The most expensive movie in Tamil cinema and what do we have to show for it? Absolute TRASH! I'm not a member of the "Superstar" hate club, but some level of logical consistency should be part of a movie. It was outright disgusting. The screenplay, plot, comedy, romance and yet another larger than life potrayal. It is amazing that one person has had all the success in the world without any diversification at all. Imagine a 60 year old guy running around a tree with a 20 year old girl. hmm what more can we say. For quite a while I was a die hard fan of Vivek, but this movie was a real let down. The chemistry and flow is completely missing. Wonder where all that money went?
One among the many ludicrous concepts used (spoiler warning!). Rajni is out after all the bad guys and takes away loads of black money from them. The next step is agonizing to watch. He exchanges Indian currency to US dollars in the United states (obviously it is a bad deal) and then distributes the money to his friends who will donate it back to India. Now surely this is gobbledygook!
Have you guys been to the movie as yet? Hardcore Rajni fans please excuse. I think time is better spent watching a nice cartoon. That is real entertainment. I would trade hours of Tom and Jerry for Sivaji any day.
BTW: I came across the blog of this unfortunate person who happened to write a bad review of Sivaji. His rejoinder to "Rajni Veriyans" is interesting. (lol)
http://ada-paavi.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Sivaji - can we go any lower?
Posted by Mad Max at 9:57 PM
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9 comments:
Simply put this is not a movie anyone should analyze.
Only reason you go to this movie is have experience of this cult phenomenon.
60 yr dancing with 20 yr girl - you don't have to go to the theatre to realize that.
My take: It is B+ in terms of entertainment. If Rajni is not there, then this would have flopped big time
Dai.. Yevandaa adhu thalivar paththi thappa pesaradhu.. keesiduven keesi..
mavane... emmam thehiriyum unakku.. (I always wanted to "voodu katradhu", thanks Madmax, for giving me a chance to do it, in the blog atleast)
If Rajini is not there, I dont think shankar wouldve taken this movie/story. (Anyhow, I should agree his movies lately has become monotonous on the subject). I couldnt agree more on the thoughts of mad-max, except vivek. I found him funny though in this movie (compared to his comedies lately in movies).
Its just a Rajini movie, go with the crowd, whistle if you can (atleast for Shreya) and dont analyze too much (According to me, "most" of the rajini movies, after 90s are similar to this)
You have a problem with the script, blame Shankar, don't blame Rajini.
You have a problem with a 60yr old running around with a 20 yr old, don't watch it, especially when the 20 yr old is enjoying it..
And there are lot of 60 yr olds in South Indian movies enjoying this way..
You have a problem with ludicrous concepts used in the movie,hmmm..one doesnot think about concepts when watching most of the Indian movies.
Disclaimer: I am so not a Rajini fan.
I started watching Rajini movies and liking them only after the 90's when he started becoming comical.I think it is pure entertainment and you are not supposed to think seriously. I really liked Vivek's comedy in the first half.
And , this is pure business strategy. In spite of a very poor script, poor editing, the film is a hit just because of Rajini. You need to hand it to the man.He has formed a cult and can carry anything on his shoulders.
Yes, it is an overdose of Rajini and I may not watch it again, but it is entertainment though ludicrous. Who cares?
When Amitabh staged a comeback and started acting as a young man, every one of his movies flopped, forcing him to act as a 60 yr old , in fatherly roles. When you have people ready to spend money to watch this guy, why not use it? And I think , thats what Shankar is doing..
I guess what madmax is enquiring is to what is the charm that he (and me) is missing?
@ Everybody:
Okie the question is: is there value for money...if this was a low budget movie, i would not have cared...but that is not so..
I agree that 60 yr old dancing with 20 yr old, I dont have to go the theater. My point was a little more general. I guess it is quite common. For instance in malayalam movies we still have Mohan Lal and Mamooty running around with 20 something girls. Therefore that comment was not specific to this movie. I was looking at it from a relative perspective. The most expensive movie and what you get is the same old fare. I guess my thoughts and writing did not go in tandem.
@ Survivor: omigosshhh...you surely hate me now dont u???? (lol)...Did the 20 yr old enjoy it??? tough question to answer, but as you said it is business..you do what you have to and make money...i buy that logic...again my comment was the movie in its entirety...but when ppl talk of sivaji it is about either Rajni or ARR...hardly anybody mentions Shankar...so i guess it just sticks along..
As for Rajni movies in general...some of his pre 90's movies were far more interesting..how he potray's the charactar "Parattai" in 16 Vaithinile was super cool..i really enjoyed those movies...in fact any or all movies by Bharatiraja/manirathnam/balachandar ,are worth watching...
The problem I have with several movies, more recent ones, is how they paint such unrealistic pictures of life...rich guy falling for a poor girl is a concept beaten to death in Indian cinema, but it does not sound illogical...it is quite possible...but the mechanism used for converting 250 crores of hawala into good money shows complete lack of imagination...
Again it has nothing to do with Rajni per se...the man has the crowds jumping for him...sure that is true..but why and how he manages to do that is a mystery...the same argument applies to somebody like Mohan Lal...but I would argue, that Mohan Lal as an actor outclasses virtually everybody when it comes to acting skills...but does this mean forgiving him running around Nayantara or Asin...ABSOLUTELY NO...
@ Mano: The movie lacks everything...i enjoyed Padayappa more than anything else (not that it was much different)...the story line was relatively believable..hehehe
I think movies like Mozhi, Chennai 600028 and Parijatham among the more recent movies are highly under appreciated compared to movies like Sivaji..
The main idea of a movie is entertainment. At the end, the question which remains is "Are you entertained" (not only 'you', but majority of the people). If yes, then theres your answer.
I wouldnt say, "mozhi" or "chennai-28" were underapprciated. They made decent money (without the star value). And Mozhi happened to reach 100 days (lately not that many movies have reached 100 days, that too without famous actors) and I assume, it wouldve made money. People always welcome decent movies, no matter who the actors are.
@ Sdpal: I agree with your point about other movies. But I dont think it created the hype that Sivaji created. My bet is Sivaji will probably better at the box office. Of course as the saying goes "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", people have different opinions.
Someone once asked me what innovation meant... As an engineer, I had my own definition of what innovation meant. His theory was that, innovation meant a successful product that will make a lot of money...After all, he was from marketing..:)... But, when I thought about it more, I was convinced that there was some essence to that theory.
Bottom line is, Sivaji is a successful movie. They have spent close to 80-90 crores for the movie and the movie is supposed to gross over 150 crores in the first 3 weeks... I wouldnt call that a waste of money. Isnt it possible to have spent lesser money and still make such profits? May be.. But, I dont think it matters in this case... All the above arguments are entirely from a commercial point of view...
As far as the movie (script and story) is concerned, I wasnt too impressed overall, though I did enjoy parts of it, not to mention vivek's comedy which was pretty good after a long period of monotonicity. I certainly wudnt call it a "Trash" relative to a lot of other "Trash"er movies I've seen... Given that the expectation on rajni's movies is that it would be a Masala, I didnt get upset about logic or rationality... For Shankar, that has not been the case in the past. So, he has certainly underperformed from the script point of view... For example, I expect certain quality from directors like Maniratnam or Shankar and this certainly is not Shankar's style...
@ Mindframes: i guess I have to agree. Maybe I was not very objective when I wrote the blog. Guess I should have taken a couple of days before writing about it. In hindsight, the product sells and hence quality does not really matter.
Againg, "Trash" is relative. I agree that there are other movies. But then we expect most low budget movies probably would never make it anwayz. But given the size of the budget here, I certaintly expected more.
Time to think about a new blog. "Managing Expectations"..we always have expectations and how do we manage them...pretty late right now..will pen my thoughts down tomorrow.
cheerio ppl...
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