Thalaivaa

[MysteRy]

Thalaivaa Movie Review

Director: Vijay
Cast: Vijay, Amala, Santhanam
Music: GV Prakash Kumar

Vijay has matured as an actor of substance in commercial cinema with Thalaivaa. Not only is he a one-man entertainment troupe who can dance, fight, romance and do comedy with ease, but can also act. One of the highlights of the film is the emergence of Vijay as an actor from a star, as he excels in emotional scenes.

However he is let down by a weak script and takes its own time to evolve, which slows down the narration. The film at 177 minutes tests your patience especially in the second half. The thread of the film is etched out of various don films where father is a don and son under difficult circumstances is forced to take over his mantle (Godfather(English), Thevar Magan, Nayagan, Naduvazhigal (Malayalam), and Sarkar(Hindi) ).

The film begins with how Anna (Sathyaraj) a Tamil in Mumbai becomes a powerful don and is revered by the locals for the way he provides instant justice and runs a parallel government. His son Vishwa (Vijay) is living a cloistered life in Sydney where he is a successful entrepreneur and has also his own Tamil dance troupe.

However, suddenly due to certain circumstances he is forced to take over his father’s empire and continue to provide instant justice to the people who had trust in his father. Will the son rise to protect his father’s legacy and take on his enemies’ forms the rest of the story

The best part of Thalaivaa is the first half set in Australia as the breezy romance between Vijay and Amala Paul peps up the mood, along with the comedy of Santhanam makes it a fun ride. However the second half, the film loses its tempo and drags big time as things get serious with no romance or comedy.

GV Prakash’s background score especially the theme music and a couple of songs are really good. “Yaar Indha Saalai..” is soothing and picturised beautifully in Australia and Vaanganna Vanakkanganna. is rocker mainly due to Vijay’s dancing and singing. Nirav Shah’s camera is picture perfect with the right colour tone.

Amala Paul shines especially in the romantic scenes in the first half and dubbing in her own voice is a major plus. In the second half her characterisation undergoes a change, and the way she manipulates the climax is fantastic. Her costumes are chic and performance is top class. Sathyaraj is terrific as the Godfather of Mumbai. Santhanam is a scream, and his one-liners with a straight face provides humour in a grim story.

The major plus of the film is Vijay. He is good in emotional scenes, the best is the point where he sees his father getting blown up. You can see that he has evolved as a fine actor with a restrained and mature performance in that particular scene. And is there a better dancer than Vijay in Tamil cinema? You can’t take your eyes off him in the Vaanganna.. song.

On the downside, the film has too many scenes inspired from Godfather mafia type movies. The film is nearly 3 hours and needs urgent trimming to make it fast. The second half is longer than the first half and the pace slackens due to slow change of scenes.

On the whole, Thalaivaa likes the curate’s egg is good in parts and would have been better if it was more racy and shorter.

[MysteRy]

Vijay requests Jayalalithaa for help!

Ilayathalapathy Vijay's Thalaivaa which released worldwide except Tamil Nadu last Friday (Aug 9) has sought the assistance of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in getting the film released in the state.

Vijay through a press release said : “I request the Chief Minister, who has helped so many others, to intervene in the problems that Thalaivaa is facing and help us to get the film released across Tamil Nadu at the earliest. I have always admired the way the CM governed the State. She has a transparent style of functioning that is aimed at making Tamil Nadu the most progressive state in the country. She has granted free power, welfare schemes, laptops for students and has taken strong stands in issues like the NLC crisis. I have always admired her administration and it is clear that her government is of the highest calibre.”

Thalaivaa was slated for release  on Eid day but was yanked out of theatres across the state after a bomb threat, with theatres refusing to screen the film citing law and order problem. The film was said to have strong political content and the state entertainment tax committee refused to give it tax exemption.

Meanwhile there has been reports about the sale of  Thalaivaa pirated CD's across the state. Vijay has come out strongly and said : " “Creating and selling private DVDs is against the law. I request my fans to inform the police if they come across such incidents.".

[MysteRy]

Dhanush clarifies about his tweets on 'Thalaivaa'

Dhanush was the only actor in Kollywood who had the guts  to come out openly in support of Vijay's Thalaivaa. Remember that he had done the same when Kamal's Vishwaroopam went through release problems.

He had tweeted - "What happened to Thalaivaa is unfair. I wish they show this kind of effort in making  this country a better place to live than just to ban a film. As long as a film is not based on a true story and has fictitious characters. honestly I dont understand. I hope the matter will be resolved with the concerned parties at the earliest. I’m sure our CM will do the needful”
                     
Dhanush is in Switzerland shooting a song with Nazriya Nazim for Naiyaandi.  Back home in Tamil Nadu, his tweets in support of Thalaivaa stirred a hornets nest. The local media interpreted his tweets as anti-state government and placed the actor in an embarrassing situation.

Dhanush in a fire-fighting mission immediately issued a press statement : “I have been misinterpreted by a section of the print media on my tweet about Thalaivaa. Please note I have not mentioned anything against the Tamilnadu government. I am not against the government.”

And on Twitter he clarified : " My Tweet regarding Thalaivaa has been incompletely carried on a news daily today.I wish to be clear that I was not referring to our government in anyway.”

[MysteRy]

'Thalaivaa' opens big outside Tamil Nadu

Ilayathalapathy Vijay's Thalaivaa has opened big outside of Tamil Nadu.

The controversies and film not releasing in Tamil Nadu has helped it garner  a huge three day opening in rest of the world. In Kerala it has emerged as the number one in the Eid Weekend (Aug 9 to 11), and netted an impressive Rs 2.10 Crore from 105 screens.  And in neighboring Karnataka it has netted a very good Rs 2.55 Cr net in the opening weekend.

In Andhra the Telugu dubbed version has done Rs 2.30 Cr approximately , making it Vijay biggest ever opening outside of Tamil Nadu.
 
And in multiplexes in major Indian cities the film has stood up well against the fury of Shah Rukh Khan's Chennai Express. And in the overseas market, the film is booming .

In UK and Europe it has done Rs 78 lakhs while US it got Rs 1.29 Cr. And in Vijay's strong markets of Malaysia, Singapore and Srilanka it has taken a fantastic opening.

Thalaivaa can be classified as a hit outside of Tamil Nadu. Now all eyes are on whether the film will release on August 15, for the Independence Day weekend. Meanwhile the buzz is that Vijay is trying to meet the authorities concerned to get the film released at the earliest.

[MysteRy]

'Thalaivaa' to release in TN on Tuesday!

The decks have been finally cleared for the release of Ilayathalapathy Vijay’s Thalaivaa in Tamil Nadu. The green signal has been given to theatres and distributors to release the film on Tuesday (August 20).

It means the “threat to the film from unidentified sources” is not there any longer.  The all clear signal came late in the night on Saturday, so publicity ads with the confirmed release date and theatre listings will appear in Monday papers.

So 12 days after its worldwide release, Thalaivaa will release in Tamil Nadu!  Several issues like a bomb threat, entertainment tax waiver issue and alleged political content derailed its release in Tamil Nadu.  The Thalaivaa team tried to conduct a hunger strike last Friday, but permission was denied by the police. On Saturday afternoon, the producer of the film Chandraprakash Jain was admitted to a private hospital.

Meanwhile DMK MLA and Tamil film producer J Anbalagan offered to screen the movie in 300 theatres across Tamil Nadu, if Vendhar Films were not willing to screen it.  The MLA also posted the message on Twitter. Earlier DMK chief Karunanidhi offered his full support to the film.
 
As per sources two provocative tag lines in the film’s promotions “Time to lead” and “Born to lead” will be removed from the publicity material. It was also said a dialogue in the film between Vijay and Santhanam regarding the actor’s dance style, said to have political innuendo, would be muted.

[MysteRy]

Vijay thanks the CM Jayalalithaa!

All hurdles have been cleared for the release of Thalaivaa on Tuesday (Aug 20).
 
Ilayathalapathy Vijay has issued a press release expressing his gratitude to Chief Minister Jayalaithaa for taking time of her busy schedule to sort things out and help in the release of the film.

Vijay in his statement said that the film was scheduled to release on August 9, but due certain threats from miscreants, the film could not release. He and his fans were upset that the movie could not release.

And media added fuel to the fire by spreading rumours. But thanks to the efforts of the Chief Minister the issue has been sorted out.

Vijay concluded by saying: “I wish to thank all my fans who waited patiently through this difficult period. I request you all to watch and enjoy Thalaivaa along with your family.”