Sunday, July 11, 2010

Madharasapattinam is beautiful.

AGS Entertainment's latest offering is a treat to those who would like to have a time machine to rewind their lives from the hustling city of Chennai to the majestic and peaceful town of Madras. Directed by Vijay, Madharasapattinam is a cute love story set in the pre-independence era.

The story is simple and not at all new to tamil audience. It is another rich girl meets poor boy plot which also includes strict opposistions from girl's family. An old women in London, who is on her death bed, diognised with blood clot in her brain, wants to go to Chennai for reasons best known to her. She is accompanied by her grand daughter to the city and from there on scenes occilate between the flasback set in 1947 and the present. Amy Wilkinson(Amy Jackson), daughter of the Governer of Madras, comes to Madras during sometime in 1947. She is accompanied by Nambi(Haneefa, as the translater) to have look around the city, and she meets Parithi, a dhobi(and wrestler), who stands up to stands up to her fiance General Robert Ellis. She instantly falls for him, though she is engaged to Ellis. Love grows between the pair and the villain comes in the form of India's independence. Amy is forced to return to Britain, but she escapes her family's clutches and comes to join Parithi. Their fate is to found in the climax of the flashback.



The USP of the film is that it's set and the CGI works. To see our earstwhile Madrs in front of our eyes is more than a reason to watch this film. Art director Selva Kumar certainly deserves the lion's share of the accolades. Be it the charming Central station or the deserted Mount road, every details have been perfectly captured. The trams in middle of the roads and the hand pull carts bring the feel of period. The graohics work beautifully coincides with the sets. The scene where the modern-day Spencer plaza changes into Spencers and Co. is awesome. The washermanpet area is also recreated pretty well. But the one which makes us yearn for is the boat ride in Cooum river. What would we not give to have those moments back. And when the aged Amy shrinks her nose on the sight of the present day cooum, there where whistles all around the theatre.

As for the performances, Arya has done a decent job and he have done well by showing a few more reactions in his face. But his excellent physique was a treat to watch. Amy Jackson was adorable and fits the bill superbly. Her lip sync for tamil verses is suprisingly perfect, and it might well teach a lesson or two for our own actresses. VMC Haneefa steals the show whenever he is on screen. As Dubash he is a delight with his witty dialouges and facial reactions. Nasser could have been used better and the same can be said of MS Baskar. Balaji and Jeeva, who aid Amy and her grand-daughter in Chennai, were enjoyable. The English actors and the Secondary characters do a very fine job, especially the teacher who trains Arya and his friends in English and the guy who always dozes off, no matter whatever goes around him.

The film could have been a bit more crisper as far as the editing goes, but I didnt complaint as I got more to see of my dear old city. The screenplay undoubtedly has traces of Titanic throughout the film, and we are reminded of Lagaan when Amy challenges Ellis to wrestle with Arya and leave Dhobi-ghat to the people if he loses. Gv Prakash has done a good job in the songs and re-recording, and the picturisation has done them justice. Nirav Shav has captured the modern Chennai and old Madras with apt colour tones.

Kudos to the director and the producer to spend a lot of money on an offbeat theme, and I urge the movie goers to support such films as this is the least we can do to make more and more people to come up wih such different scripts.

My Rating:

1 comment:

nirmal said...

Madharasapattinam is beautiful because of "Amy Jackson" ......!!!