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Reviews
Mary Kom (2014)
Does not do justice
This movie is a huge disappointment. Billed up to be one of the most heart wrenching tales of winning against all odds, the result was a very highly dramatized offering. A good parameter to judge biopics is how much the viewer feels inspired after watching it and this film fails miserably on that account. Right from the start, the supposed hardships of Mary Kom do not ring true at all, thereby making it extremely hard to root for the protagonist.Though in the second half, this is somewhat salvaged by portraying the problems of a mother of two making a comeback to the coaching arena. Add to that the dramatization of many elements, making the whole movie feel very unnatural. The boxing scenes themselves are very bland and we rarely feel the tension that usually accompanies matches in good sport-movies.
Expectedly, Priyanka Chopra carries the movie and gives a good sincere performance. If only the role had been a bit more of substance, she could have taken it to greater heights. All the supporting characters, particularly the husband, though relatively unknown play their parts well.
First time director Omung Kumar should have worked a lot in making a tighter script. The dialogues are also very uninspiring. The effort of making a biopic on a woman sports person is appreciable but the result is not.
P.S: The product placements of various brands in the movie is really annoying.
Arrambam (2013)
All style and no substance
Right from the moment the film takes off, it becomes clear that this film is a ride for the star that is Ajith. With his trademark sunglasses- adorned walk that is shown enough times that a wannabe model can take coaching classes from it, this film makes its mission to showcase Ajith. And it does succeed but only in that department while failing miserably in the rest of the departments.
AK (Ajith) and Maya (Nayantara) extort Arjun (Arya) to be the computer hacker that every terrorist organization naturally needs. Why he do this and how he does this forms the story.
The film opens predictably with a hero intro song and the opening act is intriguing enough. Arya's back story is refreshing but the story is dampened by the over the board and frankly irritating antics of Taapsee who plays his love interest. The film goes on nicely till the interval with a few surprises but nothing extraordinary. Ajith's back story on corruption should have been focused more but all the evidence is found all too conveniently. All this builds up to a flat climax that overstays its welcome.
Of the cast, Ajith still oozes charm and style.He delivers his punch- dialogues well. His costume designer definitely deserves praise. Post interval, he gets to show his acting chops which he does well. Arya gets to deliver some very good cheeky one liners and he is content playing second fiddle. Actresses are often short changed in such films and this is no different. Nayantara is just asked to look good (which she does incredibly well) whereas Taapsee is there just so that Arya does not feel left alone. Rana makes an not-so-interesting cameo and the bad guys (Mahesh Manjrekar and Atul Kulkarni) do not make much of an impression. Akshara Gowd and Suman Ranganthan themselves probably don't know why they were part of the film.
Production values are very high. style has been Vishnuvardhan's hallmark and he makes sure that this film is shot and edited nicely. The Holi song deserves special praise for its camera-work. Background music and songs are a big letdown with rerecording making lyrics songs difficult to make out.
I rate this move 3.0/10. Watch it if you are a die hard fan of Thala but otherwise give it a miss.