"Oru Thala" Raagam ("ஒரு தல" ராகம்)

Welcome back.

It has been exactly six months since the last post. When the dust finally settled, Sivaji the Boss, had taken such a heavy toll on one's life that frequent blogging was definitely put in the back-burner.

But what better way to come back than to write a piece on the latest 'thala ("தல") movie Billa.

Story: You know it. No point in wasting newsprint on that. No change at all from the original. Since most of us know the story (KTv even aired the original on 2nd Dec), the director has decided to concentrate on a good presentation of the movie.

Execution: Absolutely stylish. A Hollywood-Tamil movie to say the least. Very crisp. Quick cuts. Stunning visuals and locales. Great costumes. Movie itself happening in Malaysia completely helps.

Before the movie begins, one gets to see the trailer of Bheema. The difference between the Vikram starrer and Billa is like chalk and cheese - in terms of presentation at least! Billa scores a direct hit in this department.

The biggest plus is duration: 2 hrs and 10 minutes. Take five songs off it, you are talking of telling a rivetting story in about an hour and three-quarters! Nobody sheds tears. Nobody smiles - even the audience don't, inspite of Ajith and Santhanam's valiant but insipid attempts to lighten the mood.

Ajith has poured his heart, soul and physical effort into the movie. Looks dashing-to-the-core in designer-like clothes. Even gives some style tips to his cronies about the type of sun-glasses, hair-styling etc. I was under the impression that Rajini's styling in Sivaji will take something to beat. But Billa upstages it so easily - not just for Ajith, but for everybody. No garish dresses, no face/belly/head/road paintings. [My daughter with all her nine-year-old wisdom, easily identifies Shankar's movies just by looking at the road! If it is painted, then it has to be Shankar's!]

No other character is worth writing home about. Even in the short two-hour time frame of a Hollywood movie, there are at least two/three characters who get etched properly. The problem that VV faces is that he has filmed an HW-like movie but with five songs! Those twenty-odd minutes take the vital time away from his screen play thus resulting in incomplete sketching of the characters.

And the songs... aaarghhh! They could have stopped with just the two remixed songs. [Oh! by the way, Ajith extols the virtue of Tamil by asking, "Why do we do puja for Murugan - a Tamil God - in a language other than Tamil?"] Matter over.

I have to say that when I watched the original two weeks back, I was struck by the good production values of those years but the screenplay is definitely anachronistic now! To that extent Billa-2007 will satiate the current crowd of youngsters and ask them to yearn for more.

Billa: Old Wine (definitely tasting better); but in a very sexy, curvy Bottle!!

Lighter side:

A "black and white" Colour movie - such is the dominance of the two colours that one almost felt like watching a '60s movie!

A no-smiler: I think that director VV had a very strict dictat against everybody from smiling. Ajith, the main culprit of the movie in this regard, even has the gall to comment on one of his lackeys "Why doesn't he smile at all?"

Namitha hates Nayan: "I hate her" - That is Nammu's dialogue on Nayan - more for Nayan showing off more oomph than the Gujju bomb. Total of three female stars in the movie: All three dressed up as 'item' girls. தாங்காதுடா சாமி!!

New Tatoo on the block...erhem... on the bot: The staid Singapore viewers were all agog on watching the Billa insignia just above Nayan's-you-know-where! Talking about tatoos, strange that the director did not have any tatoos on Nammu; probably cost cutting, as that exercise would have meant significant ink cost to cover the acreage!!

Till the next one...