Reviews

I can understand why people a5e down on this film, but it brings us exactly what we should expect of a Roland Emmerich film. No one goes in expecting great acting, great characters or a stunning screenplay. What we expect is mediocre acting, cursorily fleshed out characters, huge action, great visual effects and lots of explosions. In that regard, this is the quintessential Roland Emmerich film. It delivers a couple of hours of entertainment that doesn't require anything more than your favourite snacks and beverages to enjoy it.

Which is a good thing given the basic premise of the film is utterly preposterous. Science be damned in so many ways. However, if you suspend disbelief for a second, then the idea of a Dyson Sphere could hold true. Of course we could never prove it as harnessing the power of a star in such a way is beyond the ability of all but the most advanced aliens.

The cliched characters extend as usual to the military, depicted as usual with the trait of having no solution beyond resorting to nuclear weapons. It would be nice if for once there was an action film that did not resort to such cliches.

Not sure that I would consider it a guilty pleasure as such but it has elements that almost make it such. I kind of enjoyed the film for what it is rater than harping on about the scientific blunders it contains.

One thing that Indian cinema is very good at is feel good stories - boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy overcomes obstacles to finally get and marry girl. Its a basic premise that probably forms the basis of 80% of Indian films. That's not to say its a bad thing either - we all need feel good stories to entertain and take us out of our often problematic lives.

One thing that Indian cinema is not very good at is finding a new way to present a feel good story. In this regard they are not any worse than Hollywood to be sure but far too many times they simply rehash without even making an effort.

Tanu Weds Manu is one of those rare exceptions where some new approach was found and as a result the film ends up being a lot better than you were expecting.

Straight out though - why the title? It gives the whole film away, no matter how refreshingly different the journey to the conclusion is. Couldn't they have used a far more intriguing title like simply "Tanu Weds?".

From the start, this is not your average retelling of the common story. The whole setup is very different, quite funny, perhaps a little unbelievable but nonetheless a very good setup for a very entertaining film. As the first hour unfolds, it becomes clear that Tanu is a very different female character than we are used to seeing in Indian rom-coms (although I still don't see the need for the smoking). She definitely is one that will do things her way! Great news for film watchers, not perhaps great news for Manu as he tries to marry!

Aside from the story, which to be honest does not quite hold out at a high level all the way to the end even as it tries to avoid the clichéd route, this film rests on the performances of the actors. Collectively they do an excellent job. Madhavan is great in a wonderfully understated performance that leaves no doubt as to his feelings, even when buried. Deepak Dobriyal is the spine of the film though as he ends up in just about scene as the devoted side kick: perhaps the role was a tad underwritten but he made the most of it. If anything Kangana Ranaut was the weak link of the cast and it would have been interesting to see what an Anushka Sharma would have done with the role: despite that, Kangana does a fair job and aside from not having the emotional range that the role perhaps needed hardly puts a foot wrong.

The direction was just about spot on, the cinematography can hardly be faulted and the use of music and dance to push the story forward was a nice change.

It is not often that I watch a film twice back to back but I did with this one. That does make for a refreshing change in Indian film. It's not a mind-blowing experience but as far as Indian rom-coms go, this is well ahead of most of them. A refreshing change and well worth a visit or two.

Perhaps I went into viewing this film with too many expectations based upon what I had heard about it, but Endhiran just left me bemused.

On the plus side, yes it was marginally different to most Indian films but ultimately once you removed the very good veneer not that much different. That veneer was some of the glossiest and best effects seen in an Indian film ever, although even those at times were by no means a good as has been claimed (think low definition in an otherwise high definition presentation).

But the negative side? Whoa were there lots here. I don't think the writers actually knew where they wanted to take this film after they got into the meat of it and in the end it feels like a compromise that ended up going a well trodden path. Rather than being truly original they tried to seek inspiration from way too many robot sci-fi films which really destroyed where they were heading. Did they really need to go the robot runs amok route for instance? Jealous, bumbling lab techs? Been done to death by many a B-grade sci-fi film and I don't think it added much to the film other than a lot of length and poor attempts at humor.

Sorry to all the Rajnikanth fans out there but his recent work has not been of high standard to me (and that includes the woefully overrated Sivaji) and again his "acting" lets this film down badly. He does not have the emotional range that his character needed. Some of that perhaps lies in the casting. Whilst Aishwarya is undoubtedly a very beautiful woman, I cannot help but feel that this film needed perhaps less beauty and more substance that an older, better actor could have provided. The age difference of the actors here simply did not convince at all, for all Aishwarya's efforts, and the chemistry just did not seem to be there - and that relationship was crucial to the film.

The editing could have been a lot better too but in some respects I guess that they wanted to emphasize the technical aspects of the film which absorbed a large chunk of the budget no doubt. Indeed, too much seemed to be compromised to allow the effects to take center stage. Never a good idea, whether you are James Cameron or Shankar.

The effects themselves were never as smooth and realistic as those found in Hollywood. That in itself would not be a concern except there was a such a huge emphasis on the effects that every little issue with them became clear. If you are going to do an effects-laden film then you need to get the effects 100% spot on, something that a great director knows. Failure to do so can take the audience out of the illusion very easily as it does here on occasions.

Whilst I understand that the Indian viewing public expects and demands songs in their films, there really was no easy way to include them in this film without it being a huge distraction. Had this truly been a groundbreaking Indian film, they should have had the guts to cut the songs out. They added nothing to the film and took the viewer out of the storyline too much.

Maybe its just me and Shankar films but this was a disappointment of the highest order.