Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya: A Musical Treat

When was the last time you had gooseflesh when you listened to music. The soundtrack of RDB did that to me. I now have the same kind of feeling when I listen to Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya; the latest musical offering of AR Rahman.

To be honest, I think that the OST of Slumdog was not Oscar material. ARR did get carried away in the Oscar wave and churned out, some more "not so great" and forgettable music, in the likes of Blue et al . I think he had that guilt in the back of his head, and managed to compose this brilliant piece of work.

For the Junta, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya is the next movie by the talented Gautham Menon. It has, the now so(m)b(u)erified Silambarasan and Trisha playing the leads. The movie has a Telugu counterpart too (cliché).

This is the first Tamil composition (correction: has a Malayalam number too) for ARR, after Slumdog, and his first association with Menon. Thamarai, a regular associate of Menon has penned the lyrics for most of the numbers.

There are seven numbers in the soundtrack. Six in Tamil and one in Malayalam. The music is amazing, and reveals better underlying layers when you listen to it (repetitively). The vocals have been rendered by a mix of the seasoned lot (which includes ARR himself) and a couple of new ones. All of this, is of course, classic ARR for you.

I was able to draw out a subtle similarity for a couple of numbers, with popular western music. But you can give it a pass, because as a package, this delivers, and delivers exceptionally well.

Here goes, an insight on the numbers as part of the soundtrack.

"Omana Penne" - This is a hummable number, and I feel has more layers that I am yet to be exposed to. Benny Dayal sounds different and good. He manages to avoid the energy that he used for numbers like Taxi Taxi, and Adiye Kolluthe.

"Anbil Avan" - The music, when the number starts, sounds like that of Venga Boys, but quickly moves away from that crap. This a fast number, capable of shaking legs in the dance floor.

"Vinnai Thandi Varuvayaa" - The title track; a slow paced soothing number with Karthik rendering the vocals. The guitar strings making most of the music. This must be the director's favorite. Methinks he is a sucker for slow numbers and more when Karthik sings them!

"Hosanna" - The most catchy number which has a brilliant mix of rap, that you wouldn't think is on your face. Blaaze does his bit in it. At around 2 minutes 30 seconds into it, you can feel the similarity with Return to Innocence, but again Rahman manages to move away from it.

"Kannukul Kannai" - A regular ARR number, with nothing much special in it; except for the usage of Violin and Naresh Iyer providing you the comfort.

"Mannipaaya" - This is the most fabulous number according to me. It has Shreya Ghoshal & ARR. Shreya is at her pleasant best, like you heard her in Mungaaru MaLe. Also as it goes, ARR saves the best number for himself

"Aaromale" - This is a Malayalam number and is a said to a trial by ARR. It is heavy on acoustic guitar, and found it similar to a Kirtan that George Harrison composed for ISKCON (I could be wrong though).

If you haven't picked up an audio CD yet, go do it now. Last heard, they are selling like hot idlis (will stick with the desi touch! )

Vaaranam Aayiram

Due to prolonged delays in the release of the movie, the element of surprise in the plot is really lost.

The movie as now evident to most of us, revolves a full circle on both the lives of a father and son (both donned by Surya)

First scene - We see a visibly dying, older Surya. His slow and painful death is informed to his army son, who is in the middle of a rescue mission.

The story is then narrated in flash-back with a voice-over from the mourning son - It starts from the early life of his father and continues onto his - childhood, adolescence, Love, loss, drugs, rehab, and finally in the army.

His love for his father is told time and again in the way he says, "Daddy".

The movie has no great depth in plot, but does strike a chord with the audience. I could see most of the women in the hall, weeping bitterly.

Love in all forms is expressed in a very subtle but warm manner.

If you want to know the trophy of the movie.....Its got to be Surya....This must be one of his finest performances....Be it the father, as a total cool-head or his son, as a cliched young blood. The six-pack made all the girls scream their lungs out.

The gracefully older looking Simran too puts up a fine act...

Sameera surprisingly looks pretty and Ramya is wasted...

Music is a fine blend - another great composition from Harris. Except that 7 songs make the already 3+ hours of runtime seem much longer.

Other specifics like cinematography et al, are top notch. SF never looked better, in any another movie.

Reco: A movie of plain-types, but definitely worth a watch, if you can afford to ignore some out of the place action scenes; like that of a kidnap and rescue.

Recommend you to watch the video of this song.

A Wednesday

When I heard the title of this movie, I brushed it aside, as just another one. But Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher in the main cast did catch my attention.

When I did manage to watch it a month later, realised that the movie is a neat little surprise package. "Little" here is in the literal sense, cos the movie doesn't stretch beyond 1.5 hours. Think both Shah and Kher, must have had a mind battle, in proving their excellence in acting. Ofcourse, they can be easily dubbed them as the finest actors in contemporary cinema.

The film starts with Prakash Rathod (played by Kher), a retired policeman, narrating an incident which occurred on a Wednesday, during his stint as the Commissioner.

The next scene, cuts to a post middle-aged man (Shah), who is placing bags all over Mumbai; Railway Terminus, Police station et al. The movie gathers steam, when he calls Rathod and says that he has placed bombs all over Mumbai, and will set them off, if 4 deadly terrorists are not released.

After much dabbling and realizing the seriousness of the situation, Rathod obliges. But he gets his best officers, Arif Khan (Jimmy Shergill) and Jai (Amir Bashir), to track the unknown caller. The caller, also informs a TV reporter, Naina Roy (Deepal Shaw) about this, but not providing her the full details. The news hungry Media team implicitly helps him in keeping a track of the situation.

The movie follows through as any other regular thriller, with a predictable twist towards the end.

There are some glitches, like the justification given by Shah, for his act, which seems unreal. The RDX being easily planted in the police station (like he was not frisked) etc etc.

But overall, the plot is pretty tight, with no drag-around (or songs rather). Also, the sorry state of the Indian Media, is exhibited in a very subtle manner.

The dialogue delivery by both Shah and Kher with the camera focused on the face is awesome (Sorry Sarkar, this was much better). Jimmy looks better with less dialogues and being more of a gum chewing, no-nonsense cop.

Something which was rather hard to believe, was the technology used by the Mumbai Police. The scenes where they try to track down the caller, seems a bit Bourneish. Really hope, that they do use such cutting-edge technology, in real life.

Reco: Should watch, if you’re bored of the regular Bollywood flicks. This is a fresh one.

And all you critics who are trying to rip this movie apart, try the other ones around; they are more crappy, according to me.

Best line: "Main apko us aadmi ka naam nahi bataunga…kyunko aadmi, naam mein mazab doond leta hain" (By Rathod in the background)