Under The Spotlight: Masss (Mass Engira Masilamani)

After Anjaan, Surya has a lot to prove to the industry and also the general audience that he is still the same quality actor as before. Why he turned down a film with Gautham Menon and picked Venkat Prabhu will always remain a great mystery.

Story Review

It will be hard to classify the genre of the film. It was said to be a "Horror Comedy", well they got it right with "Comedy" but was far off the mark for "Horror". In general I would say this is just another commercial film by Venkat Prabhu, but with a different refreshing concept.

Every time you watch a Tamil horror film, the story will always go in the following flow:

Comedy-Paranormal Activity & Killings- The Ghost's Flashbacks- The lead character helps the ghost completes her task.

Well usually 90% of Tamil Horror films, the ghost is usually female. Well Venkat Prabhu did go with this same flow but added a little twist of his ideas which makes the whole film refreshing to watch.

The movie revolves around 2 con men named Masss and Jet (Surya and Premgi) who cons people to make ends meet. In one of their con job, they got caught robbing from the local area don and is being lead to some science defying fight scenes and chase which ends in a tragic accident for both Mass and Jet.

Upon recovering from the accident Masss realizes that he has the power to see ghost. The scene where he is able to see the ghost/monster is one you will live to forget. Such horrible graphic work was done there. Masss was later told by some guruji that he is blessed with this power and should focus on seeing ghost as humans and not be afraid of them.

It works for him and soon after he realizes that Jet actually passed away from the accident, and the Jet that has been around him after the accident was just his spirit. Masss and Jet than ghost on recruiting the balance of the spirit cast whereby he promises to help them, if they help him make money

Masss and Co, goes to people's house and scare them as if their house is haunted. The paranoid house owners reaches out to Masss who tells them there he is a ghostbuster and "cleanses" the house. In return the house owners pays Masss a handsome fee

This goes on until one day Masss meets a spirit that looks like him. This spirit named Sakthi brainwashes Masss that he can help Masss rob a wealthy guy of RS 750 Million. Blinded by greed, Masss agrees and in a turn of events, Sakthi tricks Masss to kill this wealthy guy by the name of Anthony by running a car over him

Disgusted by this fact, Masss stays away from Sakthi. Soon the rest of the spirits threaten to leave Masss and follow Sakthi away. Only than Masss realizes his true purpose of having this supernatural power. It's not about him becoming rich, but helping this spirits to fulfill their last wishes.

Again with a twist of events, Sakthi tricks Masss to kill one of R.K and Anthony's henchmen by setting him on fire. In anger Masss forces Sakthi to leave him only to be told later that Sakthi is actually Masss's father and how RK, Anthony, The Henchmen and a police officer murder Sakthi, The Wife and His Daughter.

Fueled by the anger and vengence, Masss decides to murder R.K to fulfill his father's last wish and its no rocket science that he achieves it.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Director Review

This marks Venkat Prabhu 6th outing as a director and he seems to have set a trend how his movies are going to be. Its simple, take a good concept, get lost throughout the movie, uses comedy and commercial elements to entertain the crowd while covering that he is lost how the movie should develop (poor screenplay) and finally bring you to the climax which you already know an hour ago how its going to end. 

The so called twist which he applies in his plot is so visible even a blind man would see it coming. To his credit, he did try something different in Masss. The concept about spirits seeking a normal man for help and how he uses the spirits for his benefit was pleasing to watch. But to play safe and ensure commercial success, he had to go back to the concept of seeking revenge for the spirit.

Venkat Prabhu serves as an inspiration that if someone like him can be a director, than anyone can be a director. My biggest disappointment in this film movie is that he sorted out to the cheapest trick in book of a commercial film. He had his characters quoting dialogues from different actor's movie.

There were so many references to other movies used here. How Surya uses the famous Manktha movie line to the proposal way in Varnam Ayiram to even seeking out Kathi's theme music. This are usually tricks used for upcoming mass commercial actors. To apply it for a Surya movie was horrible.

One thing I liked about Venkat Prabhu in this film was how he link the way Sakthi, The wife and The Daughter died to the way how Anthony, The Henchmen, R.K and The Police Officer dies. The table below will show you the link:

Flashback	Current Time
Police Officer stabs Sakthi	Police Officer dies by being stabbed
Anthony murdered Sakthi’s daughter by running a car over her	Masss knocks Anthony with a car which kills him
The Henchmen burns The Wife alive	The Hencemen gets burned by electrical shock
RK whacks Sakthi heavily before drowning him	Masss whacks RK heavily before throwing him into the sea to be drowned

That was something nice and smart done by Venkat Prabhu and I have to give him credit for that

6 movies in and I am still yet to be convinced that Venkat Prabhu is a quality director. How he ever convinced Surya and Ajith to act in his films is a true miracle. Lets see if he can get it right on his 7th attempt, which I highly doubt it

Rating: 1.7/ 5.0

The Cast and Crew

Surya

Surya plays a double role in the forms of Masss and Sakthi which turns out to be father and son. There was a distinctive difference in both the characters which was encouraging to watch. I felt he look horrible with pony tail but looks cool as Mass. I would let the ladies to decide that.

He nailed his performance very well in this film. He gave everything needed for both the characters and was able to convince us well that they are two total different characters. He seemed so convincing whereby it looks like he doesn't need to put much effort in it. Such is his quality as an actor. 

Why is doing horrible commercial movies like Singam and Anjaan is something only he can answer. It is very obvious that he is way much more talented than all this and I hope he does step things up again and remind us his true qualities as an actor

Rating: 3.7/5.0

Nayanthara

If you notice well, during the story review I never mentioned a single word about Nayanthara's character. Well because that is just how the film was. If you haven't watch the film yet and if I were to edit the film, cutting off all of Nayanthara scenes, you wouldn't realize a single difference at all

Her character was so poorly used in the film. No importance in the film and does not impact the film's plot in anyway at all. Honestly, Nayanthara's character in Nanbenda (which is a horrible comedy movie) was better than her role in Masss

The role of the second heroine (Pranitha Subhash) who was just limited to a song sequence and just a couple of scenes, seemed to have more importance and impact in the film compared to Nayanthara's role. I would rather see this role go to a newcomer compared to Nayanthara

Rating: 2.1/5.0

Premgi Amaren

Compared to all six movies that Premgi has acted in Venkat Prabhu's film, I will consider this his best performance of them all. It is well known that he is not the best actor in the world and he seems to have only one way in his comedy scenes.

But in Masss, I felt I saw a different dimension of Premgi and that was a pleasant thing to watch and hope he gets signed on for different films. He comedy sense and timing was good and formed a good chemistry with Surya.

Rating: 3.4/5.0

Samuthirakani

Perhaps the best performer of the entire cast. The way he acts will truly convince you like he is some 50 to 60 year old men whereby in real life he is just 42 years old. He had done it multiple times playing characters which look like 50 plus or even 30 plus. Such versatility the men has in him. Just watch his scenes to enjoy his performance.

         Rating: 3.8/5.0

The Music

I'm not so good with music, by my opinion would be as if Yuvan seems to have lost is midas touch. None of the songs is going to go on loop in my playlist nor neither caught my attention during the film. He did a good job with the rerecording. He has done greater job in his past and I am sure he is capable of better

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Overall Masss is just a mass commercial horror comedy film which will never go done to be remember as one of the great Surya films. This film has all the commercial elements to be a huge hit and I wont be surprise this film does well in the box office. If you are like commercial film or if you are a Surya fan, than this is a must watch film for you

Final Verdict: Masss is not Classs but it is one for the general audience

Final Rating: 2.96/5.00

5 Type of People You Meet On Facebook

I've been a Facebook user for more than 8 years now, and during these 8 years I have seen many different type of people on Facebook. After doing some observation recently, I have deduced that, these are the 5 types of people you will come across Facebook

1. THE POLITICIAN

This are the type people who are the first to post any news regarding the country's political current issues or economic state. They have all the access to tabloid news stream and mainstream media. Using this information they have, they share the current political  news to their friends. Most of us hardly even know them, but we keep them in our friend list just so that we get the latest news

2. THE NINJA

The Ninja, or also known as The Lurker is the type of people who will always remain invincible. They will never appear online on chat, neither will they share any post nor comment in it. Heck it, even you wont even remember having them in your friend list, but they know everything about you and whatever you post.

3. THE WHINER

Perhaps the most annoying people on your Facebook. This people has specially equipped skills where by they can take any post or issue and whine about it. They would go on complaining and complaining about everything. The it be love, life, politics maybe even sports and films, these people has the talent to complain about it. You usually would not unfriend them, because you know you will miss their drama if they are gone

4. THE HASHTAG

#These #are #the #people #who #totally #don't #understand #the #function #of #hashtag #and #decide #to #use #them. #Most #likely #they #have #never #been #on #Twitter #before #to #know #how #it #works. #So #they #would #basically #hashtag #everything #on #their #post, #literally #every #single #word #on #their #post.

5. THE DIARY

This are the one's who actually thinks Facebook is a real book and they have decided to make it their diary. So much so that some of their post would actually be just " Is Feeling Sad :( " or " Is Feeling Hungry " without even saying anything else. They would post everything they do or everywhere they go. Not to forget how depressing their life is without a girlfriend or boyfriend, or how wonderful their life is with their girlfriend and boyfriend. You could know everything about their life by just checking out their profile

10 Things That Makes Me Happy

We all have somethings in our lives that can make us happy no matter what our mood is. This are the little joys in our lives which also serves as a mood breaker. I believe it is something we all should have because at the end of the day we are responsible for our own happiness. There will be times where life can be hard on us and it will be up to us to cheer ourselves up. Here is what I feel are the 10 things that makes me happy starting with number 10

10. Movies & Series

One of my favorite things to do when I bored or down is usually to watch series or movies. I am huge movie buff and you can already see through some of the movie reviews I have written here. Watching movies and series gives me a temporary escape from reality

 

           My preferred series are usually comedy based series and to top the list would be FRIENDS and THE BIG BANG THEORY. Meanwhile I am a person who is a very story orientated movie watcher. I am not one for the commercial elements or mass films. I enjoy a movie which is realistic and relate-able. I like to travel along the film and escape reality. It helps to make me happy

9. Blogging

This is a new hobby I picked up in the last 6 months. One of the reason why I love blogging because it serves a release method. If I have something on mind, I can now easily share it to people through blogging. I am able to channel across my opinion in a positive and healthy manner.

8. Food

This is surely something that makes everyone happy. How can food not make anyone happy. A full tummy is

a happy tummy. I have actually gone for vacations when I was really stressed just for the sake of eating good food. No matter how upset or angry you are, when you get served banana leaf food, everything goes away.

7. Family, Casey & Mr. Fallen

Home is where the heart is and there is where happiness is. Having to stay away from home throughout my tertiary education, going back home could be one of the happiest moment I anticipate. It's when you are away from home, you realize how much you miss it and it is good enough to put a huge smile on my face everytime especially when you have a sister in law who bakes for you

6. The Boys & The Bunny

The boys are actually my close friends, going all the way back to my high school time. After high school, I have met so many different people and been close friends to the, but it will never be the same as the boys I hanged out during school. Every lepak tea session or futsal ends up with laughter. These are the people you treasure in life. While The Bunny is actually my best friend's girlfriend. She is not only one of my best friend but also my very good teammate :D

5. Sanjiv

This brat here is my neighbour's kid and he is only 7 years old, but we all see him as part of the family perhaps the youngest son of the family. He has been close to us since the day he was born and shares a loving bond with us all. A day without him is dead boring. He can get very naughty at times and annoy you till you get angry but he surely can put a smile on your face any day, any time.

                    4. Emma Watson

Those around me knows how big of a fan am I of Emma Watson. She is just simply Emmazing!!!!. Been a huge fan of her since her Harry Potter days and now looking forward to her performance as Belle. She just has the smile that makes you go wow and lose your mind!! All I need when I am down is just look at her pictures and boom!!! I am all smiling again.

3. Chocolate

My best anti depressant medicine surely. I have an obsession over chocolates, until my mum is worried I may get diabetes. Well chocolate is happiness, so there is no harm in me eating chocolates, I just want to be happy lol. This has to be god's greatest creation ever. M&M's is my favorite chocolate of them all and I go finish a bag of it in a blink of an eye.

2. Harsharan Kaur

The Girl With The Million Dollar Smile!!!! I am proud to say that I am her boyfriend. This girl is the spark of brightness in my life and the source of my joy. A simple good morning text from her is enough to make my day and everytime I am down, she is the person I turn too and she never fails to make my day. Thank you for letting me be a part of your life. Love you much

 1. Arsenal

Without a doubt Arsenal is definitely the one thing that makes me most happiest. Ever since I was 9, I have been in love with this football club. I am just so passionate and crazy over this club to the point I tear for them both in joy and failure. I lose my mind everytime they score a goal and my heart hurts whenever they concede. Arsenal is more than just a football club, it's like a family to me, it runs in my blood. It's my dream one day to be a season ticket holder at The Emirates

A Peak Into The Modelling Journey (Part 1)

When the word "Model" is mentioned, quickly a matrix is formed in our mind that "this is how a model should look and this is what they do". Society has a certain impression about models and the modelling career. Many of us like models but not every one of us would encourage our children to be a model. Such is the perception formed in most people.

At the same time. many people today thinks that, if a picture of them is taken, than they too are considered as a model. Well I am no model and I am in no position to tell you what is model and modelling all about. So each week, I will get one friend of mine, who has been an active model to shed us light on the whole modelling industry.

For the first week, we have the amazing, gorgeous and talented Nisha Kumar on here to give us an insight  about the entire modelling journey. Special thanks to Nisha Kumar for spending some time of her busy schedule to be able to feature on my blog

Nisha Kumar

1. What is a model and how you define it.

A model to me is a person who displays and outfit or any kind of subject matter on or around them with an intention to display and eventually sell it, ie: runway models do that, by wearing an apparel and walking on a ramp we display the movement and the beauty of that clothing piece with the intention to sell it for the designer..It's the same in product photoshoots.. 

Photography models, are models in the sense of that they are the subject of that artwork, photography to me is very much like modern day electronic painting to me.. And the subject of that art is also known as a model.. I strongly disagree people who use usherettes as a branch out under the model label, I strongly disagree! That's not what models do, I take pride in my profession as one and I've personally never done ushering and I'd never do because that is really not what models do

2. How much difference there is between society's perception about model and the real thing about models. 

 

I've noticed that in today's Facebook likes defined media world, more and more girls are becoming "models" what more with the fast mushrooming owners of DSLR, who call their ownership of having that camera as photographers.. Lol. You are only a legit model when a) you're with an agency and you HAVE DONE OR APPEARED ON newspaper, magazine, TV or billboard .. Or b) when you are on a recognized fashion show showcasing an established or upcoming qualified fashion designer It is really sad to see the word "model" be thrown around and used by anyone and everyone! 

Modeling is HARDWORK, we stand on 6 inch heels and walk down a 30 feet long runway carrying effortlessly whatever we are to wear without a flinch on our face for a good 2-4 hours.. A photoshoot or shoot lasts from sometimes 6 to 12 hours! And I can't even begin to tell you the places we have to shoot and look not only comfortable but beautiful in it! The amount of retakes they have for a commercial and we have to look on point on every take, it's work not only with the body, but mind and heart as well

3. Your achievements as a model. 

I've been working on my modeling journey since I was 19, but i only started calling myself a model after I appeared on various magazines, TV ads and billboards.. Working on being a model and being a model is to me two distinct things, I have great love and respect to my profession and that is why I only started addressing myself as one when I felt I fulfilled its criterion.

 Achievements as a model,

 - seventeen magazine cover girl top two 2012 

- Cleo magazine cover girl top ten 2013 

- female magazine cover girl top 5 2014 These are standard modeling competitions,

- Besides that my involvement in beauty pageants helped me to build my portfolio as a model and it also gave me an opening into runway modeling .. I have since then appeared on 7 runway shows, 10 magazine spreads.. 2 billboards, and 5 TV commercials and of course I have been the photography model for countless photoshoots (I have one every week)

 
4. The challenges you had to face in your career.

The challenges I had to face was the field itself, modeling is a very competitive industry and to standout in it you have to really find your unique look, I believe everyone has something unique about them and once you discover that strength and bank on it, you can make it far in this, my biggest challenge as a runway model was that I'm short and petite, but I learn as I said earlier to play up my strength and overshadow that I'm vertically challenged

See with the growth of numbers of models, so are growth of agencies in proportion.. But often times some of these agencies are scams targeting young amateur models, some of them operate by urgent job calls and ask them to send sexy and inappropriate selfies

If the models are unsure they should always check with a senior model to avoid being victimize and they should know professionally NO agency or agent will ever request for such pictures

5. Your advice to those who want to be a professional model

My advice to those who wants to make it as a model would be to understand that with any other job, this one too takes hard work and dedication , it will show through in your pictures and in your walk on stage.. But all good things take time, perseverance is key.. 

And passion added to dreams can surpass any difficulties. Times have changed where people have become more receptive to being a model and thus more and more training schools for models have started up, making the whole journey so much more easier . So go for it if that's what you want!

Next week, we have Karishma Krishnasamy on board with us to share with us about her modelling life

Whose Side Are You On: Facebook Vs Twitter

Social media has became a large part of our lives. We tend to spend most of our times by logging on to these social media. It's become a place where we share our good news, rants and also any information. Marketing and advertising has also begun using social media as there is where the audience are. 

Among the popular social media available, Facebook and Twitter are the two most commonly used by the people. Which brings me to my question, among people who uses both Facebook and Twitter, which do you prefer using most. At the same time what are their views on these two social media

I have asked around a couple of people who I know, which uses both Facebook and Twitter and the following is their answers. At the top of this post there is a small poll where you too can vote which social media do you prefer

1. Lana Candida Vagues

I would go for Facebook anytime rather than Twitter because it is user friendly. It's easier to understand how to use Facebook better. In Facebook, there aren't limitations of characters to the status. In my opinion not many people use Twitter compared to Facebook. It can be both a plus or minus point for anyone, it depends on the individual. Twitter is just Facebook where all you can do is only to update statuses. Twitter is mostly for celebs. So if you wanna get to know more about them then it's better to use Twitter. Otherwise, it's just Facebook.

2. Rubendran Loganathan 

My view on Facebook and Twitter are totally different. To whoever using Facebook and Twitter, would know the difference. It is not as social as Facebook as whatever you post on Facebook is posted on your wall and the whole world will be able to see it. Whereas on Twitter, it is the same, but only on a smaller scale. If it was to be shrink down to simpler terms, a Facebook status would be a report and a Tweet would be a small sticky notes.

The character limit is also what differentiates Twitter and Facebook. Whereas Twitter has this "140 character limit", so that could be a struggle at times. Facebook also allows us to have groups and share files (which is beneficial to university students) whereas Twitter doesn't have that option.

Besides, personally, I feel Twitter is like having a conversation on your own (where it is acceptable in the Twitter world) and hope other people joins your conversation. We can post tweets like "Going to go to bed", "Feeling hungry", "That guy is mad" in just mere seconds, or even go to the extent of cursing, and nobody would seem to bother, because it is totally acceptable in Twitter. but the same status being posted on Facebook and people will think you are mad.

Facebook is more of a family type of social media and Twitter is more to youth. Most family members including parents, uncles and aunties use Facebook in order to connect with their loved ones, whereas Twitter is more to us youths getting to know new people and keep in touch with the updates of famous celebrities or football players and so on

As mentioned earlier, privacy is one of the major difference in the usage of both Twitter and Facebook. As most people use Facebook, it's hard to keep your personal life in tact when there are always people lurking around your profile looking to capitalize on your wrongly interpreted status. In Twitter, you can always tweet it out of having the feeling of insecurity as everyone does it. Mostly, Twitter is a place to rant all your problems.

Twitter is also a place to get to know what the world/ your country us talking about. As the "Trending Now" option is available in Twitter, we can see what people are actually talking about. Because of that feature, I got to know about the latest MH 179 incident (2 weeks ago), where a disruptive passenger caused Malaysia Airlines Flight MH179 en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka to mae a turn back. At the same time, nobody posts it on Facebook because maybe the news are only known to a few people.

Personally, for university life like mine, I would prefer Facebook as I can get to keep in contact with my friends and also exchange lecture notes in the groups that I am in for study purposes, If I was feeling lonely, would like to "rant", or would like to know the latest trends in the word, I would choose Twitter.

3. Linggeas Krishnan

As all of us know, there is no words limit in Facebook. So it is the place to rant and to share your marvelous stories and what not. Twitter on the other hand is very limited and hence can’t really be used to rant and instead used to give people a glimpse of the situation the tweeter currently in.

I feel that it is more easier to tweet what I am feeling currently rather than ‘faceboking’ it. Other than that, following key persons and key organizations important to both my studies and future career as well as for entertainment is easier in Twitter as their tweets are instantaneous and the usage of hashtags makes the news spread fast. 

The incident of MH370 and MH17 surfaced in Twitter way before it did in FB. These are the cases where Twitter stands out. But Facebook proves its edginess when it comes to photo sharing.

4. Rupashini Thangamuthu

Basically, it's a medium used by people to connect with one another and to share thoughts, ideas and experiences. However, it's often misused by some people. Personally I prefer Twitter because it's more personalized and I have the opportunity to express myself.

As you can see from here, each of us have different preferences to which social media we prefer most. We have our own reasons why we prefer one social media over another. You too can have your say on which is your preferred social media by voting in the poll that is placed at the top of the post