Comments on: Aayirathil Oruvan: Myth & Reality – the twain don’t meet

By: Prem

Prem — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 07:48:11 +0000

Hi Sudhish,

I happened to see this movie only recently. I then stumbled upon your review.

I really appreciate the way you have reviewed this movie, clearly deconstructing it from a logical viewpoint. I have also noted down your recommendation of the book on Monomyths. Being a small time writer/artist myself, I hold “technical knowledge” and “training” as extremely important to evolve into a successful and mature artist (filmmaker, scriptwriter, actor, etc). Structure, plot, characters and narration are vital to a story. And I found AO completely disrespecting fundamental principles of structure and characterization/characters. The story just went berserk in the 2nd-half. Actually the first half was nothing great either, I would prefer repeats of Anaconda 1 & 2 on HBO instead.

Also, I fail to understand how a civilization continues to exist/survive centuries later without ever being found. And why did the dodos (The Team) go all the way on-foot; they could’ve easily used satellites to locate this “spot” and then just fly-down to the place. And Selva so easily shows Reema & Co (the army/mercenaries) almost wiping out an entire “lost civilization”; which Govt would permit that; on the contrary they are supposed to bring this lost Chozhan civilization back “home” and it would’ve been a great discovery. Aggghhhh!! I know Selva would have a flawed logic to explain all of this (LTTE methaphor and what not). Anyways.

And it doesn’t require someone like Selva to make AO. Any dumb-ass can just conjure up a story with complete disregard for continuity, flow, characters, logic. The kind our folks often tell us to put us to sleep. No pun intended towards our folks Well, in that sense, like our folks, Selva did succeed in putting us to sleep.

Cheers.

p.s: All the best for Good Night – Good Morning.

By: Nagi

Nagi — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:12:28 +0000

ive been reading an array of silly arguments. firstly we must understand that its an indian film. it is really absurd to compare any indian film to the likes of avatar, etc. because frankly speaking indian films havent reached that level yet. secondly a huge problem lies in over acting and things related to supernatural activity. but i dont blame anyone because inherently thats what our religion teaches us. thirdly indian audience is still naive. yes i agree that the screenplay had a few flaws in it but it is a movie made for the mass audience. not for a group of intellectually enlightened minds looking to watch a perfect film. the mass indian audience would never appreciate a film like eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!. on the whole AO is a really good film which totally entices u n takes u into a different world. the story is amazing though the plot and screenplay has its flaws. the idea that inspired the movie was well thought of..
thanks

By: Shreya S

Shreya S — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:32:50 +0000

Very nice review – this is my first visit to your blog and I stumbled upon yours when I was looking for reviews to see if someone else thought that some scenes (ear bleeding scene where they act possessed, or the magical powers reema gets etc.) made no sense …

By: Bharath Krishnan

Bharath Krishnan — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:01:23 +0000

Selva required the balls to make this movie . Glad he made it . Though I have to accept that one with a good brain needs to leave it home to enjoy this movie, it was definitely a decent attempt. The music helped the movie in many a ways.

Not all things start in the perfect manner, so lets hope that the directors can pick up on this front, start experimenting, and make a good movie with something to cheer about for everyone .

And lets stop comparing movies. A movie is perceived better when analyzed alone. Not fair if we are going to throw this on the balance with Avatar .

Aayirathil Oruvan- A tamil movie, hardly any budget, a new genre, never before experimented script, fitting music. Definitely deserves some credit.

Sudhish, nice review as ever .

By: Clyvin

Clyvin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:22:06 +0000

Oops it should appear at the end

Wow..thats what I call Hardwork..! Change the topic please..I beg you …

By: Clyvin

Clyvin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:20:02 +0000

Wow..thats what I call Hardwork..! :p Change the topic please..I beg you …:)

By: Suresh

Suresh — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:01:15 +0000

Good Review, As a creator its hard to digest the failure and he is a good film maker but the bad graphics and comparision with avatar he himself thought we appreciate only english films, its not like that any feel good film will be appreciated, we went for first day first show and 2nd half people started shouting . Internal logic should be there ofcourse its a film but there has to be connections and that is where screenplay wins. What to do way to go but still we people say we are better than hollywood instead of learning good things

By: sudhishkamath

sudhishkamath — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:58:21 +0000

By any chance, did you read the disclaimer at the top of this blog? Right on the header? Let me read it out for you again: “Contains explicit language, bad taste and extremely poor judgement.” Cheers!

By: narendra

narendra — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:28:39 +0000

Don’t take any critic seriously. A critic is just a time pass for us. For himself though he has got a talent and manages to get paid for the same.Dude, your views doesn’t bind on anyone as much i suspect you perceive. Same for any critic. But i really pity you when YOU say Selva needs a course on screenwriting, NK is poverty porn, or not sure if bala deserves a national award etc. That’s it.

By: sudhishkamath

sudhishkamath — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 07:16:38 +0000

If critics could make flawless films, we would make films full time, not review. Criticism is easy because we get the benefit of hindsight.
A critic’s job is to analyse. If you have a problem with the very function of analysis, don’t read reviews.