I just finished watching Tamil movie Manmadhan (Simbu story). Though the movie is lot similar to Sigappu Rojakka (Tamil, Kamal movie), the way they have taken the movie is very good. I am really impressed with Simbu's performance. BGM and songs by YSR is also excellent (he remind of his father in so many places, but then its very good. After all IR is the BGM king)

I am just dying to see this movie in DVD (I saw in VCD, print is good for a 27inch TV, but I need to see this in my projector when the DVD comes out)

I thought I will share this with you, since you will get good movies only once in a while. Infact this movie is far better than any of the recent movies I watched (exclude Vasool Raja, since I am a kamal fan!)

Dvdunlimited,

Do you know when 4 STUDENTS going to come out on dvd?

Hopefully this week. This has been delayed too much due to the copy right issues. The DVD will be released by Jayam, the same company who released New. Lets hope it comes this week.

Normally new movies evoke little interest in me and i don’t rush out to see them all. Still once in a while i do try to pick up the so called "cream-of-the-crop" and view them ( mostly with disappointing results !) and Manmadhan happens to be one such film ( i watched Manmadhan and Attagasam back-to-back and the latter was even worse) .

*** Spoiler Alert ***

To start of Manmadhans plot is a mess. It deals with a lone crusader against immoral girls who satisfy their sexual desires with multiple partners. the funny thing is that he makes sure he makes-out-with the girl before killing here. I don’t have a problem with the ‘concept’ that the hero needs to get some action, after all he deserves some reward for doing this ‘hard’ job !. To compare it with Sigappu Rojakal ( remade in Hindi as Red Rose ) is simply wrong. Sigappu Rojakal was dark , honest , controversial and in-your-face thriller, very few films in India have had the ability to do that. Sigappu Rojakal is film that is very dear to me, with a great cast and a very good director ( Bharathiraja) working at his prime (After i was done with Manmadhan i made sure i watched Sigappu Rojakal and confirmed my thoughts about the great movie ). Now back to the movie , the biggest problem i had are the badly developed characters including the protagonist ( like how does he select his girls, his relationship with Jyotika etc. ). unfortunately the screenplay seems to rely on pushing the narrative forward by pushing back character development. for example the police officer is completely wasted ( Atul Kulkarni is a good actor and he deserves better !), his uncle is wasted ( played by koundamani ), also cant understand the logic of vaishnavi ( the first murder that gets things rolling) wanting to get married to simbu so she can sleep around !. I personally feel that a thriller should always have a tight narration with top notch character development. Don’t introduce characters you don’t need, work with bare minimum and you will get the results you need ( see Ram Gopal Verma’s Kaun ). Anyways enough ranting , i am sure lot of people will like the movie ( as they have ) and once again I am a minority here. i simply dismiss it as a "contrived time pass movie". This is supposed to be the movie where the “magic of movie defeats any logic” , unfortunately for me there was no movie magic to suspend me in disbelief. If this is the “cream-of-the-crop”, then I fear how bad the other movies are !. I hope this does not have a snowball effect and next we see a lone girl crusader out to kill all the immoral guys !.

All said and done i did like “something” about the movie and it has had me thinking for a couple of days and that “something” is the movies Ajit connection . i am not sure if Simbu ( full name Silambarasan) is a big fan of Ajit. To me it appears that the entire movie is a homage to Ajit and his movie Valli ( which i thought was better) . Here is what i noticed

- To start of the there are twin brothers (2 Simbu ), just like Valli
- One of the brother has really short hair, which reminds me of Ajit in the movie RED
- Then there is there is the whole FLAMES scene which is demonstrated using Ajit and Shalini ( who are couples in real life)
- Then there is the phone call made by Simbu to police ( warning them and then getting caught in the next 10 mins !) in front of a theater having a huge Ajit cutout
- The plot is about a lone crusader ( similar to citizen )
- I seem to remember Ajit’s name mentioned at other times also ( don’t have the enthusiasm to see the movie again !)

Am i the only one to see this or did other notice also ?. Is this merely a coincidence or is a some kind of subliminal message here or am I simply crazy enough to notice these things !. Any kind of explanation is appreciated.

Well there are different people wathcing movies with different expectations. You sure are one of the top class people (more at critic level) and thats the reason why you noticed these items.

The Ajith thing is not as bad as you mentioned because, normally they show Rajini's poster, but since Rajini didnt release any movies in the past, ppl has to go with Ajith/Vijay and Simbu preferred Ajith.

If you really want to appreciate this movie, instead of comparing this with Sivappu rojakkal, try and compare with any movies released in last 1 year (again exclude movies like Virumaandi, Pithamagan etc because they are beyond comparisions for young Simbu) and you will definitely appreciate.

I am really not a fan of Simbu nor impressed with Manmathan, but it is a worth watching movie compared to the rest of the movies that came out recently (like Gajendra, Attagasam etc). Out of all the diwali release, if you have a budget to buy only one movie, I would buy Manmathan.

Manmathan DVD released

http://dvdunlimitedonline.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1990

Don't know if it is true...

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tami ... 13672.html

Interest from Hollywood
IndiaGlitz
Saturday, March 12, 2005


The latest buzz in Tamil filmdom is that the noted Hollywood production company Twentieth century Fox has apparently decided to produce Silambarasan's Manmadhan in English.

Silambarasan, who also played a dual role in it, penned the movie, which is all about a psycho killer.

According to reports, the Hollywood production house impressed by the film reportedly decided to make it in English.

In this regard, Silambarasan, who is busy acting in Thotti Jaya, has taken a break and had been to USA.

If it were so, it would be a rare honor for Tamil filmdom.

Did they not speculate a similar thing with Khakha Khakha ?? , i doubt this will happen , hollywood has enough material to borrow from East Asia and Europe that India should be the last stop for them .