Under The Spotlight: Theri

First of all, Happy Tamil New Year too all my blog readers and I hope you had a THERI-fic New Year Celebration. It's been some time since I wrote a movie review and felt it's no better way to make that return other than writing about my beloved Vijay's latest film. For those who haven't the film I strongly suggest you not to proceed reading this post.

Story Review

After watching the trailer, I came into the cinema with lots of expectation that this was going to be one hell of a film. The film turned out good but it was not something I was expecting to watch. It's a story which has a very familiar formula used to written it. It gave me a feel as if I have seen this kind of a story somewhere before already.

Hero and his daughter lives in a remote location happily, enters heroine 1 who falls in love with hero but soon realizes that there is a past in the hero's life. In the past, hero falls in love with heroine 2, gets married and has a kid. In the process hero gets involved with issues with the villains. Villain eliminates the entire hero's family but the hero and the daughter survives. Fast forward back to current time. Villain threaten the daughter's life and the hero seeks revenge. The end.

Nothing amazing or firework in the story itself, which for me was a big let down in the entire film. Apart from that I personally felt that Prabhu's character was hugely under used in the film. Nevertheless the film scores in the balance it had in terms of action, sentiment, romance and family bonding. That was a particular highlight to me 

Rating: 2.75/5.0

Director Review

Atlee

I wasn't to impress with Atlee's first venture in Raja Rani, and the opinion never changed much
following Their. Something seems to be lacking in his films yet somehow he manages to strike the right chords to make the film a commercial success. Perhaps that is his secret winning formula. Hope to see a change in this pattern in his next film

Rating: 3.3/5.0 

The Cast

Vijay

Boy o boy, it was a real treat being able to watch a Vijay film on the big screen again, especially when it is on New Year. I am obviously going to sound a bit bias in my rating for Vijay.

Vijay aces the role of Joseph/Vijay with absolute ease throughout the film. His on screen chemistry with Baby Nainika was a huge joy to watch. It makes you feel like you want to have a father-daughter relationship just like that.

Playing the cop, Vijay fits in like a perfect T in the role. He does justice to the role and portrays it with right amount of commercial style without much over doing it. His combination with Rajendran was again awesome.

The particular scene I enjoyed the most was when Vijay was married and already had a daughter. The realism he plays as a young loving father/husband/son was top class. I can only hope that he soon does a low key family concept film because I think we would ace it perfectly

 Rating: 4.2/5.0

Amy Jackson & Samantha Prabhu

Amy Jackson new look was actually very much refreshing to look. I felt she look really good in this new look. She did justice to her role despite having limited time to actually put in a top performance. Wouldn't blame her for that, it is just that the film never really gave her much scope to put in much of a performance.

On the other hand, I felt that this was one of
Samantha's decent performance after a long time. She seemed cute and lovable love interest for Vijay. Her on screen chemistry with Vijay is good and they do look good as a pair on screen. The only part I felt she had proper scope to perform was her final set of scene sequence which I think she did werll

 Rating: 3.3/5.0

Baby Nainika & Rajendran

Baby Nainika was tremendous, every scene sequence of hers was a real joy to watch. Super cute and adorable, makes you wish you had a daughter like her. She emotes well in both laughter and sadness. She was perhaps Theri's biggest treat. Meanwhile I have been so used watching Rajendran as a villain, I almost forgot he can actually pull out a wonderful comical role as well. He was always there to lighten up the mood in the film all the time. It was good having him in the film

Rating: 4.5/5.0

The Music

G.V.Prakash

I am not much of a music person, but personally I felt the songs in the film where so bad. I perhaps enjoyed only two of the songs. The opening song between Vijay and his daughter and the second last song between Vijay and Samantha. The rest were dreadful to me as I was waiting for it to end and get back to the film.

But on the background music, I felt G.V.Prakash did very well. Always felt that is his strongest suit, BGMs and not songs

 Rating: 2.3/5.0

Final Verdict: THERI wasn't all fireworks and sparkles. Remind me of a lighter version of Yennai Arrindal

Final Rating: 3.4/5.0

Travels Of A Pau: The People I meet Along The Way To Vietnam

Feels good to be back writing at my blog. Feels like I have once again found a huge part that have been missing. Coming to today's blog post, this blog is actually inspired from the Humans Of New York Concept.

I made it a point to myself from this travelling onwards, I am going to walk up to random people and try to get a quote from them based on something a little philosophical on life.

It is easier said than done actually. It was a huge challenge for myself to actually find the confidence to walk to random people and explain who you are and the purpose you are speaking to them. Some of them will push you down immediately without even letting you finish, while some are just not comfortable about the idea of having a quote about them being posted.

Nevertheless, I managed to meet 4 wonderful individuals who were open to this idea and happily provided me a quote on the question I asked. 

Marco Motta

Italian

"Happiness to me is about giving smile to other people. Finding peace in myself, having a good connection between body and mind. And of course, if all the people around me are happy, than I am happy as well"

Junshien Lee

Malaysian

"It is going to sound about cliché, but my favorite thing about travelling is about getting lost in random streets and learning to find myself in the process"

Allan

Malaysian

"I used to be an insurance loss adjustor for 10 years. Previously I had actually got my tour guide license but I kept it away in order to spend more time with my family and kids. Once they have grown up a bit, I started to pursue my interest as a tour guide again. Today I am a freelance tour guide. My aim in this job is that when I am doing one of my tours and explanation, I hope to inspire at least one kid a year. That gives me the best satisfaction"

Amanda Melton

Australian

"Don't pack too many clothes on your travels. We are on the way to Thailand for our daughter's wedding and our niece has packed up so much. Do a list of what things you need and just pack that. For instance, pack maybe one week worth of clothes instead of 2 weeks. Wash them and use it back again."

A big thank you to those who participated and this! Making a vow to myself every time I travel next, I am going to keep doing this. The thrill, adventure and knowledge gained from this experience is invaluable