Pattiyal

After coming out of the theater, my first reaction was, It's not so bad if Mani Ratnam decides to abandon Tamizh movies and moves to Bollywood. Mr.Ratnam, I truly don't care if the Madras Talkies website features only a Hindi movie. You see, we have lots of other promising directors here.

Pattiyal is about two street thugs, who carry out odd jobs, putting the Porul to good use from time to time. Usual story of one Anaadhai siruvan befriends another, male bonding over booze, cigarettes, etc. There is a chinna twistu - Selva played by Bharath is deaf and dumb, but manages to charm Pooja who works in a pharmacy. Arya meanwhile starts out as a regular Hero-not-interested in girl, but girl after him type, and ends up doing what Damilu Gulture forbids. Fast forward, several porul sorugal , chasing/fightu scenesu,girl friend gets raped, rapist gets killed, tamil padam swahahah ... etc etc to final assignment in Coimbatore. Matter over, Bharath returns to find Arya dead, courtesy, family of rapistu, takes revenge and is in turn bumped off by another new gangsta ... final shot with Bharath's body and Pooja wailing.

What's bad about this movie
Logic Loganathan type complaints: The heroes jump from the bridge and land conveniently on a truck passing underneath, carrying , as you guessed it, HAY !
Other:

• Arya needs to work on his Tamizh and acting - he has a done a decent job. This is not a complaint. I was surprised to find that his acting in this movie was not as bad as I had expected it to be.Mild citicism of Arya withdrawn after watching movie for second time :-)
• The Mallu middleman is irritating - Gaptain should include in his list of election promises, a mandatory requirement for actors to talk in Damilu correctly.
• Padmapriya, who incidentally has a great mega serial personality, is given a meatier role than Pooja, who holds her own.
• Thevaiyilladha build up for some Tamizh movie stars in dialogue - won't build them up further by mentioning the names here.
• Story rushed in places, but not very noticeable.
• Over-senti dialogue between two guys is always irritating.
• Arya's ghostly appearances after his death are totally uncalled for. The flashbacks are also slightly overdone.
  

What's good about the movie
Bharath
Watch out for this boy. With a good director he can go places. Maybe this movie will do for him for Ayudha Ezhuthu did for Surya. It took a while to figure out that he was acting as a disabled character.
Speed
This is a Dharini, Hari speed movie, even better - the need to empty the bladder is rarely felt.
Padmapriya
Convincing performance, not so convincing item #.
Pooja
Sigh ... scroll down.
Comedy
Yet another director proves that you don't need Vivek's vulgarity or another over paid idiot. Even that irritating pumpkin in the movie was not necessary. Asin proved conclusively in Ghajini that you don't need a comedian doing comedy to make a movie a hit.
Support Roles
Generally ok, the villains could have been better. Good support from the Koothu Pattirai guy who is the teakada waiter and becomes a thug in the end. Don't remember his name - he acted in that Navya Nair, Prasanna movie.
Meejic
Nice groovy #s from Yuvan - couple of ear worms there. I watched the movie in Bangalore, with a whole bunch of non-tamilians. There was pin-drop silence, esp, during the songs. Yeah, we make the best music in the country.
Vishnu Vardhan
Keeps things on a tight leash and story line moves without noticeably sagging anywhere. Very few distractions or unnecessary sub-plots. Manages to get the best out of the actors.

Miscellaneous

• Did you know that Toilet bowls are easily detachable. Arya proves that in the fight scene with the rapist and pulls out one like plucking vendakkai, and smashes the other bloke's skull with that.
• Noticed some of the shooting was in Besant Nagar crematorium, ECR and other areas in my neck of the woods. Sadly, I had to visit the B.Nagar crematorium quite a few times last year - if only the shooting had taken place then, it would have lightened up things a bit.
• Very smart move by Vishnu Vardhan to release it early. With VettaiyaduVilayadu in legal trouble, and Selvaraghavan reportedely re-shooting parts of his movie, this might run well for a while. If VV releases on Tamizh New Year's day, will makkal have the appetite for a third or fourth gangsta type movie ? As I said on LG's blog, it is a dangerous Alva for Selva situation.
  

Verdict
Go, watch it. Good time pass.

Questions
Pooja, will you marry me ?