Sathyam Cinemas & Thiruvikrama Perumal

To the random reader: Have you ever tried sleeping just inside a temple's big gopuram? I have tried it a few times - the sound of birds flying at the top (crows, pigeons, mynahs et al), slight odour of the bats, jilu-jilu breeze and on top of the rays of the sun. It has always been interesting for me!

Once I happened to do it at Tirukoilur - Thrivikramaswamy temple East gopuram.It is the place where we all discovered that if 'one can recline, two can sit and three can stand'. It was like heaven. Knowing very well that it will be closed at 1400 hrs, I decided to hit the bed, oops, inner wall of the gopuram and get some nice sleep. Unfortunately, being a Tuesday, it was made short as the gateman opened the door at 1500 itself to accommodate ladies who have taken a vow to appease Durga inside the temple by getting her blouse bits, ghee lamps and to display the latest silk saree that they would have bought at Arani or Tiruvannamalai nearby, during the weekend that went by. I request the random reader to try it once, if time permits - ofcourse the nap part.

Now, how did I mention the name of the town - Tirukoilur? That is Railway language. Have you ever wondered what is the reason behind this name? It is Thiru+Gopalan+Oor. Gopalan means the saviour of the cow-herds. One who does paalan-poshan of the bovines. Gopalan, as always with any samskritam word, got tamizhised to become 'Kovalan'. So, Thiru+Kovalan+Oor became Thirukovaloor and then Tirukoilur. 'Koval' is the short form of the name that Aazhwars have given for this town.

Thus, 'Go' becomes 'Ko'. Probably they would have foreseen that there would be a movie by the name 'Ko' that this blogger will watch after a few centuries in Sathyam Cinemas.

On to the review part:

1. The title sequence was very good - please watch it carefully. From the superb evening hue pictures to the macro pictures involving ants and insects - all are excellent pictures!
2. The first fight sequence is shot in Pondichery. We belong to a group that will watch and not miss even one street fight, as a bystander. How come, in broad daylight Jiiva can do all those stunt actions without the villains noticing it - that too head-on photos! Come on, gentlemen. Please add logic atleast for 'medicine' while you write your screen play. This dumb thing of a van getting fully damaged in one shot and in the very next shot it is fresh from factory - repeat of Endhiran's Benz scene, is very much available in Ko too. Continuity is missing guys!
3. Kota Sreenivasa Rao and his hi-lo accent - simply superb! The scene where he enters Dina Anjal office and discusses the news matter - wow! The kalyanam scene inside a savukku thoppu along ECR is a thrilling scene. These jungles are being used since time immemorial when PS Veerappa used to kadathify Vyjayanthimala Bali or some similar actress who will finally cry "vittudu da ena shandaala padubaavi" and then place her palm over her mouth, inner palm facing the audience, crying wheeeel, indicating that detergent to clean her utensils in her home is out of stock.
4. One song gets a pass mark - 'yennamo yedho'. Nice one.
5. I get a confidence that finally we have a good movie that has a good screen play without many logic-holes, after quite some time. The director has taken a lot of efforts to make this movie appear a good one.
6. A few song sequences (or are they many) make me really feel when will we get to see our tourist destinations to that level - hmmmm... It would be better if they also publish the locations as a crawler (something like 'indha padalai padiyavar ungal ilaya thalapathy Vijay'). It will help me in checking about them with our Travel Agent, Rashik :)
7. A lot of sequences around the interval make us feel whether this movie will be a 'Pudhiya Mannargal' Part 2, thankfully this one did not end up like that.
8. Does the stage bomb sequence ring a bell - a lot of those shots are close to an incident that took place near Chennai.
9. 'Venpaniye' song is a pukka repeat of 'varayo varayo thendral kaatrey'. No need to analyse further.
10. Flashback sequence was a 'dubba' one - I really mean that, really dubba such that you cannot see a dubba-er flash back than this one. When your girl friend asks a serious question about your past friendship in a really serious, dull situation, will you start your narration with a song? It looks so dubba when thinked practically.
11. A lot of refreshing scenes (quickly edited rather) on landmarks in Madurai, Tiruchchi, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, Thanjavur, Rameswaram and Kumbakonam. I was able to identify all of them :) It has been years since we saw water flowing in Vaigai near Simmakal bridge!
12. Finally, they showed one shot involving a train :P The mighty #101 Boat Mail crossing the Pamban with a WDM-2 from Ernakulam.
13. As usual, the climax scene has 2^200 bullets being fired, none hitting the ones they should! Barring this, the climax was well designed, it was a very nice and different one. Hats off.
14. A lot of press terms are weaved interestingly - did you notice? Stop Press, Eight columns, Kill the news, Scoop, Editor are the ones that I could note.
15. At last, it turned out to be a full-and-full Ajmal film and I feel that Jiiva is ideally playing the second hero role. Ajmal has done full justice to the role offered. Be it the initial election sequences, the 'blue-shirt-burgundy-pant' CM role or the climax sequence, he steals the show.

Nice movie, overall. Worth spending 120 Rs at Sathyam.