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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…
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Kalaga Thalaivan (2022), ordinary but fast paced
This is a thriller movie that has a familiar motive and sequences, yet it was engaging. Thanks to brisk editing which keeps the story moving in high gear throughout. Arav is the antagonist and the background score is by Srikanth Deva and Arrol Corelli, who were the real heroes of the film. The film gets a Raw rating from Mangoidiots. Udhayanidhi Stalin is expressionless throughout, even in the romantic kissing scene, yet due to the screenplay his character is convincing and we root for him against the villain. He is given limited action sequences, which is a smart thing by the director Magizh Thirumeni. Kalaiyarasan and Anupama Kumar have done their…
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Varisu (2023), an all-out Vijay film
Varisu (2023), is an all-out Tamil Nadu father-and-son sentiment film that has been made on a Bollywood film set background. Single-handedly Vijay entertains the audience for the three hours of running time. Director Vamshi Paidipally utilises the best of Vijay, which in my view is not his dance or action, but his comedy body language. In many cliche moments, which were countless, Vijay‘s happy-go-lucky style saves the audience. Mangoidiots’ rating for the film is Raw. I enjoyed Yogi Babu‘s comedy tracks, which were relevant and brief. As the family patriarchy, R Sarathkumar has played the role well. Joining him was veteran Jayasudha, in his wife’s character, as the mother to…
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Thunivu (2023), a bank heist starring Ajith
Director H Vinoth and Ajith Kumar have given a non-stop action movie from a simple plot of a bank heist. Bullets fly all the time, and my friend seated next to me even collected a few empty shells from the ground below. The first half of the film was fast-paced and engaging, which can’t be said for the second half. The film gets our mangoidiots rating of Raw. Seeing the trailer I was not sure how good the character of the white-flowing beard-sporting Ajith will be. Thankfully, the appearance was apt for the role and was convincing. In the gun firing sequences, Manju Warrier comes fast and daring. Prem Kumar impresses…
