Simple Verdicts


This is totally a new attempt  Just wanted to try it out, thought I’ll just write a few stanzas. Do let me know how it is!

Time Taken is Time Needed

There is a phase of life which leaves you clueless and doubtful! 

Does that mean you don’t welcome changes? 

Does that mean you have new tastes? 

Does that mean you are not the same person?


Having no clarity to clarify any of the above isn’t  a crime 

But at the same time its better if you don’t  get caught in the self-pity game

Changes do happen and they must happen

Responding to them is totally on you


When no one has anything against you

 And you still feel people do

 This is when you feel more confused 

And unable to tell people what you cannot express


But after you’re done with that you understand 

It’s alright to change 

Its alright to have new tastes

Although it’s not alright to change the person you are 

Its better that you make yourself understand that it’s alright to just be the same person with changes and new tastes!


It may happen immediately 

Even if it doesn’t give it the time needed

And when you do 

You’ll find out it was never that hard!

-GS Anirudh





In recent times when Disney runs out of ideas for a new script, they end up rebooting an evergreen classic that enjoys a glorious afterlife. Its a known fact that Disney has a set of classics which would never fail to impress. The “Lion King” wasn’t just a classic, it ended up being a world wide phenomenon and there is no doubt the same level of expectations would apply for the recent reboot. Did it meet the expectations?

Its important to understand  how Disney has used the concept “Circle of Life” to all their recent glorified remakes :- A thing is born, it lives (hopefully turning a nice profit for shareholders) and then it dies, but is never really gone. Instead, its carcass decomposes, to be plundered and ultimately serve as fuel for future generations. And yes the circle continues forever!


We all know that that the story should be familiar to anyone over the age of 8, especially anyone who was a young child and had a VCR back in the 1990s.Young cub Simba (Donald Glover) is cast out of his homeland after his power-hungry uncle (Chiwetel Ejiofor) has Simba’s father, Mufasa (James Earl Jones, reprising his role from the 1994 film), killed.


What is new is this film’s striking CGI animation style. Director Jon again used the same photo-realistic process used in his 2016 hit “The Jungle Book”and the results are amazing. The birds, the beasts, the sceneries, and frankly everything you see on screen has been conceived and crafted through advanced, sophisticated visual effects. It’s amazing how far cinema has come! The way in which the visuals are displayed on screen alone are enough to justify the remake. Although this version is around 30 minutes longer than the original (1994), anyone looking for new story twists or, say, an inspiring backstory for the antelope that gets eaten will probably leave disappointed.


However, in terms of storytelling, the film doesn’t offer anything new. The photorealistic animation does its best to portray a brooding picture, but somewhere it brought down the tone of the colourful nature of the film’s song sequences, an aspect that made the original more special. The visuals, to a greater extent, achieve a lending personality to the characters.But what the CGI visuals offers in the way of lifelike characters, it lacks in emotional impact. How do you show sadness or excitement in an animal that’s designed to look, for want of a better term, real? There are moments when characters’ voices convey pain, joy or fear, but that’s rarely reflected in the animals’ facial expressions. A special mention to James Earl Jones, who lends his voice to Mufasa once again, is as commanding and powerful as in the original film, maintaining our understanding and admiration for his character(Mufasa).


Verdict: Disneys new “Lion King” certainly makes us feel the nostalgia. However, even though the new CGI animation is astonishing the film lacked something due to which the impact created by the Original 1994 “Lion King” was not felt.




Directed by Mani Ratnam
Produced by Mani Ratnam
Written by Mani Ratnam
Starring Karthi
Aditi Rao Hydari
Music by Original songs:
A. R. Rahman
Background Score
A. R. Rahman
Cinematography Ravi Varman
Edited by A. Sreekar Prasad
Madras Talkies


The story starts with the introduction of Varun known as VC (Karthi) with Girija ( a girl who we assume is dating), due to an unfortunate event Varun gets hospitalised. After which we are introduced to Leela (Aditi Rao), a doctor. Their very first meeting involves her treating him. Upon recovery, VC asks Leela out and they start to go on regular dates which eventually ends in the two getting truly and madly in love with each other, later on they realise that their relationship might not work because they are polar opposites. Does their relationship remain strong? You will have to watch the film to find out!

It’s the amazing visuals and cinematography  that makes the movie a bit special, a few beautiful and elegant sceneries make the scenes feel lovely. The special feature about classic Mani Ratnam films is the way he designs and creates his characters with detail and combines it with his  greatest asset story “narration”. Was this found in this movie? It was not.

It won’t be fair if I don’t mention the  two strong pillars of the film Ravi Varman and AR Rahman. In some scenes, this combo makes us understand why certain scenes are special.

It’s certainly a huge moment for Karthi playing such a powerful and complicated role, he really was convincing as an Air force officer and his performance in the climax is worth mentioning. Although I felt that the romance portion played by him didn’t have such an impact. A huge positive for this film was Aditi who played a role of a doctor who is independent. She just got everything perfect there were a lot of scenes where she stole the show just with her expressions. It was new and different to see the talkative and counter giving RJ Balaji playing a character who just had lines like “OH” and “oh” which was a relief. Another important person in the film was AR Rahman his background scores and songs added more life to various scenes and some scenes were special because of them.

To be honest at the end of the film after it was done I was confused. I really didn’t know if I liked it or not. The magic was certainly there but it wasn’t present throughout. Sometimes a movie might be loved by some and hated by some. Or is just the fact that our favourite person (Mani Ratnam) can give us something way better? It really depends on the individual.

The Verdict: –

 In Terms of Art due to THE EXCELLENT VISUALS COMBINED WITH SOULFUL MUSIC  the movie SCORES HIGH. However as a film IT CERTAINLY MISSES OUT ON SOMETHING through out which ends up to be tiresome.

School Days?

Again this is a bit off-topic. Got reminded of my school days and yeah thought I’ll write  a few words about. Its just a try.

School Days

Back then the mornings never used to be sorted,
but that never confused my evenings.

Those were the days you never cared about others.
Those were the days you never would have bothered.                               Those were the days when you knew yourself just like the others.
Those were the days you never had questions as to what where and who would you be?

As the answers used to be let’s see where “we all will be”!
But today it’s changing,
I’ve started seeing days with more “I”‘s rather than “WE”s.
Hopefully sometime from now those days start becoming these days.

-G.S. Anirudh

My Personal Favourites

THE celebrity worship in TN is primarily traced to the 1960s especially with the popularity of MG Ramachandran (MGR) and Sivaji Ganesan. Although there were superstars like MKT before him, this was the period when fan rivals started to become a trend. In the recent world, we still find celebrity worship to be strong with more rivalry against fans. There used to be competition between Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan now its Vijay and Ajith.IMG_2666

Vijay commonly known as Illaya Thalapathy has been in the Tamil industry for more than 25 years having more than 60 movies done. Vijay had started acting from his childhood days in his father’s films. People say it was easy for him to enter the industry with strong support as his dad was a director. However, his growth over the years has shown that a starting push is just not enough. The name, fans, and love he has earned for more than two decades now is purely because of hard work. His film releases are celebrated as festivals by his fans. Vijay in his initial stages was introduced as a soft spoken romantic hero. He later on reached the status of a mass commercial hero.

My Personal Favourites: –



Even though the film was a remake of a telugu film called “Okaddu”, the film had a phenomenal reception. Ghilli was one of the main reasons why Vijay had a got a huge fan base. Thirumalai was the movie in which Vijay had changed himself to play a mass commercial hero, which was received well by the audience. The release of ghilli further made him get the perfect image of a mass commercial hero. Ghilli would be an all-time favourite for the fans and might be your favourite even if you don’t like him. A simple plot with racy screenplay and great performances make the movie special. Prakash Raj has to be given a special mention for his performance also.


Priyamudan was the first film in which Vijay had played a negative role. It was one of the few films in which Vijay had shown variety by playing a different role. This film had come out when he was giving a string of successful romantic movies, which was new for the audiences. The film is about a person who is hyper-possessive in nature with negative shades and therefore, tries to achieve whatever he desires using any means. I don’t know why has never tried playing moor e roles like this hope he does in the future! If you haven’t seen this film give it a try!


A recent blockbuster for Vijay was Kaththi. The reason why Kaththi is my personal favourite in recent times was because of the characters Jeevanandham and Kathiresan. The Jeevanandham character showed he has a way better performer inside him especially during the villages scenes. In recent times that was a character which was a bit different.IMG_2670


A film which he redefined Vijay’s position in the industry was Pokkiri. Pokkiri was a remake of the telugu version. The highlight of this film was the way he had underplayed to role of rogue who is an undercover cop for a mission. The film has mass moments with powerful dialogues.Screenshot_20170621-102501 Pokkiri was an all in all commercial film which didn’t fail to entertain. The attitude and screen presence carried by Vijay is why it remains to be a permanent favourite to people.


This film portrayed Vijay in light-hearted way. He had played the character with such ease and showed that comedy is his natural game. The scenes between Vadivelu and Vijay are still a treat to watch. Also, to mention the famous ” Vadi vaddi” song the lyrics sung by Vijay was a huge hit.


A Vijay movie which was underrated was Thalaivaa. The film had a lot of problems to face for its release and eventually got postponed in Tamil Nadu and released everywhere else. The movie later on released after a week. We have seen Vijay play don like roles in his previous films, Thalaivaa shows a more mature and pensive character. The transformation from Vishwa being care free to realising his responsibility and becoming Vishwa Bhai was something intense and serious which usually doesn’t happen in a Vijay film. Thalaivaa is one of my all-time favourites of Vijay.IMG_2495


A film which was liked not only by his fans but also the general audience was Thuppaki. The film had a racy screenplay supported by Vijay’s powerhouse performance. The film had a famous interval block dialogue “IAM WAITING”. The movie was a huge commercial hit. It was Vijay’s first 100cr blockbuster.


Mersal was a nearly a one man show. It’s the first time where Vijay has played 3 characters and my personal favourite was the Madurai veeran “Vetri Maran”. I felt that this role showed Vijay’s acting potential which isn’t always seen, some scenes show that he is more than just a performer. Although I really hope that the Vijay-Atlee combo does get a break. Would like to see him work with other directors as well.36070053290_69ab13a4c5_b


Another film that helped Vijay’s fan base to expand was Thirupachi. The film was driven on strong commercial formula which was played to Vijay’s strength. The film was a huge success and went on the be remade in Telugu by Pawan Kalyan. The film was an out and out commercial film directed by Perasrsu. The success of Thirupachi made them to work on more film which was Sivakasi. This film again had all the essential elements to collect big at the box office.


Apart from these films Vijay has given a number of hits from movies like Kushi, Kadhalaku Mariyadhai, Thirumalai, Nanban, Kavalan, etc. Vijay has always been the best performers in the industry but he somehow seems to be caught in the commercial zone. Everyone knows he has the capacity to do more. The first thing is he should become more selective about the directors and scripts he chooses. It’s about time he starts to bring variety in the roles he starts to play and he surely will.

At last he might not be the best of actors, but certainly he is one of the best entertaining performers!Screenshot_20180622-073535


Shades of Black and White


Cast: Rajinikanth, Nana Patekar, Samuthirakani, Huma Qureshi, Eshwari Rao, Anjali Patil, Aruldoss
Director: Pa Ranjith


Kaala: After the much-expected untouchable AKA Kabali had opened to mix opinions, the Ranjith and superstar combo is back. Remembering the hype and craze created by the kabali team it was surprising to notice that the same wasn’t done for Kaala. However, did this play in favour of Kaala or not? Let’s see what happened.


The movie revolves around the people who live in Mumbai’s sprawling slum. These are the people who left Tamil Nadu for a better life. The plot unfolds when politicians and land mafia have plans to destroy the slums of Dharavi to make it Digital Dharavi and Pure Mumbai.  How the conflict is settled between the King of Dharavi Kari Kaalan and politician Haridada is what you will have to watch to find out.


It didn’t take a long time for me to understand that this film was directed by P.Ranjith in which Rajinikanth was there. Kaala seemed to work for me big time. I loved the way Ranjith had given the film strong flavour on the biases of caste, religion and gender which turned Kaala into a hard-hitting take on poverty, abuse of power and exploitation. Somewhere I noticed that Ranjith during Kabali did have certain action and mass elements be forced in his type of film making but whereas in Kaala the mass moments did work really well.

A powerful hero needs a worthy villain and casting Nana Patekar was a great choice. A character who expresses his will to always rule and to stay powerful showed us that he would do anything to anyone coming his way. Even though we knew Hari Dada was the exact opposite of Kaala the way Ranjith used the colour white(to show purity) on his character was nice to see. A few sarcastic laughs, confused reactions and frustrated anger was dealt really well by Nana Patekar.


There was something special about the character of Selvi (Kaala Wife). Easwari gave a terrific performance she aced the comedy scenes as well. The romantic scenes between Kaala and Selvi are sights to behold.  Later on we are introduced to Zareena (Huma Qureshi) who is Kaala’s ex-lover.A happily-married Karikaalan’s heart still skips a beat when he sees his ex-lover Zareena. However during a dinner scene between the two ex-lovers,  Kaala shows who and what his priorities are. Probably this track was added to show us what type of person Kaarikalan is.  A special mention to  the drunk Samuthirakani who did a great job . Kaala scores well in family drama. All the supporting actors, from Anjali Patil , Dileepan, Manikandan and others have done their part well.

How about the King Of Dharavi “Karikaalan Kaala”? In Kabali I felt there was a different Rajinikanth whom I witnessed, however this time Ranjith has ensured that Rajinkanth’s trademark moments are not compromised. He plays Kaala with ease and his usual swag. His evergreen screen presence was strong throughout the film, especially with the aid of Santhosh Narayan’s background scores. There were small scenes of comedy where he still scores high. Watching Superstar in full swing with energy along with Ranjith’s characterisation worked big time.

By referring to Kaala as Raavanan, a man who thinks with 10 brains, Pa Ranjith builds that reference from the start. Soon, we realise it is more than a passing reference – it is one of the highlights of the film. As each head of Raavan is cut off during the narration of Ramayan in the backdrop, we see Kaala’s fight build up in stages of loss, sacrifice and finally victory. While watching the climax you will understand how the story of Rama and Ravanan falls in place is a bit interesting, here Ravan is good and Ram is bad.

It’s been good to see Rajinikanth in some different shades under Ranjith’s direction. Especially for me Kaala really worked well. The film seemed to explore a lot of different topics which was interesting. However, the Ranjith and Rajinikanth combo is now over and now I would love to see the Superstar do his style of entertainment.


Verdict: Ranjith who had a clear message to convey has used Superstar and the team to the maximum extent which ended up working well! Kaala is a film created by Ranjith driven by Rajinikanth. 




Directed by:- Mayank Sharma


  • Madhavan as Danny Mascarenhas[6]
  • Amit Sadh as Kabir Sawant
  • Sapna Pabbi as Ria Ganguly
  • Neena Kulkarni as Juliet Mascarenhas
  • Atharva Vishwakarma as Josh Mascarenhas
  • Hrishikesh Joshi as Prakash Kamble
  • Shriswara as Aruna Sharmabreathe-teaser

Breathe: Its good to see big actors be a part of web series. Its Maddy who has hit the small screen this time. His first digital debut “Breathe” has released today. The first 4 episodes have released, rest of the episodes are to be released each following Friday. There was a lot of promotion done for the show. The trailer added more hype to the show with a famous question – how far will you go to protect the one you love.? Was it worth the hype?


The story revolves around  a football coach Danny Mascarehnas who is a loving single dad. He has a 6 year old son named Josh who is suffering from a lung disease. The doctors explain to Danny that time is running out for Josh, to be more precise he has only 5-6 months to live. On top of all this Josh is number four on the list to get an organ transplant, with no chances of being bumped up. The pain of looking at Josh with pipes and tubes forces Danny to take some drastic steps. Danny decides to go to any extreme to save his son even if it means he has to murder four innocent body donors so that Josh can be saved.

On the other side we meet Kabir Sawant an cop who works in the crime department who has a serious alchol problem and is about to get devoriced. The brilliant cop also has a flash back as to why he became like this. However with mysterious murders happening around the city Kabir starts getting curious. He slowly starts linking some piece of information which seems to connect to mysterious murders that happen in the city. Will Danny and Kabir meet? You’ll have to watch the show for that!breathes1-1516434294

A fresh side of Maddy was seen in this show, Im sure we all remember seeing him as the Alaipayuthey or Tanu weds Manu types but here he plays a fresh role. He is certainly in top form for this show.Madhavan keeps you hooked as the change from a loving dad to a murder is really serious. Amit playing the guy who drowns his sorrows in alcohol and keeps himself depressed has really excelled . Amit’s scenes with his subordinate Prakash Kamble (played by Hrishikesh Joshi) deserves a mention.  The other supporting characters have also done a good job.

This is a great start for more web series to come however ,the show really doesn’t get your attention from the start of the first episode but towards the end it surely does interest you. From the second episode the minutes fly by quickly which is a good sign. A good solid start to the show which later ends like a face off between Danny and Kabir certainly seems interesting. For the time being we will hope the future episodes have the same grip.madhavan-int



If you have seen the remaining episodes, please let me know how the show is. Feel free to comment!

A Mersal Diwali?


Mersal: Diwali is here and no Diwali is complete without a big star’s movie. This time for Diwali Mersal is out. The movie has gained a great amount of publicity due to the issues faced by the film prior to release. Apart from that there were grand promotions made by Sri Thenandal films being its 100th film. The film has a strong cast along with the AR Rahman scoring the music. At last, did the movie live up to the hype?

These are some common questions for which people would want answers when they want to know about the movie. At the end, we would conclude all the below answers into a “Simple Verdict.

Q.1) What is the story?

A: The story of the Mersal moves through the two main characters a sincere doctor who fights against corruption in the medical field and a magician who is out for a revenge. When both these characters come together, they get to know about their common past, which leads to a common motive. Mersal deals with this revenge tale and has taken up some important social issues, as well.

Q.2) How were the performances and what worked in the film?

A: It’s a one man show all the way. It’s the first time where Vijay has played 3 characters and my personal favourite was the Madurai veeran “Vetri Maran”. I felt that this role showed Vijay’s acting potential which isn’t always seen, some scenes show that he is more than just a performer. He dances without any great effort after a long time. Comparing his previous films, he looks more energised and active throughout the movie. SJ Suriya is the new talk of Kollywood he is turning out to be a baddie with swag, even though his character was not as powerful in the movie spyder he certainly creates an impact.  Revenge stories served with hero worship is nothing new to Kollywood at all, but what makes these movies successful is the way they are presented.

The supporting characters like Sathyaraj, Kovai Sarla, Satyan, Yogi Babu share minimum screen space, their roles are limited and have done a good job. Coming to the heroines its Nitya Menon who has bagged a good role,managing to hold some attention on screen. She had played the wife of Vetri Maran and scored well with her role. Kajal and Sammantha again have limited screen space more like cameo performances. Vadivelu has a good comeback role , the scenes with Vijay work well in the movie. Atlee could have handled the dialogues with more care as some lines had factual errors, but the way he presented with an engaging screen play which was the strength of the film. The story was inspired from Aboorva Sagotharargal, leading to many similarities. The debutant cinematographer G.K.Vishnu has done an excellent job in bringing the visuals on screen and the editor  Antony Ruben has done a neat job with the cuts .

Q.3) What didn’t work in the film?

A: Song placements seemed to be a problem in the film ,even though the songs were a visual treat especially Mersal Arsan and Allaporan Tamilzhan they seemed pointless.  The movie runtime turned out to be a slight disadvantage as the movies first 20- 30 minutes could have been trimmed and the film is predictable. The background scores for certain scenes just didn’t have a great impact , could have been better . Despite keeping the audience hooked for a major part of the  film, Atlee still makes you feel that certain scenes were seen somewhere else which creates a slight disconnect from the film but manages to score points with the second half of the film with a convincing flash back and a appealing climax talking about social issues  in which he exits with what he wanted to convey. The message was conveyed effectively.



Verdict: Mersal might feel similar at places but with a star who was used to his best and high production value, the film turns out to be a a good commercial entertainer to watch for this Diwali! 



IMG_2682Film: Vikram Vedha
Director: Pushkar-Gayatri
Cast: R Madhavan, Vijay Sethupathi, Shraddha Srinath, Kathir and Varalaxmi Sarath KumarIMG_2675IMG_2681

Vikram Vedha: This movie has two stars who are known to deliver good quality roles and films. The promotion of Vikram Vedha had gained hype after the trailer had released. It was showing a dark shade of Vijay Sethupathy which was new to the all of us. The trailer and promos seemed to be really promising, however did the movie live up to the expectations?

The plot revolves around a team lead by Vikram (R Madhavan), a ruthless, encounter cop who is on the hunt to capture a terrifying gangster Vedha (Vijay Sethupathi). During this operation, a list of tales starts to be told. Somewhere along the way, things go horribly wrong. What happens? Why things go wrong? You will have to watch the movie to find out.IMG_2680

It’s a great idea to bring two versatile actors such as Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathy together. The cast for these two characters brought out the perfect flavour needed for the film. While Madhavan played his character perfectly it was VJS how brought in the swag factor. The film has an interesting start and thanks to the strong writing accompanied by a number of twists the movie keeps us engaged till the end. Apart from this the movie was narrated in the style of Vikramaditya-Vedhal stories which made it unique. The encounter scenes between Vikram and Vedha are the best moments throughout the film as each time a new tale emerges.IMG_2677

The black and white shade has been used throughout the film to bring the dark feel which shows us the confusion we have between good and bad from each character’s view. This is where you will have to decide which character is good or bad? Dialogues were another advantage in the film. The background scores by Sam C.S were amazing in certain places, especially for the entrance of Vedha. The film scores high in writing and the narrative structure. Pushkar-Gayatri deserve a special mention. Overall there are certain films which leave an impact Vikram Veda is one!


Blog at

Up ↑