Tag Archives: Director Shankar

Genre, Must Watch, Rating, Reviews, Romance, Tamil Movies, Thriller

I Review

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I Review – I is a Tamil romantic thriller released in 2015. A deformed, ugly looking man kidnaps a top advertising model on her wedding day and keeps her as a hostage in an unknown location. To her surprise he gets her favorite food and favorite clothes. Who is he why has he kidnapped her is the plot of I.

I is a show that is dominated heavily by Vikram’s brilliant performance and Shankar’s imagination. It is not a usual Shankar’s movie you would see. It has a different treatment than rest of his films. The first half in particular is more on the romance side and the second half is a thriller. Vikram has completely transformed himself for the three different phases of the movie. He has given his heart and soul for the movie. Be it the happy go lucky body builder, the remo-ish looking model or the hunch pack character he has fit in the bill of all these with ease and you would enjoy his performance throughout. Amy Jackson looks so beautiful in every frame and of course she has tried acting. The length of the movie is 189 minutes long which is definitely a negative point for the movie. The sequences in China in particular are very dragging and monotonous. Apart from PC Sreeram’s camera capturing the beauty of China there is nothing much to look forward to in this part. Probably this where Shankar might have missed Sujata to a great extent, the duo had created so many entertaining first halves. Around the interval phase the movie picks up momentum and from here on it transforms itself into what we call a Shankar’s movie. You would understand this once you see the movie.

High Points: Vikram’s performance and the struggle he had gone through in shaping himself for the roles is commendable and as he transforms there is a huge applause from the audience, Shankar’s imagination is outstanding the way he has structured the scenes, visuals and emotions are brilliant. He has literally taken a character that everyone would hate for its look and transformed into something the audience would cheer for, Songs are pleasant to watch with Ennodu Nee Irundhaal being the epitome of all of them, Stunt choreography is done very well as with any other Shankar’s movies. A R Rahman’s score fits well for the story.

Low Points: The length of the movie, the drag in the portions shot in China

Overall I may not be a path breaker in Indian Cinema but an effort that would be laudable for the performance, direction and visual effects. If you go with an very open mind you would enjoy it. I is beauty in acting, beauty in direction, beauty in visuals, beauty in music and a beauty in films.

Must Watch –Go for it

 

Friday Fundas

Friday Fundas: High Concept

High Concept – refers to an artistic work that can be pitched very easily. For example movies that could be promoted easily with a one line premise generating enough interest in people wanting to watch it. One of the most popular movies with a High Concept narrative is Jurassic Park. The movie had a high concept narrative based on what if dinosaurs could be re-created. Mostly high concept narratives fall into the pattern of “what-ifs”. Movies like King Kong, The Matrix, Inception, E.T are all movies with high concept narration. High Concept movies are not just limited to western movies it has been very popular in the Indian Cinema as well. Some of the popular High Concept movies are 12B which dealt with what if you were to see alternate lives of a person by getting onto a bus or missing a bus. Ghajini is another popular high concept movie where in the audience where intrigued by the fact that a person with short term memory loss is trying to seek revenge. Most of Shankar’s movies are high concept movies Nayak (Mudhalvan) is a good example of this which dealt with what if a common man is made the Chief Minister for a day. His recent block buster Endhiran is another high concept movie which dealt with the concept of what if Robots have emotions.

Mostly you would see that the promotion of High Concept movies is very simple as the concept itself is sufficient enough to draw people. Jurassic Park just had a dinosaur logo in its poster. Ghajini had the protagonist picture sitting with tattooed bare body. The marketing of the high concept movies follow the guidelines of “the look, the hook, the book”.

The look: how it is visually appealing to the public. Aamir Khan / Suriya’s look for Ghajini eight pack / six pack abs, tonsured head, and tattooed body.

The hook:  the attracting force for the public. How a person with short term memory loss can seek revenge?

The book:  how the movie is promoted. Before the release of Ghajini many of the multiplexes had their ticket counter personnel sporting Ghajini hair style.

Source Wikipedia