Duet Movies: Promoting Good Cinema

Duet Movies is the production house of acclaimed actor Prakash Raj. Apart from being a superb actor, Prakash is a wonderful producer too! He has produced 6 Tamil movies- Azhagiya Theeye, Kanda Naal Mudhal, Poi, Mozhi, Vellithirai and Abhiyum Naanum. I have watched most of these except for Poi and Vellithirai. All these movies are very good ones, which are quite different from the trash we see in Tamil cinema today. Tamil cinema is a strange dichotomy-On one hand you have wonderful movies being made by a few directors (who are a minority) who choose to tread a different path and on the other hand you have horrible movies like Villu, Silambattam etc etc this list is endless!

Duet Movies has consistently attempted to make different movies which can be enjoyed by all.  Being a patron of good cinema (movies which explore exciting different subjects, having the courage to do something novel), I have always appreciated Prakash Raj’s attitude as he says that cinema should be entertaining as well as trying to convey something positive in life. His movies Mozhi, Abhiyum Naanum have definitely done this. I don’t know how many times I have watched Mozhi, each time I see it I go into a different world. The natural humour, the dialogues, the music, everything was top class in Mozhi. Abhiyum Naanum was also a very touching and absorbing narrative, the travails of a father who is too “attached” to his daughter and how he overcomes that! It is shown so beautifully that every father should see this movie. I hope to catchup with Vellithirai soon.

I totally support Prakash Raj in this great service he is doing to Tamil cinema. He is giving us some respite from the commercial, rehashed, violent movies.  Hope other producers too try to follow Prakash Raj so that we see meaningful cinema which adds value to life!

Saroja, Jeyam Kondaan: Worth a watch

I recently saw 2 tamil movies-Saroja and Jeyam Kondaan and was pleasantly surprised that they were indeed very good.

1. Saroja-First things first, Saroja is a remake of a Hollywood thriller called “Judgement Night”. So I had minimal expectations and did not see the movie as I had watched Judgement Night quite recently. But when I heard from a few friends about Saroja, I decided to give it a try and was completely bowled over. This is one of those rare times when I feel that the remake entertained me more than the original, though JN was a brilliant movie. Where Saroja scores is the amazing humour which the original didn’t have at all! Saroja is a fantastic joyride alternating between tense moments and rib-tickling genuine comic moments. The humour is very decent and Premgi Amaran displays great comic timing. According to me he is the soul of the movie. Everytime he appeared on the screen, I started laughing. Apart from the humour, a couple of songs, the cinematography and the excellent background music are the other strengths of Saroja. If you have not seen this movie, please see it, you will not be disappointed. It is miles ahead of the commercial fare that we are exposed to, nowadays.
2. Jeyam Kondaan-Jeyam Kondaan was a revelation. This movie has avoided every damn cliche that we are used to in Indian films. It had a wonderful script, good humour by Vivek and gang, melodious songs (Vidyasagar) and very decent acting by the entire cast. It is a very racy movie sans any violence until the climax fight, which too, is short. The film very subtly depicts the relationship between a brother and sister. Some scenes did bring tears to my eyes. The director is a former assistant of Maniratnam and it shows in the way the scenes have been skilfully crafted. Jeyam Kondaan was a very satisfying experience.