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Singam 2 (2013)
10/10
Suriya's charisma and director Hari Gopalakrishnan's brilliant screenplay make Tamil film Singam 2 a joyful experience
11 July 2013
Duraisingam, the much-loved character of the 2010 blockbuster, Singam, starring Suriya, is back and he triumphantly returns with his family and friends for a second round of entertainment and applause.

The enthusiasm with which he is received is evident from loud screams, shrill whistles and thunderous clapping in packed theaters.

Director Hari Gopalakrishnan has dared to make a sequel of the hugely successful Singam, a proposition that is not only a rarity in Tamil cinema, but has also proved to be extremely risky in the past. Sequels do have a tendency to fail but Singam 2 obviously doesn't fall in that category.

The director has retained most of the original cast -- Suriya, Anushka Shetty, Vivek, Radha Ravi, Vijayakumar, Nassar and Nizhalgal Ravi -- and made some new additions -- the glamorous Hansika Motwani, comedy superstar Santhanam, and British actor Danny Sapani. Actress Anjali has been roped in for an item number. Prakash Raj, from the original cast, has been dropped.

Cinematographer Priyan wields the camera and the editing has been handled by VT Vijayan.

Singam 2 opens with a recap of its prequel, thus aptly setting the mood. Singam ends with Duraisingam (Suriya) accepting a new mission from the Home Minister (Vijayakumar). Though duly appointed as the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Tuticorin, Duraisingam is working undercover as an NCC commander, who is in charge of uncovering a smuggling racket that has been dangerously spreading along the coast of Tamil Nadu.

Satya (Hansika Motwani) is a student in the same school and has a huge crush on Duraisingam. As the story unfolds, we learn why Duraisingam does not marry Kavya (Anushka Shetty) as expected. Not knowing that Duraisingam is an undercover, his father (Radha Ravi) stops talking to him and refuses to let him marry Kavya.

The chief of the smuggling ring is a huge dangerous looking African Danny (Danny Sapani) and he supplies illegal drugs to two local smugglers in Tuticorin, Bhai (Mukesh Rishi) and Thangarasu (Rahman), who incidentally happens to be Satya's uncle.

Meanwhile, Duraisingam continues with his underground surveillance operations to collect enough evidence against these drug lords. The rest of the story is about how the lion vanquishes its enemies.

Vivek, as sub-inspector Erimalai, has been sidelined in favor of Santhanam, who has his own comedy track. Santhanam shows us why he is such a crowd puller with his brilliant one-liners and incredible comic timing.

Hansika is the surprise element in Singam 2. Her avatar as a student is so deglamorised that you barely recognize her.

Anushka does not have much to do in the film.

In fact it is just Surya and only Surya all the way. Suriya's makeover with a stylish mustache was much appreciated in Singam and he continues to look handsome in Singam 2.

Predictably, the film has a lot of power-packed action sequences and the story races along with a tremendous pace keeping you engaged throughout. In spite of the number of characters in the film, the screenplay is extremely clear cut, with every role outlined beautifully.

The only negative would be the length -- the movie runs for almost three hours. A slightly shorter version would have created a greater impact.

Devi Sri Prasad (DSP) who had earlier composed the music for the original film returns here. Though not extraordinary, all the tracks are lively, peppy, and foot-tapping numbers. DSP manages to keep up with the tempo of the film with his racy background score.

The Hari-Suriya combination seemed to have worked its magic once again. The screen presence and charisma of Suriya coupled with brilliance of Hari's screenplay and direction makes Singam 2 a joyful experience.
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7aum Arivu (2011)
10/10
excellent movie which shows up the spirit
15 November 2011
Behind the Movie 7th Sense: Combo of AR Murugadoss and Suriya makes this film most awaited. Amidst sky high expectations, here comes the day of release. Let us see, how strong and how sensible is this 7th Sense? In the Movie 7th Sense: Boddhi Dharma (Suriya) is a Buddhist monk belonging to 5th Century AD living in Kancheepuram of Pallava Kingdom. He transferred the rich Martial Art and Ancient Medical Science of India to China. When he reaches a small village of China, villagers treat Boddhi Dharma as inferior and keep him away. Later when he cures an unknown deadly disease prevailed in the village and fought with enemies, people respect and treat him as a god. Boddhi Dharma ends his life eating the poisoned food offered by Chinese people.

Coming to present, Chinese Government starts 'Operation Red' using Dong Lee (Johny Tri Nguyen), a Martial Art expert. This Operation is to initiate bio-war against India using a viral disease for which medicine is alone known to Boddhi Dharma. Around the same time, Genetics Engineering student Subha Srinivas (Shruthi Hasan) cracks the DNA of Boddhi Dharma only to find that Aravind (Suriya), working in Bombay Circus belonging to the same lineage of Boddhi Dharma's clan matches in 80% of DNA. To tackle the menace of Dong Lee and Operation Red, Subha manipulates the DNA of Aravind with Boddhi Dharma. Was she successful? Was she able to preserve the ancient knowledge of Boddhi Dharma in Aravind forms the climax.

Values of the Movie 7th Sense: The impeccable and untouched story line of AR Murugadoss can be awarded 110 out of 100 marks. The way Murugadoss mixed Ancient History with Modern Science and the kind of racy scripting he followed will leave you spellbound. Direction wise, trade mark of Murugadoss is seen more in second half. Camera of Ravi K Chandran, sharp editing of Anthony and Art Work of Rajeevan stood highlighted helping the director to come out with enhanced output. Music by Harris Jayaraj is vibrating in background score but songs seem to have reduced the tempo of film. Martial Art compositions by Peter Heins are extraordinary. Production values of Lakshmi Ganapathi, Red Giant are all time high.

Performance wise, Suriya is most effective and his perfectionist attitude is seen in each frame. Both as Boddhi Dharma and Aravind, he tears the screen apart. Finally Shruthi Hasan has got a lengthy and meaty role to perform. In fact she hogged a screen time more than Suriya and she is exactly Heart for entire flick. Vietnamese actor Johny Tri Nguyen is terrific. He has a unique body language with sharp eyes that can hypnotize you. Remaining others are just okay.

Out of the Movie 7th Sense: Recreation of History visually on the screen and saying the same with conviction is a daunting task. Murugadoss added more of the burden to himself by bringing a connect between Ancient History and its applicability in Current times. Nevertheless, this gem of a director has caught a perfect balance and result is the exquisite, praiseworthy output. In conjunction, Murugadoss is more adorable for adding of moral values to his storytelling. It is our duty to respect and follow our Ancestral Traditions which are more valuable than present day Science. India has a great heritage and one should feel proud of. The biggest drawback and the reason why we Indians in spite of inherited with rich history are standing back in contemporary world is because of lack of focus and various difficulties built with in our system to conduct researches.

First half is deliberately narrated slowly with boring episodes so as to give a kicking feel in second half. Too many cinematic liberties, high level Science are spoken about in the film yet Murugadoss keeps everything simple and understood easily for front benchers too. That is the real quality of director where Murugadoss is brilliant and different from others.

We regularly speak of Six Senses in normal life. This 7th Sense elaborates about the Ancient Science and Traditional Heritage that is more sensible and is to be preserved for coming generations. Best examples are Charaka Samhita that dealt on Genetical Diseases, Arya Bhatta who gave an idea of Astronomy and many more which are above the present day research findings.

Commercial success of the film is to be wait and seen but for audience who ask for novelty in plot and narration are to be fully satisfied by Murugadoss in this Lesser Entertainment and More Enlightening show of 7th Sense.
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The Smurfs (2011)
9/10
gud one
17 August 2011
I just watched The Smurfs with my wife, my 10 year old son, and my 5 year old daughter and we all enjoyed the movie very much. I had promised to take my kids to see this after seeing the first preview several months ago and I was concerned with the poor ratings on IMDb and poor critic reviews. However, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how good the film was. It had a good story line and was much funnier than I expected.

The live characters were cast very well with Hank Azaria playing a perfect Gargamel and the smurf voices were good as well, especially Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf and Katy Perry as Smurfette (my daughter's favorite).

Bottom line, if you have small children or you were a fan of the cartoon growing up, you will enjoy this film.
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