Manmadhan Anbu - A ridiculous waste of talent and resources

The latest offering from Kamal haasan and Director KS Ravikumar had everything going for it

• A pedigree of succesful and funny movies - Avvai Shanmugi, Thenali, Panchathantiram
• An enviable star cast - Kamal, Trisha, Madhavan, Sangeetha, Ramesh Aravind, Urvasi,  Usha Uthup and in a guest role, Surya
• The marketing of the movie including the promos made it clear that it is going to be a visual treat covering Europe including a cruise.
• A powerful production banner which is owned by the son of the second most powerful person in the state. However, considering that this person or his cousin pretty much produce every movie these days, it might not be such a USP after all. Nevertheless this was a sure indication that cost would not be a constraint for the film and that it would definitely be an extravagnaza.

Considering this powerful background, the film turns out to be a major disappointment. The first half of the movie is relatively palatable with the gradual build up of the plot - A jealous &rich boyfriend (Madhavan) of a major movie star (Trisha) sends a detective & ex-army major (Kamal) to figure out if Trisha is going to be doing something naughty on an European vacation, that she is enjoying with her childhood friend & now divorced single mother of two (Sangeetha). The major is undertaking this trip to help his friend (Ramesh Aravind) who is suffering from cancer. Amidst a slew of funny one-liners and slapstick comedy, the plot slowly but surely leads to an interesting twist by the time of intermission.  As i went out to get some popcorn from the stalls at mayajaal, I was still looking forward to how things would shape up from then on.

Nothing however could have prepared me for the ridiculous fare that took place after intermission. It was almost like the script-writer and director were so caught up in the beauty of Europe that they forgot their primary job. None of the actions of the characters really make any sense leading to the absolutely ridiculous climax. I have never been disappointed by a Kamal movie ever since he started his experimentation with the epic Nayagan in the late 80s. Have thoroughly enjoyed all the different genres that he has attempted (Anbe Sivam, Guna, Michal Madana Kama Rajan, Apoorva Sagotharargal, Hey Ram, Dasavatharam, Indian, Unnai Pol Oruvan to name a few). With this record, i just could not undertand how Kamal could have allowed this ridicuous fare to have been made. There is a song which is supposed to have been uniquely picturised which outlined Kamal's flashback but it left us quite confused and with a headache at the end of it.

Now coming to the positives

• For those of us who are not that lucky to go on an European tour, we do indeed get a visual treat.
• Trisha, who is never really renowned for powerpacked performances probably seems the only sane character in the entire movie through her simple portrayal.
• The slapstick comedy does work in parts. You might actually enjoy it if you ignore the lacklustre script.

I hope that the Ulaganayagan realises that he has a reputation to live upto and makes sure that he does not tread the path what his supposed successors seem to be doing these days. As far as i am concerned, this fare is money down the drain.

Benaami by Anish Sarkar - Dan Brown meets Frederick Forsyth in an Indian milieu

Anish Sarkar, a vice president with information major with Cap Gemini and an IIT-IIM alumnus is the latest to join the bandwagon of high ranking professionals with enviable academic pedigree to storm the literary world. I also happen to know Anish personally as an ex-colleague. In his debut novel, Anish has attempted to create a Da-Vinci code kind of feel against the background of the Great Indian mutiny of 1857 which was probably the closest that India came towards upheaving the colonial rule of the British until Mahatma Gandhi came up the more subtle mantra of non-violence.

The book follows the adventures of an Indian software engineer, Arjun Chaterjee who has been struggling with certain dreams since his childhood and has been trying to make some sense of them. He meets the attractive history professor Dr. Guha who is an expert on the Great Indian mutiny and before they realize, they are sucked into a major terrorist conspiracy by a crazy business tycoon whose inspiration also lies in the mutiny.

The book shifts between the past and the present (with the past being printed in italics) keeping the reader glued to the inevitable point where the two have to converge. And when it does, it is indeed quite a revelation. There are numerous threads intertwined within the plot, some of which include

• A view of the thoughts, challenges and deeds of the Indians of the mid 19th century.
• A secret unknown society which was the brains behind the mutiny and whose presence has been lost in the annals of history.
• Romance between an indian man and a British woman who eventually becomes a key member of the secret society.
• Widow remarriage
• The inevitable romance between arjun and guha
• Nuclear technology and a view of what happens when this falls into the wrong hands (even if the ulterior motive could be one of extreme patriotism)

Anish keeps sprinkling the plot with a number of sub-plots and then subsequently ties all of them up towards the climax. The best part is that pretty much all the threads get neatly tied up leading to an action packed climax. In my opinion, the plot offers significant potential to be made into a movie. Overall, the book has a Dan Brown feel with the climax drawing similarities to Frederick Forsyth's book 'The Fourth Protocol'

A couple of things that could have been better include the following

• The plot of the tycoon seems a little rushed towards the climax
• One thread which remains open is how did the tycoon figure out what finally happened to the benaami bcos all of them are shown to have perished while unleashing the 'brahmastra'?
• The book could have had a different title. It is an apt title once u have read the book but it probably distracts the audience because 'benaami' in modern india stands for illegal hoarding of wealth using an alias. This is one place where Chetan Bhagat and Ravi Subramaniam seem to have got it just right.

Overall, the book made for fascinating reading and I hope that Anish continues to churn out such interesting plots in the days to come.

Back Again

After a year dominated by plenty of work and a lucky promotion, am back to my favourite pastime. Hope i can sustain the momentum this time around. Have started using facebook and twitter as well.