Under The Spotlight: Idhu Namma Allu

Story Review

I just loved the way how the film started off. The director gave an overview of how a hectic working life routine is. It helped got connected to the film so easily as I could see myself in it and that is a big win for a director when he can get the audience to connect to the film. From there he smoothly introduced the hero and for someone who doesn't fancy Simbu, I was immediately won over that this film is not going to be a typical nonsense Simbu film but it is a film which will see the director dictate it to his style more than towards Simbu's style.

The genre of the film can be classified as a simple feel good story. Indeed it is a very simple story but what makes a fantastic film is that most of the scenes you see in the film are things that could have happened in your life or in the life of people you know. It was real, it was simple and it was beautifully executed by the director.

It's a story of a boy who meets a girl in an arrange marriage and falls for her but has to explain to her about his past relationship and face issues raised as they about to get married. That's what the film is all about but yet again it is a super feel good film and surely worth a watch.

The only down side for me in terms of story is the length. I felt the movie could have been easily 50 minutes shorter as I felt the movie should have ended in the scene in the picture below

Up to this point the film was absolutely perfect to me. Honestly I felt this was the climax scene and was ready to walk out of the cinema until the played the song and I saw on my watch there is 50 minutes to go.

The next 50 minutes turned out to be quite annoying to me especially the next 20 minutes which shows Simbu and Nayanthara hanging on the phone being in loved and talking stuff. It was just annoying and totally unnecessary. It was this part which tempered with the quality of the film and is what that will cause me to reduce my rating of the this wonderful film

The director got it absolutely right in his casting and huge credit to the director for that. Each actor picked for the role nailed their performance and he knew how to get the best from them. More importantly with the right casting, the director manage to get an amazing on screen chemistry between Simbu-Nayanthara, Simbu-Andrea, Simbu-Soori and Simbu-Father.



Rating: 4.0/5.0

Director Review
Pandiraj

The director got it absolutely right in his casting and huge credit to the director for that. Each actor picked for the role nailed their performance and he knew how to get the best from them. More importantly with the right casting, the director manage to get an amazing on screen chemistry between Simbu-Nayanthara, Simbu-Andrea, Simbu-Soori and Simbu-Father.

Credit again to Pandiraj for coming up with this heart warming story and I felt that this has been his best movie after Pasanga. Always admire Pandiraj as a director and he goes on again to show he is a fantastic director.

There were to let down for me personally. First as I have already mentioned was the draggy 50 minutes of the film which could have been eliminated. Second is the quality of the top view camera was so poor. Not sure why or how he allowed that in film or perhaps he was experimenting with a new idea which I don't understand but I wasn't impressed with it.

Another win for Pandiraj was the fact he used the emoji, the caller screen appearing whenever some one calls and the twitter description of the character during introduction. It felt very Gen-Y and helped me connect to the film better



Rating: 3.8/5.0 

The Cast

Simbu

Without a doubt I would classify this as Simbu's best film after Vinnaithandi Varuvaya. It was so great to see a subtle, soft spoken Simbu in the film. He was fantastic from the first scene right up to the final scene. I would say it was a flawless performance by him.

It clearly shows that the guy has immense talent, and if he picks the right scripts with the right director than you will get to see the very best of Simbu as an actor. He played the character to his strength and his class. It was a very simple fun loving guy role which he was so natural in it.

His performance felt real throughout and he deserves all the praises in this film. The man has been going through a rough patch of screen recently and this film will surely be his big comeback and AYM is going to raise him to another level. If he plays it smart and picks the right film, Simbu can certainly on the same ranks as other top actors in the industry.

Credit to Simbu to be able to pull off a couple of different looks in the film without losing shape of his character. Fantastic stuff.

 Rating: 4.7/5.0

Nayanthara & Andrea

Personally I did not enjoy Nayanthara's character in the film. I found her as being rude and annoying and too dominant in the relationship. Not the type of girl I would want to date. Putting that aside, I think she did very well in playing the role. To be able to pull of that character wouldn't have been easy and she played it well. It is nice to see heroine getting a huge chunk of screen time and she did justice in her scenes.

It becomes a bigger challenges when the second heroine you have in the film is someone like Andrea who can easily over shadow you with her quality, yet her performance stood firm to show why she is one of the industry's leading heroine

Without a doubt I was in love with Andrea from the moment go in the film. She was freaking stunningly beautiful and there is no doubt about her acting skills. She nailed the character easily. Plus, I love the nature of her character as she is the type of girl you would want to fall in love with. Her character had two shades and she was equally good in both shades as a girl in love and as a girl who wants to get back to her ex boyfriend. One of the most underrated, versatile and gorgeous actress in the industry. 

 Rating: 4.5/5.0

Soori

It was thanks to this man which helped me got through the last 50 minutes of the film. He plays the role of Simbu's motorbike driver. Yes you read it right, motorbike driver for Simbu. His role had a significant impact in the overall feel of the film.

Soori was at his peak at his one liners whenever Simbu speaks to Nayanthara and his counters to Simbu can leave you in laughter. You would actually laughed out loud at his one liners. I was so pleased with Pandiraj for casting Soori in this role as it could have been easily ruined by any other comedian.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

The Music

Kuralarasan

Correct me if I am wrong but this is actually Kuralaran's first film as a music director right and I think he has done a wonderful job for a first time. Even if it is not his first film. I think the quality of his songs and bgm was really good and pleasing to hear.

Looking forward to his next film

 Rating: 3.3/5.0

Final Verdict: Idhu Namma Padam Tha!! Loved it

Final Rating: 4.1/5.0

UFLP SEAA CONNECT 2016: One Of The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened To Me

What a week it has been. A week ago I thought my world was so small. Nearly everyone I know are from Malaysia, I only understood about the Unilever business within Malaysia and my whole mind was thought to see just things within Malaysia.

Fast forward a week later, a whole lot of things has change. I have been lacking drive and joy in recent months, and the UFLP SEAA CONNECT Session has just recharge my batteries and got all good to go. It has help redefine my purposes in life, got me inspired, ready and connect to a whole bunch of new and amazing people. The purpose of this event was to get us Unilever Future Leader Program (UFLP) people to build our networking with the SEAA community and equipped us with the right tools to go on to be future leaders.

From Malaysia there was only 4 participants and 3 organizing committee and my biggest fear was that for the next 4 four days I am only going to be hanging out with the fellow Malaysians and no one else. I made a conscious decision that I will try not to spend as much time possible and mingle with the participants from different countries. The other participants are from other countries are from Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

We were immediately divided to groups of 10 and I was glad that I was the only Malaysian in my table. The first friend I made during the session and will perhaps be the most awesome person I met throughout the event was a guy from Philippines named Jeggy We instantly got things running and become best buds.

Our very first session of Day 1 was a team building event which I found it to be super cool because it mainly used an African drum and a couple of pipes only. We were thought of tunes and music to related that out business and showed us that everybody has to work together well to create beautiful music and if one group doesn't cooperate it will reduce the quality of the music. Just like in business, when one department doesn't do well it impacts the entire business

Next we brought to a series of leadership talks where by this successful Unilever leaders shared their journey from humble beginnings up to the point of who they are today and explained some of the key principals and things they had done to be who they are today. The questions from the UFLP were really tough for the leaders but they managed to answer the question clearly. This bit of the event opened our minds up on actually what is the difference between this leaders and us and how they look at things and make it happen

Next we were treated to an open bar dinner with free flow of drinks and allowed us to build networks among the UFLPs before we headed back in for our Cartoon Character Costume Party. Once again this has to be one of the best parties I have been to. Free flow of drinks, laughter, lip sync battle and networking. It was the bomb.

On day 2 our agenda was packed with a workshop on The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People. The first day we focused on the first 3 habits and I was blessed that I got Leannerd as our coach for this session. He is the VP for HR in SEAA. A man with so much experience and expertise. He is also a certified Covey Training and the way he conducted the workshop has left a deep impact on me on how I should be to highly effective.

The last session for the day was another team building event which was based on sports. The particular highlight for me when we were asked to build a racing car using pipes and tires and race around the track. First there will be a qualifying round and the top 6 teams will qualify to the final and than the race will be a two lap race. The only twist to this was that we were not allowed to race with our cars but we had to use the car of the beside team which was only told minutes before the qualifying. Therefore we had to make do with what he had and try to get the best results. Our team managed to qualify into the final race but did not win the race. I think we got 4th, but the team that used our car won the race and I was proud that the car which we build was the only car that never broke down throughout qualifying and the race.

The final part of the day was dinner at the open bar with the graduated UFLPs. The particular highlight for me was that I did my first ever karaoke session with my fellow Philippines friends.
Lots of networking session was done that day and I had a good insight speaking to the graduated UFLP on how they made it to graduation and what to expect along the way. Another great day comes to an end.

Day 3 was fully packed with the 7 Habits workshop which I felt was the best part of this entire event. We went on to complete the balance the 4 habits and we did a lot of activities throughout the session. In this part here I would like to say a big thank you to Afra from Australia and Book from Thailand. This is for the Emphatic Listening session the Talking Stick Session. I was able to open up on things which I had been keeping in for a long time and you guys gave some very good insight about it and it was so helpful. So glad that happened.

Once the 7 Habits workshop was concluded, we were brought around to travel around Singapore and our first stop was to this super cool buffet. I finally managed to try first lobster and thanks to Jeggy and Aziz from Indonesia I had my very first Sushi. Got to admit the Sushi was good but I couldn't take much of it. Next we were brought on to an open top bus ride around Singapore heading to the Light Show which was cool with the music and the light show on the trees. (insert Video). Our final stop for the night was the River Cruise and I finally got close to Marina Bay Sands and The Malayan.

On The Final Day, we had a couple of talks but the main highlight was before lunch when we had a panel of leaders sitting on the stage and took some very intense question about the generation gap and how we can work together. It was so good to see how leaders from different generation are so eager to make things work with the Gen Y and it's time Gen Y start understanding things from their perspective to ensure a win-win situation.

Than comes the moment towards the end of the whole event. We had a quick speed dating session followed by creating an anchor which will remind us of this moment of the event and also writing appreciative notes to 3 UFLPs. We concluded the event with a sharing session on the revolutionized UFLP assessment method that is going to go live soon. It's going to be huge. We ended the day with lots of picture taking and hugs before saying our See You Again and leaving Four Accers.

The reason why I am writing this is to record down how amazing this event was and every time things don't go well for me or when I am in a struggle I can always read this back and remind my self what an amazing moment I had here and remind my self not to give and continue to be successful. Thank you Unilever for this amazing opportunity. I don't see myself as a Malaysian UFLP anymore but as an SEAA UFLP. We are a big community now and our voices are strong. We will make great changes. We are Ready, Inspired and Connected!!!

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

Vinnaithandi Varuvaya: Simply Magical

Those who knows me knows that I am a movie buff and I don't easily get satisfied by any movie. Especially those commercial movies, but there is one movie over the years had stood strong in my heart is Vinnaithandi Varuvaya

 

To me this movie is absolutely magical from go right up to the end. I have watched many movies before but not many of those movies has an impact full opening sequence like this movie has. I have mentioned this before and I will mentioned it again that Vinnaithandi Varuvaya has perhaps the best opening sequence of any tamil movie.

Within 6 minutes of the start of the film, the director has explained everything we need to know about the character, the girl he loves is about to get married, he has completed his studies but has left that to pursue his dream to be a director, made friends with the right person to accomplish this dream and has told everyone at home about it and also how he first meet her.

VTV Opening Scene

The scene at the gate when he first sees her and falls in love was just brilliantly done. The dialogues, the camera work, the cue on music and of cause the expression of the hero, it's just perfection! Many films have shown you love at first time and it's usually crap and you know it, but this is as realistic as it gets. An absolute art to watch. You know if you were in that same position you would have done the same!

That is where the genius works his magic. All due credit to Gautham Menon himself who is a specialist in making you feel as if those things had happened to you. He draws from real life inspiration and when he puts it on screen, he does it in a way which makes everyone feel like they have been there, done that before and that allows the audience to connect with the character and  travel with them in this journey.

Over the course of the film, you don't feel like you are the audience but as if you are the character. You feel their love, you smile to their joy and you cry to their pain. As if all of those moments are happening to you. Hats of Gautham Menon for pulling this off. It feels so real watching every scene.

The music was a real threat. When it is AR Rahman, you know you are going to get a musical feast and he delivers it with ease. But what makes the songs connects so well with the film, is the timing where the songs are placed. That credit has to go again to Gautham Menon. 

You could feel that the songs were not in the film just for the sake of having 5/6 songs like any normal tamil film. The songs were there at the right time of the film, as if you could sense it that yes there must be a song now here. The timing of Hossana and Manipaiya was perfect. Again it makes you travel with the characters

A special mention to the dialogues which for me was the key to it's success. The dialogues like "There are many girls in the world, but why did I fall in love with Jessie" and the other dialogues which is in the video above. They were just amazing. Fantastic work in writing the dialogues.

It sounds even more amazing in Tamil

Simbu has never been a favorite actor of mine and I doubt he will ever be, but his portrayal of Khartick will perhaps be the most favorite film character of mine. Simbu was perfect for the role and he gave a 10/10 performance in this film. I am glad no other actor played that role in Vinnaithandi Varuvaya except Simbu. He lived the character and it was so real. I can only expect more of that in Acham Enbathu Madamaiyada.

Meanwhile Trisha was just wow. There is no need to go on explaining how gorgeous she is, but her performance of a lady who is thorn between the love of her life and her family was excellent. You could feel her internal struggle and her conflicts and how she brought it out on screen was fantastic. The name Jessie would forever be embedded in people's heart.

It's for this reasons why I would say Vinnaithandi Varuvaya is a cult film. A film that will never grow old. 20 years from now, youngsters who watch this film would still be able to connect to the film and travel with the characters. This film stands on par with Alaipayuthey and without a shadow of a doubt Gautham Menon is my favorite director. I can't wait for his next with Simbu and I hope it is an extension of the Khartick character in different situations.