It’s quite evident by now that there was no quiz and avatar is a rehashed Bachchan/Chiru or Rajnikanth movie
packaged
with aliens,
napalm and 3D effectsRajnikanth movie packaged with aliens, napalm and 3D effects! Set the above story in a distant planet, with a luminous rain forest in place of the basti/chawl, and 10ft tall blue aliens with tails as the protagonists, what do you get? The movie has many set-pieces much like the Manchester United team in its red glory, which all do come together and work in the end.  Starting form the scenes where Avatar boy makes a fool of himself during his training sessions, but the alien girl can’t stop herself from falling to his boyish charms. Nikhil Advani must be smiling secretly for its rings a bell with the disastrous CC2C and it’s ‘iron forearm technique‘. That’s how Siddharth courted the gorgeous Trisha in NVNV and many other such films where the hero steps out to  learn something new, only to suck in the end. There is the coming of age scene where the hero must perform a exceedingly brave act to get counted as a hero by the townsfolk. Rajnikanth did that when he tamed a bull and what followed was one of his most iconic songs in ‘Murattu Kaalai‘. No one can forget the tiger-fighting scene in ‘Khoon Pasina‘ that led Rekha to let Bachchan into her pants, only in the movie mind you! King Khan parodied it in ‘Om Shanti Om‘, and in our case here  avatar boy tames a dragon like creature and later the Gulshan Grover of all giant flying dragons/dinosaurs.

The female kicking ass to save the boy is a sign of women empowerment and purely original. Desi movies are way too chauvinistic to let the girl save the hero. Our quintessential damsels in distress are always waiting to be rescued, but they do fight the angel of death and threaten the gods to spare the livesthreaten the gods to spare the lives of their spouses. Movies like ‘Jai Santoshi Maa‘ and even my favorite MI3, are clear examples where the evil spouse(sometimes good) is forgiven by the ‘bharatiya naari‘ as she holds the deity ransom till his life is spared/restored. That is exactly what happens in Avatar as everyone collectively prays to the forest deity, threatening to continue the cacophony if the avatar dude isn’t brought to life! Nothing and Nobody ever comes close to this awesome scene from an amman movie which for some god awful reason was dubbed into atleast two languages! It is beyond comparison and I do not wish to spoil the experience by describing it. With such set-pieces that have been working for ages in desi cinema, there was no way James Cameron could go wrong with Avatar. Afterall he did make the mega sleep-fest Titanic, which according to us was the biggest desi cinema tribute ever paid till Avatar happened! If you love desi cinema then Avatar is like putting together Holi, Diwali and Dushera, so don’t miss it. For the IMAX 3D experience and being one of the best tales told on celluloid, we give it a DappanKoothu rating of 7/10!

(Image courtesy: hubpages)

If you enjoyed this post, then you may also like:

• First movie in KC…….
• Bheema – When a man loves another…….
• Review: Paa – Bring home the awards
• Review: Rocket Singh – Mice are Nice
• Vaazhthugal – A crash course in tamizh…….
• The Boss experience…….
• Review: Bachna Ae Haseeno – Tribute to YashRaj

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the words, ‘Daavar seth aaj bhi main phenke hue paisa nahin utatha ‘ or ‘Pandrah sau rupiyah ki pagaar mein ghar nahin chalta toh imaan kaise chalega, Gaitonde saab? ‘. What about my personal favorite where Anthony Gonsalves tells Inspector Amar, ‘Apun ek hi maara lekin solid maara na saaheb ‘. Let me answer that for you, these memorable lines are best remembered by the baritone voice that accompanies them. Now if you take that away and introduce a raspy teenagers voice with a slur, what do you get? Surprisingly Paa, the results if not phenomenal were quite refreshing and I managed to pull it off very well. Right from the time when trailers hit the market, we knew this one was going to be a winner. When you bring the biggest name in Indian cinema and one of the greatest music maestros together, it sure promises something special. What made it even more special was the fact that I got to play a teenager at a time when many younger to me were being offered grandfather roles.

It was a surreal experience to watch myself on screen with all the prosthetics and hard to believe who it really was behind those layers of extensive make up. We tried to capture most of the elements that
you
tend to
associate with 12yr oldselements that you tend to associate with 12yr olds like being cranky, stubborn, potty jokes and the childish reasoning and logic. It was a good decision to steer away from depicting the suffering and sorrow of living with a incurable genetic disorder, and instead focus on the innocence of coping with daily life. I’m sure parallels will be drawn to the fantastic ‘Taare Zameen Par‘, for it is the only other A-grade kids film to deal with a serious problem. Our movie on many levels matches it right from the music, to the stunning camera work and even the direction. The only mis-step might be in the emotional connect that our film slightly falters with. It doesn’t quite tug at the heart and you don’t see many in the audience with a lump in their throat.  On the contrary, almost everyone who saw ‘Taare Zameen Par’ walked out with tears in their eyes. We did however put our best foot forward and left no stone unturned when paying attention to detail right form the special dentures. The only thing that I failed to understand was the use of the word ‘just’ for a budget of 15Cr. I must have either been frozen in time or the Rupee fell below the Yen, for INR 15Cr is not a modest amount from where I come atleast!

So tell me Paa, why were you hell bent on grabbing some screen time for yourself? There could possibly be no other justification for the sub-plotno other justification for the sub-plot with slums, corruption and the following tirade against the media. It could possible not be to portray you as an astute and honest paalteeshan, also we could have done with a little more son-father moments given that it is the tag line of our movie. Barring the 15-20 minutes screen time that we shared, it seemed more like a mother-son story and not like the posters suggest. Nevertheless the whole cast brought their A-game to the table and the kid who played Vishnu was fantastic. There is something about the ‘Palakkad‘ gene that makes Vidya Balan awesome every time she smiles with a twinkle in those eyes. Paa, I’m sure everyone will enjoy the movie and it sure is a refreshing change from the trash that is dished out every friday these days. If there was anything we could change, it could have been the predictable penultimate scene and the starting credits. Announcing the names of the cast is definitely unique, but seemed quite absurd when executed on screen. All said and done Paa, I am happy we made this movie and we can now wait for the awards to start rolling.

Love Auro

(Image Courtesy: Glamsham.com)

If you enjoyed this post, then you may also like:

• Bheema – When a man loves another…….
• The 6-pack saga…….
• First movie in KC…….
• Anniyan/Aparichitudu……….
• chand sifarish…….
• Supremely sublime movies of 2008 – Part 2
• Review: Dostana – Gay bana toh nibhana