First, Director Anita Udeep and Oviya have to be appreciated for taking up subjects that are taboo in Tamil Cinema – female characters’ openly expressing their lust and drinking – till now, both these have been shown exclusively with the male characters. Even with that, I am unable to (how much ever I want to) rate the 90ml film any higher than “Rotten” on my mangoidiots scale. Till the very end, I was looking for a story but I didn’t find any, other than a few scenes it was dull throughout and that’s why the film didn’t work for me. 

Oviya along with her boyfriend is the new tenants in an apartment complex, instantly (!) she befriends four other ladies, who immediately take to drinking and to talking explicitly. For no reasons, there are plenty of liplock scenes – I do enjoy a good romantic sequence, but I didn’t find anything tasteful or even sensual in this film. The dialogues were better, and I am sure youngsters will be liking them. Background score by Silambarasan (STR) was good.

The film doesn’t even pretend to differentiate itself, right from word go I was reminded of “Sex and the City” (a franchise I like due to the powerful characters portrayed) and the new Amazon Prime Original “Four More Shots Please” (which I didn’t watch beyond Episode 2).

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How much ever we may comment on all romantic comedies being the same and silly, quite often we watch one – and we come out feeling good and that’s what a good romcom can do. Isn’t It Romantic (2019) is one such film.

Natalie is a successful architect working in New York, she is single and has low self-esteem about herself. One of her coworkers Josh has feelings for her, which both don’t share with the other. One day, Natalie is mugged, gets hurt and goes into a coma. Waking up she gets to live her dream!

Rebel Wilson as Natalie has played her lead role very well – single-handedly she lifts an ordinary film to something more engaging with her fine acting. She is aptly supported by Adam DeVine as Josh, Priyanka Chopra as Isabella and Liam Hemsworth as Blake.

The film is available on Netflix India, check it out.

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Manmarziyaan (2018) by Director Anurag Kashyap (who had acted in the Tamil film Imaikkaa Nodigal 2018 and had given many successful films in Bollywood like Gangs of Wasseypur 2012) is an engaging triangular love story.

The film centres around a Punjabi girl Rumi Bagga (played by Taapsee Pannu, whose last Tamil films were Kanchana 2 (2015) and Vai Raja Vai (2015)) living in a joint family in Amritsar. She is in love with her boyfriend Vicky (played by Vicky Kaushal) who is hesitant to get engaged, this leaves her with no option but to agree for an arranged marriage with an NRI Robbie (played by Abhishek Bachchan). What happens between the three and who does Rumi settle down is the story. The story is a familiar one, reminding me of shades of R.Madhavan and Kangana Ranaut starring “Tanu Weds Manu (2011)“, but the way it has been told from the point of view of Rumi makes it enjoyable.

While Vicky has got a typical boyfriend role, Taapsee and Abhishek have got difficult roles to do and they have done those well. Abhishek impressed me with his mature, measured performance. The film could’ve been a lot better had it been trimmed, the 2:30 hours running time was long. Otherwise a good watch.

The film is available on Jio Cinema with English subtitles.

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Natpe Thunai (2019) starring Hiphop Tamizha, is an average rom-com with sports action thrown in. You will find nothing new here, yet the film was amusing and Director D. Parthiban Desingu can feel pleased about that.

The movie starts with a narration of a pre-independence incident resembling Aamir Khan‘s Lagaan (2001), with British replaced with French as the happening was in Pondicherry, and, Cricket replaced with Hockey.  Then it travels as a routine hero-heroine love, with comedy provided by hero’s friends. After the interval, it was all about saving a local sports ground from the hands of a corrupt politician (played well by Karu Pazhaniappan) by way of winning a national-level hockey tournament. All this works out just fine, the irritant was the sentimental flashback for the hero, which was completely artificial. 

The debut heroine Anagha has done her part well. Hiphop Tamizha seems to have improved in his acting too, though I don’t enjoy his monotonous voice. I liked that were only a few fist-fights, which always felt artificial forced on every Tamil cinema protagonist.

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Mr. Local (2019) is a film that you can avoid. Director M. Rajesh has made a low-quality copy of Rajinikanth’s Mannan (1992) for 2019. The Sivakarthikeyan and Nayanthara starrer makes you tiresome.

Nayanthara is a self-made millionaire running a successful television studio, SKK is an employee with a local car dealership. Their paths cross due to a traffic signal bug, followed by Nayanthara trying (unsuccessfully) to get rid of SKK and finally they fall in love with each other. None of the scenes was convincing. The first arrow from her was to send a policeman to eliminate SKK – Police in Tamil Nadu (and India) are not perfect, but I am not sure when they became the first level hitmen, normally Police are called as the last resort against the hero. We see an unnecessary opening and a climax scene in Paris (France) – the climax was the most idiotic (of showing Nayanathara fiancé to be a transgender).

Yogi Babu and Sathish labour hard to save the film from being a total disaster. Nayanthara character reminds of her recent one in Viswasam, at least in that film there was a bit of chemistry between Ajith and her, here there was nothing here. With a title like Mr Local, I expecting fireworks between the two contrast (rich and the poor) characters, unfortunately, there was not even a spark.

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The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir (2019) starring Dhanush is a feel-good movie that is a story of a young boy “Aja”, living in a Mumbai slum growing up and succeeding in life. If this sounds like Slumdog Millionaire, you are partially wrong. Grown-up Aja goes to Paris, then life takes him to London, Barcelona, Rome & Libya – in every place he gets help from unexpected quarters and there is a touching love story too – many scenes felt like you are reading a WhatsApp forward, or watching Life of Pi (2012) or reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Director Ken Scott has given a simplistic *fantasy* film. The lead actors Dhanush, Bérénice Bejo and Erin Moriarty have done their roles very well, kudos!

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After noticing the director’s name T.N.Krishna, who directed Sillunu Oru Kaadhal (2006), I sat down to watch the Telugu film Hippi (2019).

It is a difficult movie to describe, certainly not in a positive sense. The film starts off as a typical rom-com, with some enjoyable humour in the office scenes. Quickly it turns to be a triangular love story, only to turn again to go on a boyfriend-girlfriend ego trip. Because of this identity confusion, what could’ve been planned as a Telugu version of the super-hit Manmarziyaan (2018),  comes out kaput.

What differs from the other Indian films, was the equal exposure of skin by the hero Kartikeya Reddy Gummakonda, along with the two heroines – Digangana Suryavanshi and Jazba Singh.

Available on Amazon India Prime Video.

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Falling Inn Love (2019) is a typical piecing together your life and reinventing it in a new country surrounded by new people story.  Gabriela (played by Christina Milian) who is an architect in San Francisco, loses her job, breaks-up with her boyfriend and lands up as the owner of an old bungalow in a small town in New Zealand. As you would’ve guessed, the first person she encounters is Jake (played by Adam Demos) with whom she starts in a wrong foot, learns his past, then partners to restore the inn and eventually fall in love. There are all the familiar characters – a friendly gay couple who run a local coffee shop, a welcoming florist,  and, a bit of competition from a jealous neighbour.

I started watching the film as it was set in beautiful New Zealand, and it was on Netflix. The film is void of depth in any of the supporting characters, there are no unexpected turns or any kind of twists, no hitherto unexplored dimensions to starting a new life, yet it gets saved due to some natural acting by the lead pair and the beautiful visuals. It is a decent watch over an evening tea and snack.

The film is on Netflix India.

P.S.: The film shows a typical small-town main street and as per IMDB it was actually shot onsite at 636 Pollen St, Thames, New Zealand, which as per Google Street view looks exactly what you would imagine – I noticed the street even has an Indian Restaurant!

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Parallel World Love Story(2019) is a Sci-Fi Romance film from Japan. Director Yoshitaka Mori has made an engaging film involving Brain research and Parallel world.

Every day during his train commute to college Takashi Tsurug sees Mayuko Tsuno in the train travelling parallel to his. He is enchanted by her looks, but unfortunately, they never get to meet each other. After many years, Takashi meets Mayuko but unfortunately, she is now his best friend’s girlfriend. In a parallel life, Takashi is living Mayuko, who is now a post-doctorate student and he is working in the same biotech firm. So what’s the connection between the two worlds?

Though a bit too fast for the average moviegoer, I enjoyed the way the two worlds have been narrated to us. The climax was satisfying too.

P.S.: Parallel World Love Story (2019) was screened today as part of the Japanese film festival at PVR Cinemas, VR Mall, Chennai which was conducted in association with Japan Foundation.

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Because of the blockbuster songs Maruvaarthai and Visiri by Darbuka Siva, this film was eagerly anticipated by fans. Enai Noki Paayum Thota (2019) is a typical film from Director Gautham Vasudev Menon. There are fantastic songs, intense romance, police, gangsters, and, of course, Mumbai. It feels like I have watched “Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada” v2 staring a different lead couple. There is nothing new in ENPT and you leave the theatre unimpressed.

The entire film is shouldered by Dhanush, who has done a voiceover throughout with nothing left for other characters to act or speak – not even the heroine Megha Akash or the villain have got any action or dialogues. M Sasikumar too has got only a guest role.

If made from fine grapes, as you keep it away locked for years, wine ages well – unfortunately, it doesn’t work the same for films like ENPT which have been made with unimaginative stories.

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The Naked Director (2019) is a Netflix Original TV Show from Japan. It is about the Adult magazine and then the Adult video industry in the 1980s Japan. We get to see the underbelly of the Japanese businesses, their nexus with the corrupt police officers and the dirty underground trade – a shocking revelation to what we outsiders consider being a disciplined country.

What makes it standout from the other Rated R shows, is its strong casting and a powerful story of one man’s belief, struggle and success against all odds.

A junior salesman Toru Muranishi cannot sell even a single copy of his company’s English encyclopedia. Luckily, he gets taken under the wings of a senior in the office, who reveals to him the secret of selling. Soon Toru becomes a master salesman. Unfortunately, the company folds up, Muranishi loses his job and finds his wife cheating on him. Devastated, he enters the Adult magazine industry accidently, and he ends up producing a raving hit. This puts him on a direct course with the leader in the industry, who along with the cops take him down. This gets repeated. After each fall, Muranishi gets up and grows bigger than before – this determination and his innovative ideas keep him going, and also keeps us engaged with the show.

The eight episode season started well, but lost steam in the middle, to pick up pace once the ravishing and charming Kaoru Kuroki enters the business. Takayuki Yamada as Toru Muranishi the protoganist’ and Ryo Ishibashi as Ikezawa the antagonist have done their roles very well. Available in Netflix.

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It is enough to say the stars of this film are the legendary Jim Carrey and the gorgeous Kate Winslet. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) is the Academy Award winner for the Best Original Screenplay that you shouldn’t miss.

The film shows how true love never fails, even when the couple themselves take stupid decisions to end it. Clementine Kruczynski and Joel Barish are polar opposite characters, the former being spontaneous and impulsive, while the latter is a thinker and mild-mannered. They both meet in a party and hit it instantly. After dating for sometime, Clementine breaks up and undergoes a medical procedure to erase all of her memory of Joel. Discovering this accidentally, and, unable to live without her, Joel also undergoes the same procedure. Things don’t go as planned and what happens to the love couple is the story.

The screenplay by Charlie Kaufman was brilliant and a stellar direction work by Michel Gondry, makes this a perfect romantic film to watch. Available in Netflix.

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Queen of Hearts (2019) was screened in the 17th Chennai International Film Festival. The Danish adult film was a Sundance award winner.

The story is a familiar one of an older woman seducing an underage boy. Whether it is the classic The Graduate (1967) or The Reader (2008) these licentious relationships start for fun and no one getting hurt till they are secretive, but they don’t remain so for long.

What shouldn’t have started at all, always ends badly, it does so in Queen of Hearts too!

Directed by May el-Toukhy and the lead cast are Trine Dyrholm as Anne, a successful lawyer living in Denmark with her husband Peter & their two girls, and Gustav Lindh as Gustav, the 17-year son of Peter and his first wife Rebecca.

The luxurious house where Peter & Anne live is set in the scenic countryside of Denmark. Peter is a successful botanist with many accolades for his research, and Anne is a well-known lawyer fighting cases of child abuse.  It is ironic to have Anna who sees kids being exploited everyday, seducing her stepson Gustav leading to griefful consequences. Director has skillfully navigated the taboo subject through an engaging screenplay. He develops well the events leading up to the incest relationship, but the unraveling was a bit painful for me.

Transitioning effortlessly from a loving mother and wife, to a temptress and then to becoming devilish, Trine Dyrholm runs with the film entirely on her shoulders, kudos to her. If you like this genre, check out this film for Trine’s acting .

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It has become a rarity to see an entertaining movie with a simple story that makes you laugh and generally have a good time. Oh My Kadavule (2020) was a movie that delivered that and only that.

The film is about the hero getting a second chance to fix his love life. We see have this in Time-Travel (SCI-FI) films and in films like Click (2006) but OMK comes out fresh due to its simplicity.  Arjun (Ashok Selvan), Anu (Ritika Singh) & Mani (Sha Ra) are close friends from childhood days. After completing their engineering together, one day Anu suddenly proposes to Arjun and he agrees to marry her, but due to absence of any “romance” between them, their marriage falls apart. When explaining the reason for the failure, he says it to be a loveless love-marriage (காதலில்லாத காதல் கல்யாணம்).  That’s when, by the grace of “Gods”, Arjun gets to rewind and take a different path in his love life. Did it work?

Director Ashwath Marimuthu has taken everyday incidents and turned them comical. For example, the job Arjun gets is to be Toilet commode (Toilet Closet) tester. In two other scenes, it was brilliant timing in playing audio of Vadivelu’s “How did you know I was a toilet cleaner in Dubai” comedy and “Edhukku Pondatti” (எதுக்கப் பொண்டாட்டி) song from Kizhakku Cheemayile (கிழக்கு சீமையிலே).

With all the political marketing of Swach Bharath toilets and movies like Joker (2016) exploring the idea of “free” toilets, the subject may have become banal, but the context in which it was mentioned in the film by Arjun’s father-in-law (played by M S Bhaskar) makes it appropriate.

From her debut in Irudhi Suttru (2016), I like Ritika Singh and with her Non-Glamorous looks and measured acting, she was perfect as the heroine in this film, the story wouldn’t have worked with any of the Barbie girls of Kollywood. Ashok Selvan has given a good performance, I enjoyed his acting. Vani Bhojan (Deivamagal TV-Show fame) as the second heroine has done her role well! And with some luck, she should be doing well on the big screen too. Vijay Sethupathi and Ramesh Thilak have done a slightly-big guest role(s).

Overall, go for this one with your family and you can be sure of an enjoyable two-hours.

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Dulquer Salmaan starring Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal [கண்ணும் கண்ணும் கொள்ளையடித்தால்] was a thorough entertainer. Starting as a typical love story, it morphs into a conman story – Director Desingh Periyasamy has managed the transition effortlessly – I totally didn’t expect the twist.

The first thirty minutes when Sid (Dulquer Salmaan) falls in love with Meera (Ritu Varma) was fresh and interesting. The sequences showing online eCommerce fraud were mostly plausible, similarly was the “car” thefts. The climax theft though a bit far-fetched kept you engaged and that’s enough for a feature film.

Dulquer Salmaan as done his role as a loverboy well, the heroine Ritu Verma while not scoring in the first half, has given fine acting in the second-half. Rakshan who comes as hero’s friend Kallis is one who impresses the most with his simple and relatable humour. Gautham Vasudev Menon comes as a cop who is familiar to us from all the cop films of the master director. As heroine’s friend Shreya, Niranjani Ahathian fits her role.

The movie had a few noteworthy dialogues like: “லைஃப்ல எல்லாருக்கும் வேணுங்கிறது தானே கிடைக்கும், ஆனா இங்க மத்தவங்களுக்கு வேண்டாங்கிறது தான் கிடைக்கும்.”, “நான் என்னிக்கும் (துணிகளை) ப்ரைஸ்ப் (விலை) பார்த்து எடுத்ததில்லை, சைஸ் (அளவு) பார்த்து தான் எடுத்திருக்கேன். ”

Overall, a good movie to watch, go for it.

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Published in 1878, Anna Karenina is one of the well-known characters of the legendary Leo Tolstoy; Wikipedia, says it to be the greatest work of literature ever! The novel has seen numerous translations, retelling, and movies. Anna Karenina: Vronsky’s Story (2017) is the latest version, a Russian adaptation of the same by Director Karen Shakhnazarov. I liked it. The film is made available for free by Russian Centre of Science & Culture, New Delhi on YouTube.

The story starts in 1904, in China’s Manchuria region, where the Russian Army was being chased by the Imperial Japanese Army. The Russian Red Cross team takes shelter and recoup their health, one amongst the hurt was Count Alexei Vronsky and treating him was Sergei Karenin. Sergei asks the Count to narrate the story on how he met his mother (Anna Karenina) and they fell in love. Count starts narrating by staying “People remember what suits them and in love there is no one truth“, from the first time in 1872 he meets Anna on the train station and instantly falling in love with her, even though she was already married to Sergei’s father Alexei Karenin at the time. What happens next are how Anna and the Count fall madly in love with each other, and, how did it all end?.

Elizaveta Boyarskaya as Anna Karenina, Maksim Matveyev as Vronsky and Vitaly Kishchenko as Karenin were perfect for the roles they played. Though the story is about the strong Anna, it dwells into the feelings of both the Count and Anna’s husband Karenin. Though he was the not lovable character in the story, you can’t label him as the bad guy – he genuinely loves Anna and even forgives her at her deathbed.

It was fascinating to watch the ladies on the dance floor, holding an end of the skirt bottom with their left-hand finger all the time, it should’ve been uncomfortable. Not only that, but the layers of inners, corsets with all the tight laces they had to wear would’ve been painful too.

It seems the original novel of Anna Karenina was in eight parts and over 800 pages, so any two-hour film can only take a slice of it, which this one has done a good job.

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Indian Matchmaking (2020): This was a ridiculous reality show about a professional matchmaker being engaged to find life partners for a handful of singles spread between India & the USA. Still, I watched the full season because it was well made with professional choreography, visuals & screenplay by Netflix.

A couple of the singles, came out to be self-centered and overly demanding on their specification for a life partner, felt like they are trying to order a product. I was reminded of the classic Tamil Comedy film Manal Kayiru, unfortunately here they were for real.

Even today in India, predominant percentage of marriages are “arranged” by the parents, with the help of family & friends – the show does well when it tries to show this, unfortunately, it drifts away from this pretty quickly due to its focus on Indian-Americans.

Spoiler Alert: I was disappointed to see none of the singles managed to get married during the season.

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The Players (2020)  is an Italian romantic comedy film with a familiar story of husbands cheating on their wives. What’s different in the film directed by Stefano Mordini, was the straying, ranges from fetishes to serious plotting to keep their affairs hidden from their wives.

All the four female leads have done their roles well, showing up a wide array of emotions from feeling puzzled, sad, betrayed & angry.

Other than being a light entertainment, there was nothing gripping in the screenplay. It is available on Netflix.

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Kita Kita aka I See You (2017) is a Filipino language film, set in Sapporo, Japan, and directed by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo. A story that was warm, with excellent casting, and a beautiful city as backdrop. Though a little slow, I liked it. Available on Netflix.

Lea (played brilliantly by Alessandra de Rossi), is a Filipino tour guide living in the Japanese city of Sapporo – on screen the city looked alluring, surely going into my bucket list for Japan. She is a kind person, always helping the needy and poor. She is engaged for 3 years but that relationship is not going well. Suddenly one day, she loses her sight due to a temporary blindness condition. That’s when she meets the affable neighbour Tonyo (played well by Empoy Marquez).

Being a Filipino, living in Japan for many years, and a tour guide where she meets international tourists, Lea’s character must speak in three languages – Japanese, Tagalog and English, which Alessandra does effortlessly. The way she fluently switches between the three was a delight to watch, obviously I understood two of the three languages only through sub-titles!

At critical junctures in the story, both Lea and Tonyo list ten memorable events in their life, the narration style though not unique was nice. The film succeeds in showing an ordinary person’s life and her dreams, it also becomes its weakness. As was predictable in most places. Yet, it was a good movie to watch.

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Love, Guaranteed (2020) is a typical rom com that offers little new, yet I enjoyed watching it. It is available on Netflix.

Nick Evans (played by Damon Wayans Jr) is looking for the love of his life and goes on 1000 dates through an internet dating site “Love, Guaranteed”. Heart-broken that he was unable to find a love, he decides to sue the firm and hires a struggling lawyer Susan Whitaker (played by Rachael Leigh Cook). What happens next is the story.

The characters are stereo-typical, you have a ‘gay’ office employee giving fashion advice to the heroine, a rude & shallow billionaire heading the internet firm and so on. The screenplay moves on expected lines, but the excellent acting by the lead couple, keeps us engaged. There are no making-out scenes or cheeky romantic sequences, still the chemistry between the two comes out well & we are able to feel it, that’s one reason to like this “ordinary” film.

Rachael Leigh Cook as Susan Whitaker, and, Damon Wayans Jr. as Nick Evans

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