Samar

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Vishal's recent films haven't had a great run and he is under pressure to reinvent himself and work his way back into the reckoning.

He probably put faith in Thiru of 'Theeratha Vilayattu Pillai'-fame to pull himself out of the rut and has probably got himself on the road to redemption with Samar.

Samar is on similar lines but there is a difference too. It is not only an action-oriented one but also one with the suspense element attached to it, which makes it a good watch, incidentally.

Vishal, known for his fast-paced stunt scenes, is seen doing it in Sama' too but the director managing to hold the audience's interest with twists and turns is the USP of the film. Trisha, looks pretty and does what is expected of her while Sunaina has nothing much to do.

The story goes like this: Sakthi (Vishal) is a happy-go-lucky young man, who enjoys trekking and guides people around in Ooty and on occasions tries to stop those involved in smuggling of sandalwood in the woods. The initial scenes show him break up with Rupa (Sunaina), who thinks he isn't 'fit enough to love girls.' Even as he continues to think as to what could have been with regard to his love life, there is a surprise in store. He gets a letter from his 'fiancee', who is in Bangkok, asking him to join her.

At the airport, he meets Trisha and they develop a rather good friendship. However on landing in Thailand, things don't go as per plans. His 'fiancee' never turns up and he meets a Tamil-speaking police officer (Sampath) who helps him. Then comes the big turnaround, he is mistaken for a business tycoon of the same name and looks and finds himself a confused man as there is even an attempt to finish him off.

To his credit, Vishal has essayed his role pretty well and gets it right in scenes when he is caught in a fix after being made to run pillar-to-post as he battles to shrug off the identity issue.

Trisha has a meaty role while Jayaprakash is impressive as the Embassy official while the baddies (Manoj Bajpai and J D Chakravarthy) could have had a more profound impact given their stature.

Yuvan Shankar Raja's songs don't rise above the ordinary while the background score by Dharan matches the mood of the movie - that of intrigue and is one of the highlights of Samar.

Thiru needs a pat for his handling of the story and script and should feel happy that he has come up with fast-paced film that will suit Vishal's image. On the flip side, the film is dragging in parts, and also the scenes sound familiar.

Samar - Game of fate

On watching so many Hollywood movies. I really expected that this is the movie we all waiting for in Kollywood. But???? The movie opens in a forest and Vishal entry scene as a forest ranger's son. And some love scenes with Sunaina. Then comes the twist when Sunaina break the love of Vishal and leave for Bangkok, few months later a letter from Sunaina to Vishal with air ticket and asked Vishal to come to Bangkok. The first half of the movie is well narrated and every audience at the edge of their seats. Really every viewers expected some twists and turns in the second half of the movie but it not to be. Failed to meet the audience expectations in the second half. Little bit a head ache came by UN-situation songs. This movie need to be a cracker but happened to be a Bushvaanam in the second half. First half 8/10. But second half is 4/10. Average 6/10 for the whole movie.

The movie was good. Vishal and everyone acted very well in the movie. Songs are not good. BGM was good in the movie. The movie was very thrilling and interesting. But the 2nd half was so boring.

In the recent past, I was feeling better about Tamil Cinema as a result of really good movies like Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kanom , Pizza and FEW others. That was because the bad aspects which always persisted in the past bad Tamil movies were starting to disappear. By bad aspects I meant, 1. Songs in the very inappropriate parts of the movie 2. Too much time wasted in introducing the male lead actor in the movie. 3. Unnecessary violent fight sequences for the male lead actor with slow motions and heroic musical background THROUGHOUT THE MOVIE. 4. VERY UNNECESSARY English lines (Mostly for the negative role character) 5. Too many characters in the movie just to create a twist in the end of the movie. 6. Only 20% of the movie tells about the story in the movie. (IF there was a STORY :P) 7. Etc Etc Etc

All these aspects which I thought were starting to disappear from Tamil movies, appeared in this ONE SINGLE MOVIE - SAMAR

I would have even given 0/10 as my rating but there is no such option. Even if there are some good aspects in the movie, those will never be noticed because these kind of movies are unhealthy for Tamil Cinema.

We do have good story tellers. Don't make them get unnoticed because BAD always reaches places and stands forward than GOOD. LET THE GOOD STAND UP !

I started watching this movie after a lot of hesitation but no regrets - for the most part.

The initial pace is a little slow until Vishal reaches Bangkok in search of his (ex) girl-friend. Soon after he gets attacked by what appears to be a mob-hit but gets rescued by another group. He is made to believe that he is a multi-millionaire which leaves him in a very confused state. A couple of days later he suddenly loses his multi-millionaire status. Along the way he meets Trisha and they fall in love.

The story begins to unfold and it turns out the whole thing is a setup. A reality show staged by 2 people (who have nothing else to do in life!!) The rest of the movie is all about how Vishal deals with all the confusion around him.

The overall concept and story is quite new to Tamil cinema & I enjoyed it.

Here is what I didn't like (enjoy):

1. Over the top acting by JD Chakravarthy & Manoj Bajpai 2. Too much explaining of the story (please learn from Steven Soderbergh in the Oceans 11/12/13 series) 3. The ending turned out to be a bit short-lived. Would've been better if the background story of the bad guys was incorporated into the climax. 4. What was the need to have a fight sequence between JD/Manoj & Vishal?

Overall - worth a one time watch.