My two bits. The Santhanam (Prakash) role was a relief and helped digest the length of the movie but was a throwback to the separate comedy tracks of yore. I thought Menon and other new age directors have moved away from such things. Agreed he and Jenny help Varun and Nitya meet but for most part he just seemed to be there to lighten the mood and prep us for the emotional tussle between the leads. And self referential dialogues/scenes started grating this viewer.
The other odd point about the movie is that Varun never shares any of his feelings with those close to him. Not with Nitya because that is at the crux of the movie. But not with his friend(s) also. I mean preparing for CAT/entrance exams is not just an off-the-shelf thing:-) A bit more fleshing out of this part would have helped. Unless Menon is hinting that Varun is really an introverted/selfish guy. But the way his friends and eventually Nitya rally around him suggest otherwise.
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good review BR. The subtleties were good, as you mentioned. I liked the bgm in a couple of places. Considering the current crop, Samantha is refreshing to watch. A sappy romance, a tad too long, the idea was good, but seemed a bit disjointed. I would have preferred to watch it on dvd while multitasking.
I agree with your review. Content wise it is good (especially from 20 or so mins before interval) except it could have been etched interesting incidents and dialogues in the first 45 mins or so. Editing and Cinematography was below par.
I found the same with Mudhal Murai, it does not belong to this movie (although a great song). I dont see any reason what Gautham Menon said to Raaja for this song. A subtle and underplayed pain was what was required and Raaja could have easily delivered that. Mudhal Murai was played twice and the first time was over dramatic for sure. Second was alright but a bit dramatic but tolerable. Although the concept of using songs back-to-back is good but aesthetically it did not fit to the screenplay.
I do not see any reason why this movie is supposed to be a musical. The screenplay itself (the way it is made) does not lend to be a musical although the story may sound like it requires to be musical to be romantic. This movie is not a typical romance and songs except Saindhu Saindhu to an extent and Satru Munbu are redundant. The worst of all is Kaatrai Konjam (he wasted most of the songs). It was hilarious when Jeeva was singing while Santhanam was enquiring about the address.
Without these songs and a coherent and interesting first 45 mins (which had pretty naive dialogues and screenplay that easily put me off) would have made the movie more interesting. Also I felt Jeeva was the wrong choice for the first 45 mins or so.
2. The placement of songs basically made it hard to build any momentum with the coherent BGM. Having said that I dont know whose choice was it to use Mudhal Murai at a place where there was when Samantha comes back from vacation. This was totally out of place and bad choice. This is a glaring error if Raaja did it.
BR, I havent seen this movie yet(just know the storyline a bit), but for all the minute detailing and microscopic examination of love that you talk about why is that in VTV and here the guy never bothers to find out why/how they fall in love in the first place(or has he gone further here/)? Its all about love at first glance, usual Tamil cinema style and then only about the aftermath.
idhu oru periya predictiona ? Iam always willing to be pleasantly surprised though. Ironically, the romance interludes in the otherwise thriller films of his worked for me more, like in Vetaiyaadu vilayaadu, than the full blown VTV.
I think the whole love angle has become trite in our movies and so directors usually choose between repeating the cliches or relegating love to a sideshow. So it takes lots of guts and imagination to try and mine new perspectives from a love story.
Sir,I always wondered after watching VTV what made you conceive a character like Jessie or a movie like VTV with such real characters and emotions,this question haunts me even more after watching NEPV..what is that makes you such a detailed observer of human emotions?
and all those beautiful moments of love,anger,pain,obsession between a girl and a boy?
Bcoz very less directors have this depth and understanding of human nature.
Disclaimer : Have not watched the film yet or even read the above review ? Saw the name GVM in the recent comments section while reading another review and wondered what the director had to say. Loved VTV by the way.
This somehow reminded me of Before sunset. Probably because of all the conversations in the movie. Wonder why so many of my friends who liked VTV hate this movie. Found it extremely interesting, and satisfying. Even I had some women in my screening going OMG at many places. Indicates how menon seems to have hit a nerve.
The music, to me was an overdose. There were way too many songs that I started longing for some dialogues midway. Coming to think of it, its a smart move again. If all the clippings that Menon sir had put together in his song sequence had to be picturised with dialogues, each clipping would need atleast 3 to 4 minutes. But now in a song we got the abridged version still speaking the essentials!!
That said, I agree on your point about voice overs. I think they should be tolerated only in period movies. But for films in contemporary setting, voice overs should be sparingly used. Better to use music than voice overs.
In that manner, I realized that NEP has definitely changed me as a film viewer considerably. While having negative opinions of well-received films has made me dismiss other opinions, having positive reactions to a generally negatively-received film forced me to introspect a lot on why I enjoyed this film so much while most others have dismissed it.
Thanks for the excellent review of the film. I had watched the movie before reading this review. Actually, I was disappointed the first time around, but after reading the review when I watched it again, it was a totally a different experience and I loved the movie. The class difference and clinginess was well brought out, but without melodrama, definitely GVM should be given credit for that. I also totally agree with you with regards to back to back songs, Ennodu Va Va and Pengal Endral which is actually regressive. Sattru Mumbu is the best number in the movie and the mood and setting is really good and the exchanges between the lead pair was relatable. PSBB and WCC was mentioned, actually some of the scenes could be related as I happen to be from Chennai. The interval interlude could have been better, with close up shots by showing the emotions of the actors. Jiiva has shown he has the potential to achieve greater heights, and Samantha has put in a good performance. The other thing which I found not right was Samantha asking sorry at the end, actually GVM should have added some dialogues for Jiiva to show that he was also responsible for the breakups and fight.
Got to watch the movie again and to my surprise, i liked it even better. Also, since the movie is purely dialogue driven, one can truly appreciate the movie only if we give in to the movie completely from the start till the end without any distractions. (Could not do that the 1st time) On the whole.. IMHO, barring a few dialogues & misplaced songs, it is a very good film. Congratulations to the entire team! This movie,for sure is going to linger in my memory for a very long time ?
Completely agree with your review. However, I think between Varun and Nithya though blame is surely equally shared for all their troubles, forgiving the other and moving on seems to come much easier to Varun than Nithya. Her clinginess overflows on to holding on to mistakes much more than Varun. This, is why I think the overall blame in the climax scene is focused on her. My two cents!!
I watched it for a second time yesterday and realized that my first impression was spot on. This is a film that is only going to grow on me on multiple viewings. I had a much better grasp of the emotions and dialogues this second time around and was able to take in more of the subtleties in the film.
Usually reading your reviews after watching the movies, I would either see points I would agree on with few surprises or simply wont be able to correlate(like Raavan), but in this case, you saved the movie for me. It is quite strange.
As I watched movie, I know this sort of stories happen(leaving out the KG/1 grade portions) in real life all the time. But the way it was shot I didnt really care for the pair. Infact, I thought they shouldnt get together with as many break ups between them.
I found Nithya to be quite realistic as I could relate every shade of her character to at least 1 woman that I met. More than that, I feel Samantha played that part really well. I even like the way in which she gets up from bed, when Varun comes to her home, in the climax.
A number of things are riding on this movie. This is an important movie for many talented people including Jiiva who is looking for a hit to stabilize his stardom. Gautham Menon's last hit was Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya, which was released almost 3 years ago. Fans are also hoping Ilayaraja's 919th movie will bring him back to working on commercial movies ever since he disassociated himself from many of the popular directors during the last decade.
As Gautham Menon himself revealed in many interviews, there is nothing new about the story. It is just about the sweet-and-sour moments in the lives of Varun (Jiiva) and Nithya (Samantha). To keep audience engaged for almost 154 minutes hinging on a bunch of simple moments is not an easy task by itself. Gautham Menon has valiantly taken up the challenge.
For these moments to sustain the viewer interest, there needs to be at least 4 key things going for it -- relateable situations, profound characterization, captivating performance and engaging dialogues. Gautham Menon probably gets the latter 2 out of these 4 things right. The dialogues are convincing in most situations. But, the situations itself may seem too ordinary. The characterizations of the lead pairs are flat, lacking insights into to why the characters behave the way they do.
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