Vetti Jaya

Got off from work early today,and had a whole list of productive things planned for the evening,ranging from stuff as diverse as..

An Evening Nap - Saayangalam kanda Kanavu serupaala adichi S***la Sunnambu thadavum

Reading other nice blogs - Inspiration comes Super-size

Catching up on tamil/hindi/telugu cinema gossip - idha vida vaazhkaila vera enna velai..

Installing and learning a 3rd party software - work-related stuff - the moment tat last phrase registered itself in my mind,it totally put me off,and this choice was immediately scrapped

But like an aabath-paandhavan,my BitTornado client worked over-time and leeched from several hundred movie-starved torrent-addicts like me,and presented the thiruttu VCD-rip of Thotti Jaya in full clarity.I knew there was a winner then and there..

Thotti Jaya - probably the most poetic name for a movie since En Purushan Edhir Veetu Jannal,this is Simbhu's much-awaited next following Manmadhan. Not with-standing the fact that it was his family who were the ones much-awaiting this movie,I wanted to see it too.

Afterall,the director had made a very likeable Mughavari a few years back with Thalai,which is still remembered by many,and then followed it with a super-dud Kaadhal Sadugudu - which went gudu-gudu from theatres to thirutt-vcd stores to Indhiya Thollai-kaatchigalil mudhal muraiyaaga..naalaikku release aaga pogum padam..indre Sun TV-yil. After Kaadhal Sadagudu,everyone forgot the director,and I am guessing thats probably the reason why he got this movie Thotti Jaya. The Producer might have mistaken him for another new-comer.But since the movie also starred Lathika Gopika,Mesa needed no further encouragement to see it...droolll,jollu mazhai pozhigiradhu,ovvoru thuliyilum.......

The movie started off differently,the young Simbu resorting to violence and rowdyism for survival was told convincingly enough to cause a mini-rebellion in Saravana Bhavan;fortunately,the resistance was quickly quashed,when their owner revealed that it was his life-story that the director had suttu-fied when he came there for story-discussion.

And then quite abruptly,the young kid becomes another young kid with a face-full of hair..for a while,I was thinking that that get-up also was just a flash-back,and the real-hero was perhaps T.R. himself,and I was marvelling at the director's brilliance in finding the perfect kid to play T.R.'s young-days..only later did i realize that...oops,that was the hero of the movie SIMBU.

Talk abt mis-casting,to actually believe that SIMBU is capable of bashing up all the giant moving trees they call rowdies in the movie,is akin to believing I am pimping-gimping with all the Asian babes in my building....hee,hee,hee...seriously,each time he throws one goon to the ground,and admonishes him for not heeding to his warnings,it seemed to me that they were playing a game of Seethangoal,and Simbu was always the catcher,who gets the others out by just touching them.

The story follows the usual norm of tamil cinema,in which,the hero has to be the super-human yet kind-hearted thug,with whom the heroine will fall in love with instantly because he never talks to her,looks at her,sight-adichiffys her or tries to amukks her;
and the heroine will obviously have to be the secret daughter of the hero's boss,who will then turn all his men against the hero,lose most of them in the process,and finally in the end,try to fight the hero and lose his own life at the hero's hands.

But,a couple of scenes were really well-executed.I list them below,and give its signifance,so that it may serve as a (mis)guide when you decide you have nothing else worthwhile to do in life and watch Thotti Jaya.

• Lathika Gopika's performance - she is da SECOND best runner ever on screen..here,i am excluding Ashwini Nachappa,who had her own movie called Ashwini,which was more secretive than the Athipatti ragashiyam. But Gopika rocks...her running is sooooooo graceful,unlike many of the heroines I have seen.

For instance, the worst runner ever is Ms.Button Mooki Devyaani,proof - her running in Kaadhal Koattai climax. I soo wanted the lovers to unite at the end,but when she jumped off the train and started her dash,I believe Ajit got on to the train and hid in the bathroom,screaming Mazhai Nikkardhukulla,Adhu !!!!!!

Next would have to be Jothika - she does twist and squint and swirl her eyes a gazzillion fiffillion times when running,but since her sprint resembles a white-sintex tank rolling full-steam,I cannot bring myself to watch it on-screen.

Then comes Manisha Koiralaa..agreed she looked divine in the Uyire uyire song with Arvind Saamy,but the interlude in between,Ohh Myy Goddd !!!

On the other hand,the BESTESTEST runner ever imho is Simran,..close your eyes..Yengenge Yengenge - Surya-Simran -Nerukku Ner.can you imagine the TWO...long legs,it made me stop laughing at Mr.Surya's pants which were up all the way to his chest.

Anyways,coming back to Gopika,she looks very pretty in the movie,well,that means nothing comin from me,since every heroine in every movie looks pretty to me..tat is the manufacturing defect...and also emotes well,but her crying scenes are a bit too much though,but it was understandable,since she thought she mite have to kiss Simbu on the cheeks..imagine a mouth full of hair..yuckkkk,who can not cry thinking about that ???

• R.D.Rajasekhar's cinematography - this guy roxx..seriously,his lighting sense is amazing,even in the thiruttu-vcd print,it was soo wonderful.This plus,the snazzy cuts in the editing,make some ordinary scenes look better.

• Lack of any comedy track - for a change,a movie without a meaning-less and stale Vivek or Vadivelu track,I found it appealling,some may not. For those who miss comedy,imagine this scenario,when Simbu menacingly warns the rowdies to leave him alone,think of T.R. suddenly bursting onto the screen and dancing to Dandakku Dumbukku Gubbukku..you will be ROTFLLLL.

• The Uyire-Ennuyire track - hands-down the best romantic number I have heard in the last few months,this number oozes romance,and the Karthik-Bombay Jayshree-Anuradha Sriram combination is sheer magic..Sadly in my 2.2 hour version,I could not get to see all the songs,hence I don't even know if the Yaaridamum song is there in the movie,and if so,where it fits in..but that was a nice number too.
  

• The scene in the bar where SIMBU convinces the goons hired from Madurai to join his side - this proves true the words that the mahaa-kavi Sundali Chitthar told to his disciples in 1400 A.D..Quarter Monitorum Beerum vaangi kodutha,Keadi Kepmaari kooda kavundadichi namma katchikku vandhruvaan.
  

All said and done,I appreciate the cast and crew for the different effort.Though the movie seems to be an attempt to fuse the gangster elements you see in Sathya/company or the million spin-offs that bollywood churns out every other week...with the fast-paced action from Dharani's movies like Dhool and Ghilli,the marriage is a not-so-fulfilling one,it appeals in places,but not wholly.