Raja's read only memories

This review can also be read at: http://expressbuzz.com/entertainment/news/kollywood%E2%80%99s-usual-suspects/309554.html Multi-starrer Tamil movies are a rarity. Even rarer are movies comprising ‘solo’ heroes pitted against each other. Combine this factor with the backdrop of IPL, the Mumbai mafia, glamour and action, and you have Mankatha (U/A), an entertainer that can be fairly approximated between Hollywood’s Usual Suspects and the director’s earlier venture, Saroja. Vinayak Mahadev (Ajith, was the name intended to be an obeisance to the lord on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi?) is a suspended police officer residing in Mumbai. He dates Sanjana (Trisha), the daughter of Arumugam Chettiar (Jayaprakash), a smuggler. Vinayak has secret flings with women, unknown to Sanjana, and makes no bones about having crossed 40 years of age. Chettiar makes arrangements to launder `500 crore into the nation, which a gang led by his henchman (Vaibhav), and including a police inspector (Ganesh Kakumanu)...

If marriages are made in heaven, then the events preceding it must definitely be made in Kollywood’s studios, whose insistence on replicating the phrase “and they lived happily ever after” on screen is so strong that anything contrary has been (and will) strongly be looked down upon. As Paulo Coelho would have said, the entire universe would have conspired to ensure that the lead pair, be it the newcomer or the reigning star, stand united, no matter how adverse situations may turn out to be. P Vasu’s Chinna Thambi and Mani Ratnam’s Roja are movies that instantly come to my mind when I think of this. Did not the actor Amitabh Bachchan once say that he is intent on providing entertainment to the common man who is burdened with the complexities of life? Which is why the ending in Gowtham Menon’s not-so-recent movie, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (Will you cross the stars for me), where the lead pair – Silambarasan and Trisha – despite falling in love, decide to part ways, intrigues me to n...

Appeared in expresso, the daily supplement of The New Indian Express on Tuesday, 28th December 2010 Movies scripted by Kamalhaasan have always provided fodder for the grey cells. When a potent mix of humour along with a strong subject comes your way, which is what K S Ravikumar's latest directorial, Manmadhan Ambu (Cupid's arrow) is, rest assured that you have an entertainer. Ambujakshi (Trisha), a successful actress who believes in long-lasting relationships, is engaged to Madanagopal (Madhavan), a leading businessman and a mama's boy, who is wary about her conduct with other actors and suspects her fidelity, leading to their breakup. Madan now deploys Major Mannar (Kamalhaasan) to spy on her. He travels in the same cruise liner that she and her friend Deepa (Sangeetha), a divorcee, do and gives constant updates about her activities, under the agreement that the medical expenses of Rajan (Ramesh Aravind), a cancer patient, are fully borne by him. A series of twists and tu...