Kuselan

Behind the scenes of the movie

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The director shouts. The cameraman turns to his left from where he is currently focusing to capture the most important scene of the movie. It is the scene where the towering personality of Kollywood enters the movie. A personality larger than life and one that is so difficult to capture on film that the cameraman really struggles to do justice to the shot.

Director: “Belddy fellow … use the joom out feature daa”

Cameraman: “Yov … evvalavu yaa oruthan zoom out panradhu? Innum panna camera odanju poyidum”

Heroine pleads: “Innum konzam try pannunge … for my sake no … please no”

Cameraman: “Sappa … orey emotions of India …. mudiyala”

Heroine: “Thambeeeee … naa venaa try pannatuma?”

Cameraman: “Ennadhu .. thambiya ….. nee onnum thevai illa …. aaniya naane pidungikkaren”

Director: “Badava rascole …. appadiye odi poyidu nee”

Cameraman runs and shouts after he reaches about 8 miles from the spot “Soopper idea boss … idha modhal la ye sollirukka koodadhu? I am able to capture better from this spot with maximum joom out”.

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This is how we get the best shot of the movie. A shot that will make every police officer envious …. one that would put even our Captain to shame. It’s the scene that marks the entry of the “Ilaya Thilagam”…. the greatest of the greatest …. our very own superstar Prabhu. Make sure you don’t miss this scene when you watch the movie .. and beware … this scene can’t be watched on thiruttu VCD (note the message in this blog post). You need the vast expanse of a cinema theater screen to even try to capture it in its entirety. It will teach you what dressing UP means. Ilaya Thilagam beats even the legendary police inspector of Thanga Padakkam in this.

If you are thinking what crap is all this, then wait ….. the movie is a lot worser. It is not worth wasting your money on. You can see the last 20 minutes of the movie and come to know almost everything about it … and that’s all about it. The rest of the movie just drags on endlessly to the point that I heard some South Indian mothers in North India finished sweater pottufying for their children while watching it.

Producer topline, bottomline target ellam meet panna poraaro illayo … cameraman waistline a correct-a capture pannittar, be it for Ilaya Thilagam or for Nayantara. Mind you … it’s no easy job. Enna zoom range irukkanum in the lens to complete this task!

Nayantara sizzles, especially in the song “Chaaral chaaral”. I liked this song for more than just that one reason for this is one of the two songs where the picturization does some justice to G.V. Prakash’s decent work as a music director (the other one is “Sollamma”) and because it has been sung so beautifully by Shreya Goshal. “Cinema cinema” is also very good musically and promised to be the perfect entry song for Superstar but the way it has been picturized left a bad taste.

The comedy is pathetic at most places. Some scenes of Vadivelu and some dialogs of Santhanam kept my attention in an otherwise boring and dragging movie. Innum evvalavu padathukku thaan ya Vadivelu adi mattum vaangardha paarthe naanga ellam sirikkardhu? To add to the woes are the roles given to people like Livingston, Vaiyapuri etc. Santhana Bharathi is totally wasted in the movie. Pasupathy does full justice to his role and Meena supports him well, though her get-up and dresses are not in line with the financial condition of her family.

Usually Superstar grows old as his movie progresses and appears with a lot of white hair towards the end. This was one movie where everyone in the audience grew old instead.