Thalapathi

The movie with the combo of Mani and Thala's of neighboring states and with splendid tunes from Illayaraja ,a certain delight is a sure bet !! Trite , crisp dialogues are characteristics of this movie just as any mani ratnam flick is. The scene which stands out for its 'crispness' comes the intensely set one in which Rajni after being imprisoned in the initial scenes is released as somebody else turns in as approval for the crime which he created. Surya,(Rajni) unaware of who has sent him, walks across to him n asks him, " YYYYEN?" After a few pauses he gets the reply," DEVA!! ". He comes out of the room and walks in the corridor just to witness Deva (Mamooty) and there begins the friendship between Surya and Deva which is so deep, committed and brilliant. The tone of most of the scenes keeps one gripping and with its melodramatic ingredients and songs, contributes to a bit of dilution of its intensity though. The storyline, a slight adaptation of mahabarata with superstar playin the Karna character to finesse is simply awesome.

A sure must watch flick !!

For this movie, 10 out of 10 is probably too low. That's how good this movie is. Among Tamil cinema's timeless classics, it came in the late 80's and now its 2010 but still I watch it with the same enthusiasm and clap/whistle at some of the dialogues from this film. Maniratnam had a hard time directing Rajnikanth and Mammootty but if he can give a product like this through such hardships, I pray he goes through such hardships again (Sorry Mani Sir!). Ilayaraja is the life and soul of this film. Rajni's best ever performance along with Mammooty. There were the few Nayagan inspirations (Doing good for 4 people cannot be wrong, the inspector beating the hero and then the inspector getting killed by the same hero, etc). Who else can take the Karna-Duryodhana friendship from the Mahabharatha and weave such a magical story in accordance to today's times? Mani is magic!

This sets the relationship between Karan and Duryodhana in modern times, in criminal setting and tries to answer the age old question, "Why was a supposedly good person like Karan adamant on his friendship with Duryodhana? What bonded the two for life?"

Maniratnam's story, screenplay, dialogues and direction are meant to make you invest in and care for the protagonists, to pray for them, to be fascinated by them and also to be repelled by their actions and intrigued by their motivations. And he succeeds spectacularly. The drama is of the highest notch, with many a scene guaranteed to make you reach out for your nearest handkerchief or shoulder.

The action sequences are particularly intense, with no background score, the only sounds being of fists crashing against different body parts. I haven't experienced such visceral thrills in a long time.

Illyaraaja's music and the background score are beautiful. I had to look at the subtitles to understand the words and hence, I was a bit behind the curve on occasion. But, the music has been masterfully created to make you feel pathos and pathos you feel, upon hearing it. However, one of the few grouses with the movie that I had was the frequent song and dance sequences. I understand that this was a commercial potboiler, but, these broke the tension created by the proceedings. And the songs were longer than 5 minutes on most occasions.

The acting is, almost surreally, exceptional.

Like Kamal Haasan after him, the Hindi movie writers have tried to "Bollywoodize" Mr. Kanth rather than letting him be. Those who get surprised by the frenzy and emotions that surround his every release should watch him in this. They would come away enlightened.

I have seen only bits and pieces of Rajnikanth's acting prowess, in roles that were under cooked, such as those in "Hum" and "Andha Kanoon". The intensity of his performance, here, is like a physical thing, which crashed into me and left a mark on my psyche. It is breathtaking and barely believable. It must be easily one of his finest acts. This is all the more appreciable as there was ample opportunity for hamming it up. But, you only have to stare into the depth of his eyes to believe in the credibility of his threat.

Mamooty is excellent as the benevolent don. However, Rajnikanth is in such exquisite form, that he outshines Mamooty in almost all the scenes that they have together. Srividya shines in the role of Kunti. Arvind Swamy doesn't have much to do, in terms of acting. Amrish Puri is wasted. The film would not have been poorer, if his role had been completely edited out. The origin or the reason for his animosity with Mamooty is never revealed and that takes away some of the sheen of believability from his actions.

The editing could have tighter. Also, there were perhaps too many coincidences that served to drive the story forward. I didn't find a fault in them, as they helped to ratchet up the tension and the drama. But, perhaps, this could have been minimized.

Also, the production house / Amazon Prime Videos would do well to upload a better copy of the movie. The video often became pixellated, which wasn't expected. There are many scenes wherein the background score is missing. Thankfully, none of the dialogues have been affected.

This film is about 15 years old. i watched it quite a few times and it never fails to impress me. As said earlier it is a modern version of the Mahabharata, with Rajni as Karna.

Its starts with a 14 year old mother forced to abandon her son and the son grows up in the city slums far away..he befriends a underworld don and swears loyalty to death for him Meanwhile the mother gets married and has a son who becomes a top government official. Nobody knows of her earlier son except for her husband. Thing come to head as her younger son is posted to where the elder(who the mother doesn't know is her son) is dominating.

Watch the movie to see what happens. The mother-son scenes are amazingly touching

Gangs are unrepentantly personal in matters of business when cash is handled by others to keep business in the know of exigencies embedded in his thesis deeming enemy the enemy as long as the women around have an eye for details keeping mothers in abeyance as a choice of business over cash or enemies in abeyance to keep cash over business. Either way, you lose one or the other to keep at the game of war in the name of love until the mother wants him dead for enemies out of line in search of the mother avering thereby and therein that women kept the money for mothers till enemies of substance battle it out over which one to be held guilty of cash and which one to be held guilty for business when militaries take it all to keep doors and windows redundant in witnessing wars of enemies.