Kung-fu Panda kicks ass

Right from the first scene.. the dreamworks animation with the kung-fu moves made me sit up and I realized that it was not going to be just any other animation movie and I was not wrong.. Kung-fu Panda is all about a noodle eating (and selling cause he works in the noodle shop run by his father, a goose called Ping) panda called Po, who is mistakenly chosen as the next dragon warrior.. Po knows that he is a complete misfit for this and except Master Oogway, nobody ever thinks that he is anywhere close to being a dragon warrior which includes the furious five - Tigress, monkey, mantis, snake and crane and also Oogway's successor Master Shifu. They hurt and insult Po and do everything to make him quit..but Po's chance meeting with Oogway under the peach tree of wisdom makes him to stay on and he becomes resilient.. in the meanwhile, there is Tai Lung, the snow leopard warrior who was once a student of the same school but had to be arrested because of his greed for fame and of course the famed dragon scroll.. Tai Lung somehow manages to escape from Prison guarded by a force of 1000 armed rhino's and heads straight back to fight and take the scroll.. in the meanwhile, Shifu's initial hatred for Po changes to a sense of responsibility after his problem of searching for inner peace is solved by Oogway who then proceeds to heaven handing over the responsibility to Shifu.. Shifu takes it upon himself to somehow train Po and finds out that the greatest motivator for Po is "food".. so he uses food and trains Po.. Po learns well but then in that time the furious five try to stop Tai Lung but are unable to.. he just disables them and heads straight for Shifu.. by that time the dragon scroll has been handed over to Po.. Po opens the scroll and in it is nothing..just a mere reflection..eventually he connects the dots when he asks his father about the secret ingredient to the noodle soup that his dad prepares and has been bragging about and his dad says there is no secret ingredient.. He explains that things become special when people believe them to be special and that is when Po heads back to Shifu.. there Shifu is already being beaten and bruised by an enraged Tai Lung who is not able to find the dragon scroll.. the final showdown between Tai Lung and Po is funny but amazing.. Po, of course, wins the war and even uses the "Wuxi finger hold" on Tai Lung which creates an effect of an atom bomb..literally.. Po is proclaimed master and even the furious five are in agreement.. I have never watched an animation movie with so much excitement for quite sometime.. the last one that I really enjoyed was Finding Nemo..

The animation in this movie is tremendous and of course kudo's to the actors who have lent their voices for all the characters.. Jack Black (remember "School of Rock"?) as Po is just way too good.. and so is everybody else..

Some of my favorite quotes from the movie.. it definitely makes sense to all of us..

Master Oogway to Po: You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.

Oogway: One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.

Some funny ones..

Shifu: [after having dragged Po up the mountain and said Panda is trying to cool down] Panda, we do not wash our pits in the Pool of Sacred Tears.
Po: [quickly shakes his hand off] The Pool of-?
Shifu: This is where Oogway unraveled the mysteries of harmony and focus. This is the birth place of kung fu.
[Po is shocked, and it shows a glimpse of Oogway before Shifu jumps up to a giant rock]
Shifu: Do you want to learn kung fu?
Po: Yah!
Shifu: Then I *am* your master!
Po: Okay!
[sniffles]
Shifu: Don't cry.
Po: Okay.
[wipes his nose and smiles]

Po: I just ate, so I'm still digesting, so my kung fu may not be as good as later on.

Watch this one.. this is one hell of a complete family entertainer and I bet you will love it :-)

Animation weekend on my new home theatre system

I finally got my new home theatre system after doing a real convincing act with my wife (not sure if she is still ok with it though but the sale is done :-)) and watched two animation movies this week on it.. "Kung fu Panda" and "The incredibles".. I must say I loved watching both of these truly amazing movies.. will be writing about both in my next post..

Seval - typical Hari potboiler

Seval is your typical hari potboiler.. it is set in the pretty village of Sivasailam (Tirunelveli district), again Hari's favorite locale.. the movie begins with a bearded Bharath coming out of the Palamyakotai prison..it reminded me of Karthik coming out of the prison in Varsham 16..dont know why :-) then we again do a rewind of the wayward ways of Bharath (Murugesan) who does not have a care in the world, is happy drinking cheap country liquour and is accompanied by his uncle, thabaal thangavelu (played by who else but vadivel) and creates a ruckus.. his father for one hates him for his careless ways but is never able to change him.. but as they say and atleast show in all tamil movies, the entry of a girl changes even the baddest baddie in to a softie.. and that is exactly what happens to Bharath when he sets his eyes on Parijatham (played by debutante Poonam Bajwa).. Simran as Poonam's sister has not been exploited fully.. it was pretty brave though of Poonam to get her head shaved for the movie.. shows that some traditions are still alive in villages..finally Bharath changes for the better for goes to jail for killing the villain and we come back to the present where he is welcomed back home by his father who finally realizes that his son though way ward is a nice guy by heart.. and of course Poonam's hair is all grown back :-) and she is still waiting for Bharath.. which is quite predictable.. this is a typical typical Hari masala mix with all the elements thrown in..again you can watch it for timepass..

One more post to go..

I have yet another post to write about.. Seval.. Seval in tamil is rooster..another typical Hari potboiler..will be blogging about it soon..

Muniyandi vilangiyal moondram aandu - mixed masala curry

Well, I could not find a better term for this movie other than this.. Thirumurugan, the small screen hit director of one of the longest running soaps on tamil tv, "metti oli" is back with his second directorial venture (after em magan), with this movie..(disclaimer - I will refer to this movie as MVMA as the name is too long to be typed out everytime). MVMA as em magan is again set against a rural backdrop and is the story of muniyandi alias muni, enacted effectively by Bharath, who is a college student.. Bharath's father (played by ponvannan), tries his best to protect his son against getting involved in any kind of violence as he is afraid of loosing him like his first son, who got involved in college politics.. As expected, Bharath falls for Poorna, the local goon's daughter but she turns him down.. an infuriated Bharath, without knowing the background earns his attendance in the bad books of the goon.. in between we have the lecherous Sampath who would do anything to get his hands on the girl he wants.. the role suits Sampath really well and he essays it to perfection.. Vadivelu as a magician does not evoke much laughter.. there could have been more concentration on his role.. Poorna does her role well.. Finally the movie ends on a good note as expected.. and they lived happily ever after :-) on the whole it is a complete masala pot boiler and Thirumurgan has managed to keep the masala spicy and hot..

Watch it purely for time pass :-)

Will be back in a few days..

Been busy with some very early work timings and my yoga therapy classes so have not managed to watch any movies.. I did manage to see a tamil film though "Muniyandi Vilangayil Moondram Aandu" :-) which I shall blog about.. I should be seeing some more movies this weekend so lots to write and will do that soon..till then.. take care and be good when needed :-)

Vaaranam Aayiram

After the hype and hulla about Vaaranam Aayiram, I got to watch the movie on the day of the release, well as of today, I have watched the movie twice now. Well, to start with, Surya plays a double role. After successfully playing a double role in Perazhagan, this double role is more of a serious one.. Surya as the father is simply too good.. the make up, the body language..he has done a great job.. the movie starts off with Surya the father coughing up blood and then on deathbed.. then you have the Surya the son who is on a special rescue mission as a part of the NSG (yes you heard it right as that word has more relevance to today's scenario) and recounts the special relationship that he shared with his father.. it is more than appropriate to say the number of physical transformations Surya has gone through in this movie and that shows his versitality..as a teenager, he is just too good..as the college going boy he is good too.. the way he tries to woo Sameera.. and then his acting skills came to the fore when he looses Sameera..the scene he cries uncontrollably on the phone to his dad and the reaction by Father Surya was really a scene you should watch out for..Surya as the drug addict was also well potrayed and then the Surya that all (or atleast the girls were waiting for..grrr), the six pack Surya.. over all it was a Surya movie all the way and he has proven again that today in tamil cinema when it comes to versitality, Surya is a fore-runner.

Now, coming to the other characters, Simran as the mother was good, except that her make up (or rather was that no make up?) could have been better.. she looked a lot older than she should have..this is entirely my opinion.. Sameera Reddy was a revelation.. she has got a great height (she is atleast a good few inches taller than Surya) .. great figure and an infectious smile..this should open more doors for her in Kollywood considering the fact that bollywood has done nothing significant to her career.. Ramya's role could have been given more meat.. she is a capable actress and I really liked her job in Polladhavan.. she has got the capability to oomph but this girl can also act..

Now, coming to negatives, the movie could have been clipped (heard it has been now) as there were a few unnecessary scenes in the movie.. this is definitely not a movie for the front benchers..am sure nobody would associate with a son calling his dad "dad".. they would be more used to appa or "naina" :).. no father would call his son "kiddo".. this is a movie for the middle class, upper middle class and up..

On the whole, VA did not pull down the hype it had caused.. this is definitely a landmark movie for Surya as an actor and also for Gautam as a director.. last but not the least.. the songs.. these songs have been playing like forever in my car.. my son's (he is only 3 btw) favorite is the Yethi Yethi song.. though you can kind of connect to some English tunes.. like when Mundinam starts, you can immediately say that the guitar notes are from Faith by George Michael.. but the songs were great and I love them.. sad to note of the parting of ways between Gautam and Harris.. but hopefully they should get back..

On the whole, a good movie, nice watch.. a bit lengthy but watch it for Surya..