of my colleagues wondered if the BGM was handled by Sabesh Murali.
So, 2.5 stars seems somewhat ‘politically’ correct.
As an aside, happened to read the review of Imaikka Nodigal. Admittedly, it wasn’t great but to call it ‘barely watchable’ and this so-called-film watchable is difficult to understand despite the genre differences
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