For the first time in my life, I got to see a movie on very first show of the first day of release. Yup...I walked to the theatre, next door, got a ticket and walked in to see Ezham Arivu. Wow! It was quite an experience.
The story is about a guy-next-door who happens to work in a circus and who also happens to be related to a Great Tamil Prince ,Warrior and Sage, Bodhi Dharma, who lived several centuries ago. Shruthi Hassan is the biotechnologist who seeks to revive the ancient sage's attributes in the young Surya. The movie has everything going for it from the word go. Good music, good-looking actors, lots of masala and loads of action sequences.
For one, Surya is ravishing in his warrior avatar. Second, the cinematography is excellent. I was spellbound by the imagery captured while the young Bodhi Dharma traverses different landscapes as he travels to China. It almost feels like poetry on a large screen. Absolutely loved it. Same can be said of the melody and the picuturisation of the song 'Mun Andi'. Exquisite stuff. 'Oh Ringa Ringa' was so fast-paced that it actually hurt my eye. The rest of the songs were pretty ok, too.
The plot, I felt, was a tight and neat but the action sequences were a bit exaggerated. But all that is part of the fun in a Tamil masala flick, right?
For me, the movie was definitely entertaining and in fact, a little bit informative, too. I got a bit curious about the Bodhi Dharma and even looked him up in google. So, i guess, the movie did what it set out to do - it made an impression on me. Good stuff.
But, what I really find interesting, these days is how much our Tamil movie makers are willing to move off the beaten track and carve a niche for themselves by doing things differently. Experimenting with different ideas, right from clubbing history with technology in Ezham Arivu, to creating a different kind of love story in Mynaa, to giving a new meaning for the word friendship in the movie Nadodigal.
Yes...Tamil cinema in the past few years has become daring, unafraid to toy with radical ideas. Kudos to the Tamil audience for welcoming such bold themes with great elan. But then again, Vijay's masalas and noisy telegu remakes also make it big in box office. So, I guess, the Tamil movie goer likes every kind of movie. After all, variety is indeed is the spice of life, be it reel or real.
It’s spring in Bengaluru. The Cherry Blossoms (Tabebuia Rosea trees) lining the roads are in full bloom. The trees covered with pretty pink flowers look like giant cotton candy. If I choose to ignore the bumper-to-bumper traffic, the street hawkers and the incessant honking, I would say I am in some pink, fluffy fairyland. Or should I say, Barbieland? The roads, too, are covered with pink petals and it feels surreal. Of course, all’s not pink here. There are the Copper Pod trees covered with yellow flowers. So bright and cheery that it almost makes me smile. Then, there are the flaming red flowers of the Gulmohar, infrequently firing up some quaint street corner of my favourite Bengaluru hangout, Koramangala. Yes, spring is glorious in Bengaluru, indeed. And you know what else is glorious? The vivacious laughter and the carefree capers of youth. I teach in a college in the city. Every day, I see young people - teens and newly minted twenty-somethings - walk into my classroom ...
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