Yavarum Nalam Review

Does fear have a new face? Yes it does... it is the theatre that is screening Yavarum Nalam and I mean that in the positive sense.

The thriller-horror genre in Indian movies have not been unexploited. The scary fare that is usually fed to us is of bad quality with even worse storyline. Vikram K Kumar has tried something different with Yavarum Nalam. The premise may see too childish to some, but the treatment of the subject is extremely interesting and I must say scary too!

The movie revolves around a family of eight members, Manohar (Madhavan), his mother (Saranya), his wife Priya (Neetu Chandra), his elder brother (Hari Nair), sister-in-law (Ameetha), his nephew and niece and younger sister. This happy close knit family moves into a new apartment 13B on the thirteenth floor of a newly constructed building. Like any family, the women in this household are TV soap fanatics and their latest obsession is a serial called Yavarum Nalam.

Manohar, a civil engineer by profession, is very happy to have moved to this new house and lots of good things happen in the family, his brother gets promoted, his sister passes her college exams, his wife gets pregnant. But he is also surrounded by some strange happenings and an unknown fear...a fear that changes his life. What is that fear... well you have to go and watch the film.

Coming to performances, Madhavan has done a fine job, proving once again that given a good script he can do wonders. The struggle of a man trying to protect his family is well conveyed by him. He is a natural in the role. Neetu Chandra who makes her debut in Tamil with this movie emotes well, but needs to work on her lip sync of Tamil dialogues. The rest of the cast provides good support to the story.

Cinematography by P.C Sreeram is amazing. Not that the veteran cameraman needs the applause, but for this genre of cinema, the camera annd lighting play a very important role and P.C has created that 'edge of the seat' feel. Editing by Sreekar Prasad is also top notch, though a tighter first half could have made this film even more thrilling.

Talking about the story and screenplay, I must applaud Vikram K Kumar for trying something different. In today's cinema, what we need is a novel concept, film-makers willing to take the risk. And Vikram has done a fine job of that.

Of course another important element of the thriller-horror genre is music. Composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, the fans of these composers may miss their usual fare, but the background score by Tubbi-Parik is good. It may be jarring at places, but the script demands that.

Final Word: Presented by Big Pictures, produced by Suresh Balajee and George Plus under the banner of Wide Angle Creations, Yavarum Nalam is a commendable effort and is certainly recommended for viewing, but preferably not alone!

Starring: Madhavan, Neetu Chandra, Saranya, Sachin Khedekar, Dhritiman Chatterjee and others Banner: Big Pictures, WIde Angle Creations

Producer: Suresh Balajee, George Plus

Story, screenplay, direction: Vikram K Kumar

Cinematography: P.C.Sreeram

Editing: Sreekar Prasad

Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Background score: Tubbi Parik

Art: Chetan Pathak

Creative Consultant: Samir Chanda

Stunts: Prabhu

Naan Kadavul Review

Finally the much hyped and awaited movie released (Feb 6th). I was also one of the people who were eagerly waiting for this movie mainly coz of Bala. Ofcourse the terrific stills of Aarya and the Kaasi location , plus the awesome trailer increased the expectation.

Good things first...

Baala...Hats off to bala for still thinking different and bold even in this age of commercial cinema. Only he can touch the neglected chars of tamil cinema as main chars - be it a suffering mentally challenged person at yervaadi or the vettiyan of a suddukadu.

Aarya...It was Kamal who used to set bars for costumes,makeups and "living" the character. In the new age actors, it was Surya who used to mend and strain himself to do the same and he did set a new bar in his latest movie "Vaaranam Aaiyram". Now Aarya has raised the bar to a new level with his awesome performance and straining himself to live the character - ruthran , an angry saadhu in Kaasi who believes that he is the God - "Aham Bramasmi".

Pooja...Its rare to see heroines who volunteers to show them non-glamorous coz the cast mandates it. Not just non-glamorous, in this movie she even comes as visually handicapped with whitened eyes and also gone thin to live the character of a homeless needy girl.

Music...As usual the maestro rocks especially the kaasi BGMs, the intro song of aarya and the stomach swirling "udukai"

Visuals...None can show the intensity of Kaasi like the way it was portrayed in this movie.

Dialogues...Penned by Jayamohan is superb. I love one dialog by aarya which goes something like this "nerupula yedhuda nalla nerupu ketta nerupu" when he lights his cigar from a holy diya.

Movie has all the defacto baala touch - dance for yesteryear song , an abnormal hero, a girl wearing shirt, scary locations and closeups, dark comedy, a mentor for the hero etc...The movie has lot of his earlier movie impact - pithamagan.

Now the disappointing stuffs ...

From the initial hype , rumors, articles and the trailers, I was under the impression that the movie is about an angry young abandoned man in Kaasi and his phases of life.

But the movie totally deviates from this and portrays the dark side of the needy physically challenged people and how a "hero" finally saves them by killing the "villan". The "hero" is none other than our angry young man from Kaasi.

Either it should be fully about the former topic or fully about the later topic. But Baala struggles a lot to balance between these and this results in aarya character totally missing in second half and everyone wonders where is he other than coming in the "dope" smoking scenes rarely.

Baala has used real people for the cast of the needy physically challenged people and shows the pathetic life of them in a very disturbing manner. These scenes will make one have sleepless night after watching the movie.

I agree its all true and happening in our cities , but is sitting in an AC posh multiplex, eating popcorn and drinking pepsi , the right way to watch and know about their life. What are we acheiving by this ? What is going to happen to these people ? Will the producer or Baala be doing or already did something to these people out of the huge profits from this movie ? I wish they should.

Its an irony that these pity cast makes us laugh by their crude dark comedy more than our famoues comedians. Hats off to them. Even the character of the "supervisor" done by one of member of vadivelus sidekicks is simply amazing.

My only question is why a person from kaasi should come and save them and why not a local normal person ? I guess the answer is than the movie wont be a typical baala movie since it will be void of an abnormal lead cast ! This aarya character also loses its weightage coz of the monotonous scenes like sitting somewhere with fixed eyes, smoking dope and posing in weird positions (there is an even a pose where he sits like a typical calvin klien model during a fight !)

What is Baala suggesting ? That all these phy challenged needy people should die ? But one thing for sure, I will seriously think twice b4 donating money to these people coz the movie has showcased the evil "corporate" world behind these challenged but sweet people, who operates them and treats them as their slaves. May be i should just get them food or things.

Bottomline, if you are expecting aarya and kaasi for full of the movie, you will be disappointed. But it can be watched for a the bold unique baala, awesome aarya and poojas performance.

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Professional colleges, hostels to reopen on Feb 9 in TN

Chennai, Feb 5: Professional colleges and hostels in Tamil Nadu, which remained closed since January 31 in the wake of the student unrest on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, will be reopened on February 9, an official announcement here said.

The date of reopening of arts and science colleges would be announced later, Chief Secretary K S Sripathy said in a press release here.

On January 31, an order was passed to indefinitely close all colleges, both private and government, following calls for a strike on February 1 by some organisations on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue. - Agencies