There had been a boredom setting in, with respect to my blogging as I have not been able to appreciate the real joy of reviewing, ie: ripping a movie apart. For reasons being purely economical, I have been forced to watch movies that are not considered high risk. How much I would have enjoyed analysing the finer points of an Aasal or Vettaikaran! Well, Paiyya takes me closest to that pleasure, so far. While I don't think it deserves to be torn apart, can't be kind either.
Paiyaa makes a pathetic attempt at a road movie, Hollywood style (nothing less!!!). Combining romance, travel and adventure can be an instant success at the box office. The combination was used endlessly in old Hindi & English films. Even DDLJ worked to a certain extent thanks to the eurorail. (Dil hai Ki Manta Nahin is another favourite). These days, we seem to have a serious dearth of directors who can deliver the delight of such an experience, to have someone sit down and sketchout a sensitive, believable narration of such plots. What Linguswamy attempted in Paiyaa, if had come out right, would have been a new experience in Tamil cinema.
Shiva (Karthi) is an unemployed young man in Bangalore, who falls in love with Charu (Tamannah) at first sight. Charu is being chased by goondas who plan to take her to Chennai and Shiva offers to drive her to Bombay to her grandmother where she can be safe. A weak flashback gives us a peek into Shiva's past where he has created an enemy of Bali (Milind Soman), a mean gangster in Bombay. Jagan, one of the nicer parts of the movie, plays his friend. Shiva takes Charu to Mumbai, beating up the 2 sets of goons alternatively at regular intervals. Now, with a plot like that, you cannot create a classic, the least one can do is make it racy. But we are not that lucky.
N. Linguswamy, the director is best known for his pot boiler Run, and my guess is, will remain to be known for that alone. His love affair with the gangster theme continues to linger. I wonder if he added the second set of goons to stretch the movie to the second half. It would've made no difference to the movie having one set deleted! Story, screenplay and direction is just too much to handle for Linguswamy. There is barely a story and as far as screen play is concerned, if they played the second half backwards, nobody would notice. My suggestion to him would be to keep the first half and paste in the last 20 minutes of the second. It 'll be the same story with no head ache.
Karthi, with his demeanour and expressions take you in from the first scene. I sense a danger of him being type cast as this young, nonchalant guy who is smart with words. On the exterior his role may be diffrent from Ayirathuil Oruvan or Paruthiveeran. Somehow the attitude seems to remain the same. Tamannah looks attractive and provides eye candy. Her character (and the director) expects nothing more from her. It is depressing to watch Milind soman wasted as a brainless villian yet another time in Tamil Cinema after Pachakili Muthucharam. There Gautam gave in to his Jyotika fixation and here Linguswamy decided, gangsters don't have brains. Jagan is spontaneous most of the time and makes an attempt to salvage the second half.
Cinematography is adequate. The action sequences shot really well, get wasted when they seem to happen too often for no reason. Rajeevan's sets are not very convincing. The set in the song Suthude bhoomi is partliculary artificial. Jagan's rooms in bombay was not very real either. Tamannah sports a wardrobe disaster in the rain song. Goondas chasing Charu seem to have a dress code. They are all fat, black, loud and sport atrocious hairstyles. Apart from these, the clothes by Priya Manikandan are believable and contribute to make the hero and heroine look their best. Songs are a let down. I wonder if Yuvan is losing his touch. Too many boring albums lately. They merely add to your irritation as they pop up every now and then. 'Poongatru'( Benny Dayal) and 'En kadhal solla' (Yuvan)are the better ones. Kanal kannan's action would have made an impact had the director used it well. It gets tiresome expecially when the hero with super human strength can pretty much fill in for a 'weapon of mass destruction'.
It is only the character of Shiva that seemed to have gone through any thought process. Charu could 've been a native of South Korea and it wouldn't have made a difference. She's dumb and pretty, that's I guess irresistible in a testosterone powered movie like this one. She shows no signs of love for the hero during the movie, but prompltly runs into his arms in the last scene. Having said all that, I must mention what kept me going. Shiva's bunch of friends and his bonding with them came out really well. The dialogues are short, straight and evoke laughter wherever necessary. The first half almost got me thinking I was in a for a time-pass entertainer. Then, the 2nd half happened.
Considering the team the director lined up, the movie could've worked if, 1. Got Yuvan to deliver better. 2. Concentrate on the romantic angle and screen play than on mindless action. In the case of Paiyaa, 2 people evidently haven't done their job right - the director and the music director. Wait and catch it on TV.
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