About 'Unnale Unnale:' I stopped watching the movie after some of 'those' scenes in the first 20 minutes. But one of my friends strongly recommended that I watch the whole movie, and I did. It wasn't too bad. The movie got very light towards the end. They stepped back from preaching sitcom clichés for sometime. And the ending is quite light and "new" to Tamil mainstream movies. So while I'm not surprised that this movie did well, I don't feel all that bad either. Actually, I would place it above Mozhi. This junk food's got way less calories and fat than Mozhi.
Even though the direct translation of 'American situations' is irritating on its own, it's a good cultural virus. While it lacks originality as an art form and reinforces age old gender stereotypes (and some new ones for TN) it slowly moulds the collective consciousness of scores of young people--albeit with a good dose of pretentiousness--into normalizing dating, boyfriend-girlfriend relationships and probably sex. It's the kind of movie that Ramadoss cannot protest against yet does exactly what he's supposedly opposed to. It slowly usurps "traditional" values(?) and puts in place a corporatized version of "love and affection." It is unrealistic for most of our social classes, but it will eventually percolate there as well.
If it's unclear as to what I prefer, I would always choose, as much as I hate it, the latter. Given our societal make up, I think the old stereotypes are far too dangerous in comparison with the ones highlighted in the movie.
PS. I know, it's another post based on a movie. This time it got worse: it's extension of a comment.
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11 comments:
Are you going number the vetti posts from now on? Or another way I can ask the same question is, Is this only your 7th Vetti post?
The only movie I liked in the recent past in tamil is Chennai 600028. Unnale Unnale is a bunch of crap. I found it too boring.
haha yeah, although I tag a lot of posts as vetti, this is only the 7th one titled vetti post.
I think Chennai 600028 will easily be one of the best in the last few years. I liked it a lot too (especially the way I saw it: fast forwarding some songs and scenes in the coffee pub etc).
UU is bad, but it's a big leap from 'Ullam Ketkume' - what the hell was he thinking?
So Suresh, do you live closer to Montreal? The Canadian Masters cup's going to be exciting. Superb first round matches and potential great second round matches. And the whole tournament's going to rock.
And I have a blog now. Not that I'd post anything that would remotely interest you, but just to let you know.
http://juvvi.blogspot.com
"If it's unclear as to what I prefer, I would always choose, as much as I hate it, the latter. Given our societal make up, I think the old stereotypes are far too dangerous in comparison with the ones highlighted in the movie."
Adhu! :)
I think 'Unnale Unnale" is just making it clear that what matters most in your life partner is the right attitude.
Even though the moral/msg of the movie is digestible..Sada's poor sportiveness is exaggerated..
I agree that Mozhi is too idealistic and there are very few men like the character prithiviraj played. I personally know one such exception though..
Unnale Unnale helped exacerbate my head ache. Yeah, the ending was slightly different alright and there were a few scenes that were in conflict with the 'traditional love scenes'. But the movie bored me no end. From the beginning. Until the end. If it weren't for some okay-to-remove-hands-off-one's-ears music, the movie'd have sucked even more. As if that were possible. :p
In short, boring and annoying and makes the watcher feel restless and fidgety.
p.s. May Jeeva's soul rest in peace. :-"
Unnale Unnale is terrible!!!
the cinematography is the only redeeming factor.
Australian- Melbourne lifestyles are portrayed are soooooooooo wrong and the there was no convincing factor to say Vinil fell in love with Tanisha....it seems like he just went "ahh well she won't have me...so yeh u can have me".
boring!
Chennai 600028 is like a mini TV series...what the heck?
Full of crap...especially all that abt modern girls and sex...wth?
So many characters in the movie that it was confusing to know who was with what team- where.
Periyar was pretty good. Done very tastefully.
Periyar "the movie" was crapfest! Yenga ooru thiruvizha vandu parunga, It would be much more informative and coherent. And, I guess they hired the same makeshift make-up man who worked part time in our village plays. Looked like fancy competition especially with Kalaignar's get up! LOL
Durga,
Chennai 28's strength is in its simplicity and unassuming tone all over. There is little emphasis on anything - friendship, love, sportsmanship and a list of other clichés that have been beaten to death in other movies. This movie is more about showing how a few young men from a certain social class in Madras lived their life. As I had mentioned earlier, the "coffee pub love" was quite uncalled for. But they probably felt it was necessary to have songs shot abroad and for that they had to shove a "love angle" out of nowhere. I didn't see any of those scenes.
The film is 'fat-free'. It's a comedy that is best enjoyed by city bred folk (in TN that is) - Australia'la irukkavanagalukkellam puriyaadhu. :P
Periyar is very bad as a movie. The only reason one would like it is because Periyar's then radical ideas were picturized, though very amateurishly, for the first time for a movie. One might be intrigued to know that this man actually lived a few decades ago. But that fascination should not be confused with what the movie is. Imagine if it was about a fictional character, would you have liked it as much?
Periyar was someone who had the potential and material to make a movie better than Attenborough's Gandhi. The same goes to Kamarajar and Bharathi. But all of them were almost caricatured by Gnana Rajasekharan in his movies. The scenes roll out like school plays. Monotonous, indifferent and exaggerated. There was little professionalism in any of the technical side of things. The only selling point is it's title.
Thilak -
Aside: unga "olaga naayagan" will make movies only about those who had a fair bit of violence and sexual exploits in their life history eh? Bharati, who he quotes in almost every interview, or Periyar or any revolutionary with 'clean hands' don't seem to appeal to him.
Suresh,
Hmmm, you mean films/scripts revolving on such characters? Yeah, Saketh Ram and Muhammad Yusuf Khan would fit whatever you mentioned. But these are characters/stories that people may not know. And, which he can write with his own implications, and intricacies, which is his forte. Of course, I would like to see him writing and directing
Of course, there is one little \"homage\" for Bharathi - KB\'s Varumayin niram Sivappu.
Periyar - Thevar magan-la symbolism irundadhu.
But again, Why not a film on him?
Reasons:
the ideology/community/religion which he has rejected has already backlashed, both in popularity and respect.
Political overtones
Political interference from political parties and leaders on such films (maybe not for Bharathi, but for kamaraj and periyar)
BTW, Check this out:
http://www.allthingskamal.info/blog/2007/08/09/kamal-in-his-elements
check out the last pic.
Digression:
I agree that Periyar would have been a great film in Pro\'s hands without political expectations on the final product. Moreover, the film seemed to embellish him throughout!
About Attenborough\'s Gandhi - That, and Benegal\'s version, and many other films seem to show us \"The mahatma\" (the stereotype from the history books) more than The-person. Of course, none of them would \"experiment with truth\" like the indulgent, hackneyed, and individualistic take in \"Hey! RAm\"
Ulaga or olaga nayagan term is kinda lame. Note that he hasn\'t used it in Raj kamal films in the title card/credits/banners. He uses Padma Shri Kamal haasan or Kamal haasan. KSR started this usage.
Read the last line in the first para as,
\"Of course, I would like to see him writing and directing films like Bharathi with or without him as the protagonist\" As I\'m more of a fan of his scripts, short stories, poems as much as his other skills!
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