Naalaya iyakunar Finals 2nd part July 4th

The finals continued with its second set of three movies today. Here is a brief description of each movie and my take on them

Aadu puli aatam by samuel mathew
Genre: Drama
You see a aged couple coming into the hospital. The wife is in labor. The couple is accompanied by their first kid - a girl of ten years old. The husband says to the wife , as she goes into the operation theater, that he does not mind the kid being being boy or girl. He just wants her to come out safe.

The scene cuts to two middle aged ladies coming to the hospital. One of them is in labor too. They get admitted to the hospital. Both the deliveries go well. The man and woman has a boy child. The other party deliver a girl child. The man goes to the other party and inquires about the new arrival. He says that the kid will be like Goddess Lakshmi and protect them. 'Teach her well. And she will be the light of your life.' The lady replies, we want girls only in our profession. Once she attains the age she will start earning.'

The scene cuts back to few hours earlier. And a twist is revealed.

Personally, I felt the movie was not well paced. Filler shots like operation procedure took up a good amount of time. Bad screenplay??

Neer by karthik
Genre: Drama

The movie has been shot in sea and actually in a boat. Two fishermen brothers, not in very good terms, and their elder relative set out for day's work. The younger brother resents the bossy attitude of the elder. Radio delivers the news of a depression in south and a general advise to the fishermen not to go south.

The younger brother chooses that day to assert his independence. He steers the boat to south against the elder brother's wishes.

Initially it proves a good decision. They net a lot of fish. Then they run into rough weather. Not literally though. The Sri lankan patrol force fires at them. The old man dies in the skirmish and the younger brother is wounded. The rivalry is forgot and the elder brother comes to the aid. He soothes the younger brother and goes up to get the first aid kit. We hear gun shots again.

The day dawns and we see the younger brother, severely wounded and probably dying, with the dead elder brother on his lap. The unmanned boat is drifting in the sea.

Personally, I felt that this movie was well shot. But unfortunately the tension never reached its crescendo. But a good movie, I thought.

Mittai Veedu by Balaji
Genre: Comedy

Balaji had directed 'kaathalil sothapuvathu eppadi' - a primer on love in colleges in the preliminary round. In finals, he came up with what looked like its second installment to the judges (at least to Pratap) and me.

The hero tells about his parents to the girl friend so that she can be prepared for meeting them. She confides to the camera that she is nervous as ma-in-law usually see the girl friends as usurpers of their rights.

The meeting takes place and we see that the ma-in-law is nervous too. She is afraid that if everything does not go well then the young couple will move away and she will loose her son and even the grand child when it is born. So she tries to go out of her way to make the girl welcome.

The underlying tension is resolved in the climax when the ma-in-law and the girl friend find themselves to be more alike than different.

I thought that this was a sweet movie. Hollywood movies seem to have left a big impact on Balaji. His movies are Hollywood like. Even in this movie you can see traces of 'When Harry met Sally'. There is a scene where you see a series of just-become-father's first reactions. And ditto when you see the kids resembling their parents. But I must admit that he has got style.

Naalaya iyaunar Awards
More awards were announced this week.
music composer - Vishal
graphics - The movie 'Ants'
best screenplay - Balaji (kaathalil sothappuvathu eppadi)

Which movie did you like? Leave a comment.