Category Archives: Classic

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Classic, Drama, Genre, Hindi Movies, Must Watch, Rating, Reviews

Ek Ruka Hua Faisla Review

Ek Ruka Hua Faisla Review – is a Hindi drama released in 1986. This is the remake of the American Drama 12 Angry Men released in 1957. 12 men in the Jury have to come to a unanimous decision for the verdict of a criminal trial. All of them find the accused to be guilty but for one person in the room who wants to talk it through before taking a decision. The rest of the movie is on if they are able to build consensus on the verdict they are going to arrive at.

What can you do better in a remake movie whose original is perfectly made? You would need to make it exactly the same way. Director Basu Chatterjee has done the same thing in Ek Ruka Hua Faisla. It is a remake of 12 Angry men. Although Jury duty is not in our judicial system the movie dives into the conversation of 12 different men who talk about a murder case without actually dwelling into the reason of why they were chosen to discuss it. Also the dialogues for most part the exact replica of the original. It’s not easy to be so convinced with the script of someone else when making your own. Kudos should go to the team for doing this.
The original is in black and white which even made the discussion and acting more compelling. With colors you have more distractions on the screen. The director has used some well-trained actors to make the movie very engaging. It starts on a very slow note but few minutes into the plot it demands for your undivided attention. The performance of Pankaj Kapoor is of top notch. He is a great actor I always admire who could literally fit into any shoes with so much ease. He dominates the entire proceeding. A few deviations from the original movie do exist for instance the hot weather and lack of fan was not talked about as a major issue and also the movie showed some clippings of the crime scene and court hearings. I believe the director had to do this to suit to Indian audience. Culturally we are used to adjusting with what we have and hence the fan not working is not seen as a great issue. Also he was not very confident about the viewer’s intelligence which made him to include those exterior clippings as required.

Overall Ek Ruka Hua Faisla is a gem of a movie in Indian Cinema and is a must watch.

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Action, Classic, Drama, Epic, Genre, Must Watch, Rating, Reviews, Tamil Movies

Thalapathi Review

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Thalapathi Review – Thalapathi is a Tamil action drama released in 1991. The movie is an adapted version of the mighty king and warrior Karna from the great Indian epic Mahabharata. Surya born as an illegitimate child is abandoned by his Mom and left on a basket in a goods train. He is then raised by lower caste people living by a river side. He grows up to become a loyal friend and henchman for gangster Devaraj. Both of them run parallel government in the city while the lawmen await an opportunity to take them down.

Diwali of 1991 is unforgettable for me. I was down with flu and was sad for not able to go out to watch the much awaited release of Thalapthi which went on to become a cult classic and a blockbuster. The movie’s release expectations soared sky high with Director Maniratnam and Rajinikanth coming together for the first time. Popular actors like Mamooty and Amrish Puri sharing screen space.  The soundtrack of the movie was already a super duper hit with the Ilayaraja’s violin orchestra starting off the ever famous “Raakamma Kaya Thattu” song which later went onto become the 4th most popular songs of all time in a BBC worldwide service poll across the world. The ticket reservations began a week ahead of the release and the tickets for the first time I had seen did not look like a movie ticket but looked like a mini poster with Rajinikanth and Sonu walia’s dancing still. Finally once I got well I couldn’t wait but rushed to the theater to watch movie which was already declared to be a hit with repeat audience thronging the theaters.

Director Maniratnam is a brilliant story teller. He has taken the story of Karna and made it into a cult classic. Although the movie has been told so many times as part of the epic but still Thalapathi was a very compelling watch for the screenplay, the treatment, acting performances, star cast, music, cinematography and direction. Everything was set so perfectly for this movie that made it an evergreen hit. For the first time the Tamil audience saw a very different performance from Rajinikanth. Although the story had much of the commercial elements that you would want in a Rajini movie, this one had everything in a very convincing fashion and the scenes brought out various emotions from Rajini. Be it fighting with rage, shouting out emotionally to his girlfriend, caring for his best friend, melting for his mother’s love Maniratnam got the best out of Rajinikanth after K.Balachander. He rediscovered the actor who was lost in the color of commercial cinema. The dialogues of the movie are of top notch. The sequence where there is meeting between the collector, SP, Devaraj and Surya is impact full with circular tracking shot. The movie released in 70mm which made everything on the screen look magnificent. There is never a dull moment in the movie.

Overall the movie is a feast for all movie lovers and still stands the test of time.

Must Watch – Epic

Classic, Genre, Musical, Must Watch, Rating, Reviews, Romance, Tamil Movies

Ninaithale Inikkum

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Ninaithale Inikkum – a romance drama and musical in Tamil released in 1979. Chandru is a lead singer in a music troop. They fly to Singapore for a program where he meets Sona a girl whom he falls in love with. But Sona behaves unpredictably, sometimes she reaches out to Chandru and at times she ignores him. What is the mystery behind her behavior? Was Chandru able to win her heart? is the rest of the plot.

Kamal Haasan, Rajnikanth and Jayaprada in the lead roles, K. Balachander directing the film, MS Viswanathan and Kannadasan combo for the music and lyrics, Sujatha penning the story and screenplay, today it sounds like a dream combination and it would create a huge expectation among the audience. Such was the magic of Ninaithale Inikkum although released 34 years ago. The movie was different in many ways and got a cult status of its own. Kamal Haasan and Jayaprada had a lot of scope for acting, Rajnikanth known for his style and action, filled in for the full length comedy track and support role. The movie was a musical treat with some ever green foot tapping numbers. It stayed true to its claim of being a musical by having the only action fight sequence in the movie also been played as a song. The movie had a theatrical re-release recently. Overall the movie is a must watch for having such a star studded team and still staying up to the expectation.

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Some of the memorable moments from the movie that still makes it evergreen and stand out

Rajni Kamal
Kamal Hassan and Rajnikanth Sharing the screen space for the last time.

 

KB Kamal & Rajini
K. Balachander again proving to be the master who apart from his movies has given two great stars in Kamal and Rajni to Tamil Cinema
Jayaprada
Kamal and Jayaprada’s onscreen chemistry and Jayaprada’s changing hair dos in the movie adding to the mystery.
Rajini On Guitar
Rajni on Guitar – Only after seeing Santana recently I believed someone could actually play the guitar that way 🙂
Kamal
The evergreen songs that was soul to the movie.
Rajini Throwing Cigarette
Rajni’s comedy sequences
(1) Rajni having a bet for throwing the cigarette in the air and holding it in his mouth for ten consecutive times.
(2) Rajni trying to decode the address from the garbled message in the tape recorder.

Wish someone is able to recreate the such a magic again… Till then this movie would be a sweet memory (Ninaithale Innikum)!

Classic, Comedy, Genre, Must Watch, Rating, Reviews, Tamil Movies

Thillu Mullu

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Thillu Mullu – With the remake of Thillu Mullu to be released in two weeks I thought of writing the review on the original. The original is a 1981 Tamil comedy film which was a remake of Golmaal in Hindi. The plot is about a playful youngster who enacts as a straight forward young man with strong ideology, ambition and family values to impress his boss. However things take a turn when he bunks work on the pretext of a medical emergency to watch a football match and his boss sees him at the stadium. Now to escape from losing his job and his good will he tells his boss that he has a look alike twin brother who is actually a playful youngster and the only difference between him and his brother is his brother does not sport a mustache while he has. The rest of the movie is about how hard he struggles to maintain this lie with his boss.

This is the first full length comedy movie of Rajinikant. Director Balachandar had got the best of out him in this movie. Rajinikant was able to showcase his versatility in acting. The movie itself is a laugh riot right from the beginning till end with some hilarious dialogues written by Visu. You can watch this movie any number of times and still laugh to your heart’s content. If you haven’t watched it, then you should pick a DVD and watch this.

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