title: Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004)
Language: Tamil
youtube links
Synopsis: This is a story of 3 men and how their stories all come together. Inba (Madhavan) is a rough man, who doesn't have the best relationship with his wife and can't hold onto employment. Being bailed from jail by his brother, Inba meets a corrupt political minister and agrees to stop/control a group of rebelling college students on the upcoming election. Michael (Surya Sivakumar) is the popular leader of the rebelling college students. He believes the Indian youth should show more interest in politics so they can shape and change India's future. Finally there's Arjun (Siddharth) who is a recent college graduate determined to study in the USA, but ends up falling in love with a girl he meets at a club. Together the three men's stories come together at a bridge where Inba is chasing after Micheal, and Arjun is on the side professing his love to Meera (Trisha Krishnan)...there the stories merge together and continues to an intense climax.
The Good
+ The mood of the film. What I mean is, the film was intense when it was suppose to be intense. Funny when it was suppose to be funny. All the scene fit together.
+ I liked the whole concept of separate storylines coming together and merging as one (like the movie Crash or Babel). I really was struggling to see how Arjun's storyline would fit, but they all came nicely together.
+ The last 15 minutes had one of the better fight scenes I've seen in a film. For a film that wasn't necessarily suppose to be action-oriented, the fight was well choreographed.
The Bad
+ The musical interludes weren't terrible, and as much as I look forward to these moments, I felt this film would've been far better without them. They didn't hinder the film, nor did they necessarily enhance the film.
+ You definitely have to be in the right state of mind to watch this, which is probably why it took me so long to finally finish watching it (despite my busy work schedule). No where near a happy-go-lucky film, but it does make you think about things a little, and then you have to keep track how everything ends up being related. I suppose you can say the whole point of this bullet is: don't watch this film starting at 1 in the morning like I did.
+ Poor treatment of women, but it served it's purpose in the film. It had it's place, I just felt sorry for the characters.
Final Thoughts: Was this movie worth watching? Yes. Acting wise, this film was fantastic. To me there was never a moment where it was over acted and far over the top. Madhavan once again proves he's a fantastic actor, and he does an excellent job of making you hate his character. I also liked the message of youth needing to participate more in politics/future of the country and speaking out.
Fun Fact: This movie is also made in Hindi - Yuva - starring Rani Mukerji, Abhishek Bachchan (who plays Madhavan's character and with Rani Mukerji won 2004's Filmfare awards for best actor/actress), and Kareena Kapoor. I haven't seen this version, though. Esha Deol plays the character Michael's girlfriend in both Tamil and Hindi versions of the film.
Rating: 3/5
Favorite Song: Yaakai Thiri... Trisha is so pretty! The dancing seems like an endurance race! haha
so you watched it! Great!
ReplyDeletewhat about Surya's performance as Micheal? I thought it was the best.....
I liked the way Mani Ratnam has weaved a story of three people from totally three different backgrounds; and my favorite scene in the whole film was the first meeting of Madhavan and Surya on the bridge.....
Yes, of course I watched it! I don't want to turn down movie recommendations!
ReplyDeleteBetween Surya and Madhavan, I'm not sure whose performance was more powerful. I hated Inba just as much as I was cheering for Michael. And actually, I thought everyone's acting was very well done.
And I totally agree! These characters were so different that it was interesting how they all came together. I'm actually quite fond of movies that take separate storylines and somehow merging them or having them relate to each other.
I'm not sure if I have a favorite scene. Maybe the fight between Inba and Micheal, because of the way it was carried out in between speeding cars and how it was suspenseful/intense.
Have you seen the Hindi version? I've read from a few sources that the Tamil version was better (that seems to be a common opinion). I'm not a fan of Kareena Kapoor, so I'm not sure if I'm interested in seeing her in this or not.
Yeah, I agree. All of them have acted well.
ReplyDeleteand yes, I have seen the Hindi version as well. Abhishek Bachan has done a good job as the rowdy, but Ajay Devgan's role as Micheal was a big let down, compared to Surya.
Ajay did not do justice to the role; looked too old for the part as well. All the other characters were pretty much the same.
Even I thought that the tamil version was better, especially the songs because the music was composed primarily for the Tamil film; and they had to "fit" hindi lyrics to match the tune in the Hindi version.
But how do you manage to watch a film in segments? I always thought that one would lose the flow of things if a film is watched in bits and pieces.
Looking at his picture, Ajay definitely does not fit the looks of Michael. I hate when movies cast actors too old for what their character's age is suppose to be. I still would like to see the Hindi version at some point.
ReplyDeleteWatching movies on youtube, I don't lose the flow of things, but I have to say I don't really become as absorbed in the film as I would if I see it in theaters. I do think there's a huge difference in opinions on movies between seeing it in theater vs. at home. But I don't really have alot of access to these types of films if they're not carried through the Netflix website.