I review: Vikram is good but Shankar has lost his magic touch

January 15, 2015

Vikram Shankar

Chennai, Jan 15: He is considered India’s answer to James Cameron and his romantic thriller I has been touted as the movie of the year, even if it is only January now. His name is Shankar, he has a 90% hit rate, and his magnum opus has released for Pongal, worldwide, in over 15,000 screens. I is a story of love, revenge, jealousy and truth. Lingesan is a bodybuilder who dreams of model Diya (Amy Jackson) on one side and winning the Mr India title on the other. She is the educated, sophisticated rich girl. He is the exact opposite – a guy who lives in the housing board flat and whose Tamil is as local as it gets. But that doesn’t deter him from ‘loving’ her and he buys every product she models for - right from sanitary pads to bras.

Meanwhile, Diya is relentlessly pursued by model John (Upen Patel) whom she rejects time and again. Diya happens to meet Lingesan at a shoot and ropes him in place of John for an ad shoot in China. The twist in this tale takes place when Lingesan rejects an ad from Ramkumar, a wealthy businessman, and the advances of Ojas M Rajani, who plays a transgender stylist. Suresh Gopi, who plays a doctor, plays another key character in the film.

Vikram essays three characters in the film – the bodybuilder, the model and the hunchback. He has worked hard on the transformation for these characters and that is quite evident from the weight gain and loss, and make-up for each of these roles.

The role of the hunchback is perhaps the most difficult and defining in this film. Vikram has to be applauded for the effort and number of years he’s poured into this film as he is the backbone of the film.

Still, I doesn’t meet expectations – and this is a big disappointment for Shankar fans. Shankar has always made films that had not only technical brilliance, but also told a story that resonated and contained a message. Be it Gentleman, Mudhalvan, Anniyan, Sivaji or Enthiran, there was that distinctive Shankar magic to every film he directed. It was spectacular and entertaining. In I, however, Shankar's magic is missing.

In the past, the writing combination of Shankar and writer Sujatha was one of the best in the Tamil film industry. Sujatha, a pseudonym for writer S Rangarajan, penned the dialogues for many of Shankar’s previous films, including Anniyan, Indian and Enthiran. Unfortunately, his demise while working on Enthiran has created a huge void in Kollywood and perhaps in Shankar’s life too. Shankar worked on I with writer Subha for the first time, and the script just doesn’t measure up.

As for technical brilliance, I has it all – all the scenes in the songs are like picture-perfect postcards. Shankar has done justice to A R Rahman’s tunes and that’s a visual treat in the film. Watching Jackson turn into a mobile, a bike and sprout into a plant may be edgy, but it doesn’t give the movie any depth. As for the chemistry between Jackson and Vikram, the less said the better. Upen Patel, Suresh Gopi and Ojas Rajani end up to be just props and are quite forgettable.

Made with a budget of about Rs 90 crore, I has a running time of three hours and nine minutes. This is a too long, especially when the story is quite flat.The film is one-man show starring Vikram, but perhaps Shankar now needs to rediscover himself. The first step would be to look for a writer comparable to Sujatha.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
July 19,2020

Mumbai, Jul 19: Mumbai Police have registered an FIR against two Instagram account holders for allegedly threatening actor Rhea Chakraborty, an official said on Sunday.

The location of the two accused is yet to be traced, the official said, adding that the investigation in the case is at primary stage.

Chakraborty on Thursday requested the cyber crime cell to look into the rape and murder threats she has been receiving ever since the death of close friend, actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Rajput, 34, was found dead in his apartment in suburban Bandra here on June 14, leaving people in the film industry and audiences shocked.

Chakraborty, in particular, was subjected to online hate with users blaming her for Rajput's suicide.

"We registered the First Information Report (FIR) on Saturday under Indian Penal Code Sections 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), 509 (intending to insult modesty of any woman) and relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act," Santacruz police station's senior inspector Shriram Koregaonkar said.

"No arrest has been made so far. We are conducting an investigation in the case," he added.

On Thursday, sharing a screenshot of a hate message she received on Instagram, Chakraborty said while she had ignored many abusive texts sent to her in the past month, the harassment was now unbearable.

The 28-year-old actor eventually disabled the comments section of her Instagram page.

Chakraborty, known for films such as "Mere Dad Ki Maruti" and "Jalebi", had tagged the cyber cell and requested the authorities to look into the threats.

On June 18, she was called to the Bandra police station to record her statement in connection with Rajput's death.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 27,2020

Los Angeles, Jan 27: Lil Nas X, Lady Gaga, Beyonce and... Michelle Obama?

Yep.

The former first lady can now add Grammy winner to her resume, after snagging the award on music's biggest night for Best Spoken Word Album, for the audiobook of her memoir Becoming.

Her win on Sunday gives the Obama household its third Grammy: former president Barack Obama has already snagged two Grammys in the same category for his books.

She faced an eccentric group of rivals that included Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys for Beastie Boys Book and John Waters, the director-performer known for his transgressive cult films, for Mr. Know-It-All.

 Released in late 2018, Becoming saw the former first lady slam U.S. president Donald Trump for questioning her husband's citizenship and promoting the notion that he was born abroad.

"The whole [birther] thing was crazy and mean-spirited, of course, its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed," Obama wrote.

America's first black first lady also dug into her personal life in her book, expounding on issues including a miscarriage, using in-vitro fertilization to conceive her daughters and marriage counseling.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: Hoping her cinematic voice can help bring about lasting change in how society perceives acid attack survivors, actor Deepika Padukone says her latest film Chhapaak should ideally be so impactful that there won't be need for another story on acid violence.

After all, cinema is in itself such a powerful medium, Deepika told news agency ahead of the release of the film, which is based on the life of acid attack survivor and activist Laxmi Agarwal.

The idea behind the social drama is to invoke empathy and understanding rather than paint women who have undergone the ordeal as victims, the actor, who has also produced the film, said in a telephonic interview from Mumbai.

"Beyond the gruesomeness, the violence and all of that, there is a story of the human spirit and hope. That's why we're telling the story," she said.

Deepika, 33, said it was a story that spoke to her and she felt pride in attaching herself to the project.

Chhapaak, directed by Meghna Gulzar and featuring Vikrant Massey, is the second mainstream film to focus on the subject after 2019 Malayalam movie Uyare starring Parvathy Thiruvothu.

"I hope we won't have to constantly tell stories on acid attack survivors for us to see change. I hope with our film we begin to see that change for ourselves as a society and for acid attack survivors.

"If we don't, then we've done something wrong as a society. Cinema in itself is such a powerful medium that hopefully just through this one film we will hopefully be able to see that kind of change and impact," Deepika said.

The actor said there was not much planning behind the decision to back the film financially.

"Sometimes certain films need a little more hand holding, a little more love and support. I felt like I would be adding a little more value as a producer.

"This is a film I'm very proud of, not just from the script point of view but even in terms of the story and its message," she said.

The film, which releases on January 10, will be Deepika's first release in two years and comes after her marriage to frequent co-star Ranveer Singh.

The actor said she used the time to creatively replenish herself.

"It was about finding a film worthy of putting out there. It's not that work at my end had stopped. I was constantly looking for scripts that challenged and excited me.

"I would look at it as time for creative fertility. It's important to nurture yourself. The work that goes on behind the scenes... most often we're constantly on a film set, but whether it's meeting with writers and directors, looking for scripts... That is also part of the creative process and that's what I've been doing."

The title Chhapaak instantly evokes the image of acid being splattered, and Deepika said the director wanted a word for the film's name that could also lend itself to a song.

"I think she said 'chhapaak', which is the sound of a splash, is something that could adapt or lend itself beautifully to a song. Perhaps, it also has to do with fluidity. So on one hand, liquid is known to take different forms, a liquid such as this (acid) can change someone's life forever," she said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.