It’s the worrrrrrrrrrsht movie that I have seen in a long time. I was talking to a friend who is a big fan of Rajnikanth ( I am too!.. and as footnote in the middle of this paragraph he is gng to see this movie again he says) raised some poignant points about Shankar’s style of film-making. His main crux being we should not be wasting time, money etc.. but the opulence he shows to pander to the public is disgusting.
The movie as such has absolutely no storyline. To think he had spent close to 65 crores on the movie is ludicrous. He doesn’t seem to have heard of the terms screenplay and production values as such even though he is a renowned filmmaker! I mean “ give me a break!”!! Now I have heard people say that Hollywood gets away with just as many big budget blockbusters with ludicrous fantasy storylines. But if you notice they do not compromise on the screenplay, they employ very slick editing and are extremely professional about the way the movie is made. When you think of the budget that Shankar employed you would come to expect at least something slick (logical I have totally given up on from Indian cinema and is not a criteria I evaluate the movies I like coming out from the great Indian Cinema paradise). But what you get is a amateurish ( I am being lenient with my criticism!) effort which is an extreme disappointment. To think I paid 16 dollars for the ticket (on an average I have never been charged more than 8 dollars for any movie here!).
I am not going to give away much of the storyline for the benefit of those who havnt seen it.. but come on the guy is supposed to be a graduate from America and is extremely surprised when a doctor ( Raghuvaran) performs CPR! A 6th grade boy-scout knows what CPR is! And then the character of Sivaji wants to invest his hard earned 200 crores back home. He is supposed to be a software analyst by profession. But he cannot hire a bunch of lawyers to make his investment legitimate and needs to be defeated by the “system”! What BULL CRAP! And then to make the movie a hit you have dialogues like “ the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer”. Isn’t that just pandering to the public? I am not questioning the fact that poverty is a big problem. But its not like the rich industrialists are all just big black asses and all the poor are angels in disguise and have hearts of gold. You have various characters in all walks of life. Why cant filmmakers accept that and come up with at least some good variations rather than mundane variations on the same story that has been building the foundations of Indian cinema.
Shankar by the way says that this is not the type of cinema that I want ot make but have been tagged at by producers and distributors after the humongous success of Indian ( that I must say was a brilliant movie ) and have been forced to use the formula of spending about 10 crores on the sets of each song and the same story line in all subsequent films. That is total nonsense!
The only good thing about the movie is Shriya and her tit shots.. everything else is below par including Viveks comedy ( though a few handpicked sequences are decent).. If I could give negative rating I would give -1 out of five stars.
7 comments:
:(((
I dont want to hear this!! I am going to pretend I did not even knew the existence of a person called Prashanth
But interesting thoughts about "the rich getting richer... " piece..
let me put it this way...it is a fan's movie..made only for the fans...unlike chandramukhi which was able to draw the "family crowds"...which btw also had a gripping story...the logic behind this movie is not making money...more of a platform to get him to the TN cm's post in 2010.
u guys shld b at my gym...have the producer's brother..a couple of distributors sons who work out over here...been speakin to them(actually the distri guys...cannot tell the prod he is out of his mind can i) ...both concede one fact..the producers have made their profits so have the distributors...it is the theatre owner who is going to be hit by losses... most likely....let me put forward figures...
CM the biggest grosser in Rk's career grossed around 3cr in ch market and this movie has been sold at 6.5....that too for a movie which has a not so grt screenplay...and the distri is on record sayin for the movie to recover costs it has to run packe d for 50 days....and ppl this time the movie is followin the bolly stratergy of max release and not the usual 100 day run format which means the movie will be off 30% screens after 3-4 weeks and smaller numbers after tht and so on..
2. CM overall grossed closed to 74-75cr. made at a cost of 20...distributors share ------50.
this movie even if it grosses 100(not possible esp with the negative talk from AP)..the distri share is 35.
3. 100 day runs..146 for CM...of which 55 -57 were from AP....no big release at that point of time...now there are good 3 big releases in a couple of months time.grossed 12cr for CM..to do more is bloody difficult.
watchin the movie in a week...prash..i will have a BLAST cause for me movies r meant to be nonsensical...as long as they r the "masala movies" its fine.
machaan my expectations frma tam movie r not much.. I go to enjoy a nonsensical movie too i get to watch enuf creative movies frm other sector.. all I went for was a rajni experience .. but wen i tht of the humongous amount of money spent on something so ameturish I just could not resist reviewing it.. I by the way did not advocate not seeing the movie and all to set the record strait.. I had total fun with a desi crowd back to a hooliganism fergotten.. not too many occasions to get tht knd of an experience..
from the word go sivaji was meant to be business in the form of movie...which means target the maximum number of people in the first few days which would keep up the hype already created and bring in more crowd....afterall not everyone can resist the temptation
even after hearing bad reviews..... n this startegy works well for the kinda business(bolly strategy) like abhiram mentioned
And 1 thing is brand Rajini has a certain value more so bcos of his frequency of movies and public appearances.....Its something like what happens inside tirupathi temple...to get to see the idol people pay huge sums of money and hardly get 5 mins for it...bcos there are millions of other people wanting to do the same....
Same way he doesnt act in 2-3 movies a year to cater to different types of crowd...which means his movie being released once in 3 yrs should have something for every kinda people as he s got fans from all walks of life...
Whatever prash mentioned were things not meant for educated and reasoning crowd like us.....sankar cld have dug deep into the black money concept and made it a strategy based film but then he wld be makin a flop movie....just ask urself this...wahtever movie u liked the most, will a 6 or 7 yr old kid like...will a unedu labour like...will a family audience like, will a die hard fan of rajni who has been watching all his movies from his first film like....
Answer will be no to everything.
Coming bak to tirupathi story, just bcos we dont get the value for money der do we stop goin der, or can we ask for a private visit to the shrine with no one around and spend how much ever time u want...its practically impossible
Same way each one should be satisfied with their share of happiness from the movie and not complain they did not like the movie 100%... because even here prash spending 16$ matters more than his review in a blog...bcos a gud share of his audience might not know what a blog is...afterall u got to njoy shriya in the movie..
sorry for hurting sentiments bringing in tirupathi...but the ultimate truth is both thirupathi and sivaji is more of business than what they are meant for...a visit to both is of course our choice.
All comments from the viewpoint that its a sankar directed rajni movie
all valid comments da machaaan .. but I reiterate to make a movie look good u dont have to always cater to the intellectuals .. all I ask is after so many yrs of forumula driven movies.. pay more attention to factors such as editing and dialogue.. tht wont giveway mass appeal.. it seemed to me the moment shankar and rajni tags were given to the film it was a soore success and nothing else mattered!
prash: ur right...the movie has suffered as a result of that...first week gross is estimated at 25 crs...highest for a south mov...but this will only go lower...in principle decrease the fig by 15-20% for the next 4 weeks....and then stabize it at around 2-3cr per week...this is what the movie will rake in....as far as reports go...movie runnin packed in cities thanx to adv bookin...80%occupancy in semi urban..and much lower in rural...figs came from a friend in the movie business...movie star actually...the prod might hype t to rake in 150cr...which is BS...if it does it will be the most successfull film in ind...reallistically ppl r expecting around 80-90 which still makes t the most succ S.I. film but not profits wise.
on a lighter note till rdb(act rdb did not rake in more money than this movie),lage raho, krish, kank,don came guess which was the most succ movie to be made in ind.....came in the yr 2001.............if you say lagaan..........ur WRONG.....movie with one of my fav actors..........sunny......GADAR EK PREM KATHA....and the best part is it made all its money in our very own des(read rural areas and small towns)...whereas todays bolly movies rake in close to 50% of their income from us+uk and another 30% from big cit multiplexes.
my answer to this! i agree...logic aint there in the movie...sometimes u sort of wonder with wots happening...but then machi u get three hrs of entertainment! Ultimately thats wot most of the junta care...they care for a couple of gud songs...some babe exposing off...some dialogues...a gud "athiradee" action scene...and u do get that(even though some of em r copied)...my point is once in a while such a kind of movie also is good enough...Thats wot u want...Other than that who cares daa...he rakes in twice the money he invests...avalavu thaan...and it wud b a blockbuster for the year 2007!
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