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Soppana Sundari (2023), a simple comedy
Hold on to your seats, folks, because Soppana Sundari (2023) is a wild ride that will leave you in splits! Aishwarya Rajesh, the queen of Tamil cinema, shines bright in this comedy caper that’s all about a mother and her two feisty daughters taking on the world against all odds. But wait, does that sound familiar? Yep, you guessed it! It’s reminiscent of Kolamavu Kokila (2018) but with a different plot. The film kicks off with a brilliant idea of a gifted car for a hardworking family, and from there, the chaos ensues. Director SG Charles weaves a tale of family dynamics, struggles, and of course, the good ol’ Tamil…
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August 16 1947 (2023), a promising story squandered
The film, directed by N S Ponkumar and starring Gautham Karthik, explores an intriguing scenario. What if a remote Indian village, oppressed by the British for decades, remained unaware of Independence Day for 24 hours? How would it affect their lives? The tortures the residents go through at the hands of a British tyrant were heartbreaking, but the screenplay couldn’t do justice. The happenings in the second half were implausible, because of which I was unable to connect. The art direction and the costumes were brilliant and also were the background and music by Sean Roldan. The film manages only a Raw from Mangoidiots. The love story between Gautham Karthik…
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Kannai Nambathey (2023), an average thriller
Udhayanidhi Stalin has proved again to be good in selecting the stories he acts with Kannai Nambathey (2023). A simple story of things going terribly wrong for two roommates and how did they handle it, was made engaging by director Mu Maran. Prasanna was the one who impresses us the most and holds the movie together in the first half, in the second half Srikanth and Bhumika join him. All others including the heroine Aathmika, Pala Karuppiah, Sathish have got forgettable roles. The film gets a Raw rating from Mangoidiots. The first one hour of the film goes brisk and keeps us hooked, unfortunately what should’ve been a gripping climax…
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Single Shankarum Smartphone Simranum (2023), watch it for Shiva
I appreciate the honesty of the director, Vignesh Sha. He announces in the opening credit roll, that the audience shouldn’t expect any logic or realism in the film. Single Shankarum Smartphone Simranum (2023), starring Shiva is a comedy version of the Oscar-winning Her (2013). The screenplay was mindless and if not for Shiva, the film would’ve been tougher to watch. There were many dull moments, yet I had fun watching the film. It gets a Raw rating on the mangoidiots scale. Megha Akash has done her role as the Artificial-Intelligence avatar well. Anju Kurian appears too young as the love interest for Shiva. Sha Ra & Bagavathi Perumal played important…
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Bakasuran (2023), a convoluted revenge story
Bakasuran (2023) will be remembered for director Selvaraghavan‘s breathtaking performance as an actor, he effortlessly switches between being a nomadic devotee and being a killing machine. The performance of Natty who works on resolving why the killings happen matched with the former, and the film would’ve impressed the audience. It didn’t and the prosy screenplay didn’t help either. The film gets a raw in mangoidiots scale. The film starts with a tragedy hitting the family of the character played by Natty, this gets forgotten soon after. From there, the story travels too far and wide for no obvious reason, as a result, we are unable to root for any of…
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Vaathi (2023), a teacher story that was trite
I am not sure why Dhanush, an actor I admire for his talents, signed up for this routine teacher helping poor students succeed story. He is known for being an original actor, but in this one, his copying of Rajini’s body language felt artificial. There was little chemistry between him and Samyuktha onscreen. Samuthirakani appearing as the owner of a large private education empire comes as an unimpressive antagonist. Even with these negatives, the evergreen story of education being the greatest social equaliser was handled well, and the emotions working in most places saved the film. The dialogues about the former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam were used effectively. Vaathi…
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Run Baby Run (2023), a thriller narrated differently
Actor R J Balaji, known for his comedy roles has boldly played the protagonist in this crime thriller film. His lack of acting skills was apparent in this film, but the director Jiyen Krishnakumar‘s different narrative style saves the day. Aishwarya Rajesh, Isha Talwar, and Radhika Sarathkumar have been given limited roles. The movie gets a Raw rating from Mangoidiots. What should’ve been a nailbiting thriller, meanders its way due to a lengthy first half. The film starts with the crime and then travels into a flashback. This style gets us, the audience curious, but the absence of character introductions even in the second half robs us of our involvement. A car…
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Beginning (2023), a new technique used onscreen that works
When I heard about this film, Beginning (2023) being Asia’s first split-screen movie I was not sure how it will work, and will I be able to follow the two stories. Director Jagan Vijaya has done a great job in making it easy for the audience to follow, the cue was to shift the focus based on the active soundtrack. For the first few minutes, we are shown a pitch-dark screen with only background audio and then dialogues. We then see the screen split in the middle, with one story playing on the left and another on the right. After some time, the two stories converge gradually. Gets a mangoidiots…
