Team-BHP - The Regional movies thread!

Watched 4 movies recently, 3 in OTT and 1 in the theatre

Kishkindha Kaandam -- Absolutely riveting stuff. I was completely hooked on the screenplay and story from the beginning. The movie is greatly supported by the 3 main actors. Aparna Balamurali is undoubtedly the most talented among the new lot of heroines to come in the last decade. Asif Ali is very good and I know it is a bit harsh to say, but in the core emotional moments, I felt he could not deliver what was supposed to be delivered. Maybe those can only be done by Lalettan/Mamukka. But the star of the movie is Vijayaraghavan who has overshadowed everyone he shares the screen with. I would be surprised if he did not get a state award for this performance. I came to know that the person who wrote the movie is also the cinematographer and that shows in every frame.

Vaazha -- Time pass movie with very few highs.

Vishesham -- Many recommended me to watch and maybe I was expecting too much. I found it strictly average fare.

Thiruchitrambalam -- Again a very average movie. I am not sure what the makers thought they were going to make when they started this project. We have seen thousands of such generic movies. I am very surprised to see Nithya Menen picking up a national award for this movie. I think the jury had a brain-fade moment like Saif winning for Hum Tum. She was good but not worth winning the national award.

Kishkindha Kaandam - Malayalam

Finally, got a chance to watch this. Like others pointed out, can't disclose much details. I went in with a lot of expectation since everyone around me praised highly about the movie. Somewhere midway, I found it slow and yes, it's definitely a slow burner thriller but what an ending!
Vijayaraghavan nailed it followed by Asif, Aparna and Jagadeesh. The BGM somehow reminded me of Interstellar. Although I would highly recommend to watch in theater, it will be absolutely fine on OTT as well.

Rating - 4.5/5 (Highly recommended)

Fun Fact - It's the same house where "Bramayugam" was shot. Now I realise how amazing the art department was for bramayugam.

Vaazha - Malayalam

One time watch. Nothing special in this. They acted pretty well but the dudes who played the role of the father were better. Songs/BGM were good.

Rating - 3/5 (One time watch)
Available on Hotstar

Bharathanatyam - Malayalam

This was a surprise. Thought it would be an average/below-average movie, but turned out to be a good one. Excellent acting by all and the movie was entertaining with good humor.

Rating - 4/5 (Recommended)
Available on Amazon Prime

G.O.A.T - Tamil

:D . Better than Beast!

Rating - 2/5 (Can pass it. Fans will enjoy)
Available on Netflix

Devara

Well I would suggest no one to watch a movie like how I did for this film. Pure time bad for me. I paid for a 1am benefit show ticket, which I was supposed to go with my friend on relase day itself. But, I fell sick and had ti give away the ticket for free, since I couldn't sell it off in such a short notice. And then, I couldn't resist so I read the plot on wikipedia. I was hooked. This was a film that I had least expectations on it. The trailer was bad if you ask me, and the director's previous outing was a disaster. The film received mixed reviews, but I was hooked after I read the plot. I had seen some mini clips of the film on Instagram, and I was even more hooked. On the 4th day of release I was supposed to go with my friends and paid for a ticket, but missed the show:Frustrati. And then, I went for the very next show at the same theatre with one of my friend who was watching the movie for the 3rd time. I really liked the film. The story is a very simple one but I liked how the scenes were written. And music, well, I really liked the music. So much so that I went to the theatre again with my dad and sister. So, I paid for tickets 4 times but watched the film twice only:uncontrol.

Would recommend going to the theatre, especially for the music.

Quote:

Originally Posted by balenoed_ (Post 5857309)

Damn, this guy is still there!! high time he needs to be boycotted for creating crappy music and screwing up the experience. I sometimes feel not going for a movie just because he is the music director.

It just surprises me why are the likes of Vidyasagar and other yesteryear legends are not roped in to movies these days. They would create magic!

I wont comment on all of that. I didn't like the movie Jailer but I absolutely loved the soundtrack of the film. I expected something similar but I was so wrong.

Yesteryear legends, well, not everyone can appreciate the magic and beauty of slow, soothing tunes. I certainly do, but others from my age, well, I am not so sure.

Vettaiyan - 2 / 5

Fahd Fasil was the rock star of the movie. He held up the movie more than Rajni. The storyline was very unstructured and kind of dragged towards the end. Some actors were unnecessary; especially Amitabh Bachchan. Rajnikanth is getting old for these kind of roles.

I thought the background music was good but overdone through the entire movie. And so were the fight scenes. Should have taken a leaf from Jailer but unfortunately the director tried to milk the max out of Rajni and went overboard. But still worth onetime watch; especially in a single screen theatre with good crowd. A sold out energetic crowd at Urvashi theatre here definitely held the movie more than the storyline.

GOAT - Tamil - Netflix : 1/5

What a disaster ! I couldn't watch the full movie even in OTT. Bad screenplay, bad action, bad songs, horrendous de-aging and the list goes on.

Finally, who is Vijay's hair stylist ? He has to be fired soon or someone should teach Vijay how to use a mirror. He is such a charismatic actor but gets these weird hair styles in recent movies. :Frustrati

CID Ramachandran Retd. SI - Malayalam - Manorama Max : 4/5

Nice investigation thriller. Story is very good and gripping throughout. Shajon performed really well as a retired police officer.

I felt this movie was better than some of the recent hits (of same genre) in recent years. I guess it would've been a major hit, if any of the leading actors were casted instead of Shajon (nothing against his performance, my comment is strictly on the lack of commercial attention the movie deserved vs it received).

GOAT- Tamil- Netflix - Vijay, Sneha, Prabhudeva, Prashanth,Jayaram and Music by Yuvan

Rating 0.5/5

Watched this thinking it will be atleast as good as LEO and boy,what a disappointment!! Only saving grace,if at all, is Vijay's acting

-Story is all over the place. Looks like they might have taken "inspiration" from English movie "Gemini Man" starring Will Smith but executed it badly
-Sneha's acting prowess is heavily under-utilized
-Yuvan's music is very very bad. Its better he sticks to his genre rather than experiment
-Screenplay is all over the place. Lot of gaps in story. 3 hour movie felt like a 6 hour movie
-Too many CGI graphics spoils the movie. Figure this: In one of the scenes, Vijay driving the car on road is graphics
-Venkat Prabhu's team(Premgi Amaran,Vaibhav etc) has been wasted

DeAr- Tamil- Netflix - GV Prakash, Aishwarya Rajesh

Rating 2/5

This movie has similar storyline as another tamil movie "GoodNight" but the roles are reversed. It is a good fun watch but needs lot of patience to finish the movie.

-GV Prakash's choice of characters is similar to Rock or Vin Diesel. Same across all movies. Safe character but doesnt really show his acting prowess
-Aishwarya Rajesh is good and she carries the movie majorly.
-Few songs are good. Screenplay is also good.

Saripodhaa Sanivaaram- Telugu- Netflix - Nani, SJ Suryah

Rating 2/5

Crappy story but good acting from Nani and SJ Suryah carries the movie

-As I have said earlier, SJ Suryah is amazing. He needs to do more movies and the industry should utilize his acting prowess
-Nani as usual is very good and Priyanka Mohan is utilized well

Kotee- Kannada- Amazon Prime- Daali Dhananjaya, Rangayana Raghu

Rating 0.5/5

Expected a good movie only because of Daali but was mighty disappointed. Even Dhanajaya's acting is good in bits and pieces. The movie itself is very long at 3 hours

-Story and Screenplay is bad. Narration is bad
-Dhananjaya's character and acting is predictable,boring and is full of excessive emotions
-Same has to be said about Rangayana Raghu
-The Kannada industry has to reinvent itself and give good story/screenplay to stay relevant. I think they are focussing too much on Star Power and OTT Returns that the story/screenplay takes a backseat

Quote:

Originally Posted by balenoed_ (Post 5857309)

Wow. This is surprising to hear. While I would not support Anirudh blindly, one of the reason that Jailer was successful was because of Anirudh's music. I remember reading that Rajni saw the screening without music(as it was not added yet) and was mighty disappointed with the storyline. Later, he watched final cut and was mighty impressed with the way the movie came out. Not saying Rajni's opinion is the absolute truth. But this opinion has been shared by many.

I think he was intentionally left out from GOAT movie and Yuvan was roped in. That did not end well though

Quote:

Originally Posted by saikishor (Post 5857253)

Me and my friend walked out in the second half.

I think you went quite overboard on that. Either you are joking or you are talking of some other movie. Well, the movie is not so great, but saying you could not bear it to walk out is quite too much. I bet no one else would do it.

The movie is quite good in terms of story telling, nicely done. Good entertainment and theatre watch is must to appreciate, else it might look bland. Much better than Jailer.

Vettaiyan

4/5

Though some characters have no much role to play, their screen presence was good enough to elevate the movie, for eg: Big B, Manju W. Another brilliant performance by FF, got a break from his usual psycho roles. :)

Infact music/bgm is better. Since I went with zero expectation, it turned out to be good. However could not really figure out a single line of the lyrics.

Quote:

Originally Posted by saikishor (Post 5857322)

Yesteryear legends, well, not everyone can appreciate the magic and beauty of slow, soothing tunes. I certainly do, but others from my age, well, I am not so sure.

Vidyasagar is just slow? Ooops, I rest my case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by balenoed_ (Post 5857902)

I will be honest I do not know who vidyasagar is. Apologies as I do not follow Tamil movies much. Thought he used to make such sounds and hence the post.

Yes I walked out. The second half felt too dragged. I mean, it felt very boring so had to walk out. I will not agree with you on the music part, Jailer's music is something else.

4/5 is a lot for this movie.

Pechi (Tamil, Prime)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33034505/

"A group of trekkers, looking for a fun-filled weekend trip, enter into the forests. They cross a line, which is not supposed to be crossed, and gets into vicinity of an evil entity, which is hell bent on wrecking havoc in their lives. Did they survive the relentless onslaught of ungodly proportions?"

Thought this was a pretty nice tamil horror movie with black magic and witchcraft and what not.

Horrible acting by the majority of the cast except for the actor who portrayed the role of the forest guide.

Nothing much in terms of sheer horror so genre fans will be find it pretty predictable but I loved the forest visuals. At times felt like a tourist promo :)

3/5

Quote:

Originally Posted by uchun (Post 5858485)

Vaazhai 2024 - Tamil

7.5/10

Talks about the struggles of a family who work in a banana plantation. Absolutely splendid cinematography. The two boys portion was fun to watch. Unlike others, I found it to be slightly boring and filled with cinematic fillers. Climax was hard hitting and gripping. Definitely worth watching.

Is the Director Mari S, one of the guy who escaped from the truck accident? Actually it is an everyday struggles of a regular family and I also did not like it much.

I think in the preview show he had invited people from his town and some of them had tears rolling down and probably they were able to relate the movie better than us.