Boys

S. Shankar has gained quite a reputation for making expensive crapfest. I have only seen his 'Indian' and 'Nayak, The Real Hero' and loathe both movies (though they have great soundtracks and female leads). Little did I know that he directed 'Boys'. After watching the movie I must give him some credit for making something that is at least watchable.

'Boys' starts off as an entertaining teen flick following six teenagers but the story slowly progresses as the protagonists move into adulthood, a little too fast, and then the movie tackles various social issues. Themes like friendship, sex, censorship and injustice are well presented here. 'Boys' is considered a poignant film for the middle-class Indians.

The humour works very well. One can easily relate to the various situations the teenagers experience. However, the more intense sequences are loud and overdone. They appear theatrical and melodramatic.

A.R. Rahman's score is terrific. The visualization of the first two songs and the romantic songs is very poor. The special effects used in the songs are awful. The lyrics of the romantic songs are clichéd but the rest of the songs have great lyrics. I especially liked the last one, 'Secret of My Success'.

S.Shankar has cast an ensemble of newcomers and the five actors who play the title role, Siddharth, Nakul, Bharath, Sai Srinivas, and Manigandan, all perform very well especially in the comedic sequences but they ham it up in the more intense scenes. Genelia D'Souza is competent. Vivek is likable as the supportive Mangalam Sir.

'Boys' is almost three hours long and it could have used some editing. Yet, it's still an enjoyable watch despite the aforementioned as long as you have a working fast-forward button on your remote control. I'm surprised that the man behind abysmal tripe like 'Indian' and 'Nayak' came up with something more 'human'.

This movie is awesome and a ground breaker when it came to Tamil Cinema or even Indian Cinema as a whole. What I cant figure out is how the director/writer came up with all the stuff seen in this movie? He must have interviewed hundreds of college going guys throughout Chennai and studied their life very carefully. The ideas here are pure genius and typical of Shankar, even if too controversial. Sujatha also writes dialog for most other Tamil films but only when it comes to Shankar's movies does the dialog really stand out. Shankar has the ability to bring out the best in every performer, actor and writer, even extra. Even if Mani Ratnam makes more realistic movies, Shankar is the better director for being far more creative in his work. For example, the "Malgova Aunty" scene and dialog threw me off the chair. I was on the floor. If you don't like this movie, then you're

a) Completely retarded b) A conservative c) From a mofussil background d) All of the above

If only Shankar could be as creative as he was in this movie, in Anniyan which was absolute crap in comparison. I don't think that even Shivaji would be as good as Boys. I hope that after Shivaji, Shankar makes Boys-2.

This is a first of its kind teen drama in Tamil. Puthiya paadhai, indru poi naalai vaa,pudhiya mannargal, kadhal desam have equal share of teen drama but not raw enough like Boys. The visionary of youngsters predicted in 2003 is brilliant.

Vikatan wrote 'Chiiii' on its first page but now giving reviews to trash like Iruttu arayil murattu kuthu, hara hara mahadevaki, zombie etc in the name of A movie.

This is a gem for many reason. Everyone starred in this movie got a better life. Panjum panjum sernda thappu, Dating, Barbie doll anime, 6 ambitioous people starting a music brand, getting sony sponsor, Mtv shows oh my god a lotttt of things that people doesn't even knew existed.

This movie was spoiled by the boomer 80s kids who objected this like its a sin for people to enjoy their life, elope, find their way in life.

The audio track of this movie is a GEM. This is a dictionary book for electrifying music. Even after 20 years the songs are so fresh and enjoyable. I'm a fan of 'Ayyappan' song. Most underrated. Just look at the artists in this movie - Karthik, Tippu, Sunitha Sarathy, Adnan Sami, Blazze, vasundra Das, Clinton, Lucky Ali uffff...🔥 Secret of success is such a motivational song.

The main story is 5 teen boys who are controlled by their parents wants to break the chain and live a free life. One of them falls in love with a girl, supported by their friends, plans to elope. To get their life going they opt in for their interest of life - starting a music band named 'Boys'. Remaining of the movie describes the adventures they go through, downfall, struggles in life on the way to success.

Vivek gets a great credit to this movie. He motivates them, advises them, helps them, lateral thinking etc. Sendhil appears for just 2 scenes in the movie but explains Data and Information concepts - Information is wealth.

I still gave 8 rating only because of the obscene scenes which are not needed in the movie. Those scenes almost dilutes what director wants to convey. If those portions were edited, this movie might make an impact.

Let kids be free. Let them go out of house, let them try new things, let them learn life on their own, let them figure out their future that's all its about.

Boys!!! It is agreed that it hoists the best in every scene. But when I finished seeing the movie I thought that there is still something to come. And some of the scenes are over imaginative, when considering the masses for whom the film is taken. And Of Course!!! there are copy from many Hollywood films, for example driving bike in opposite direction in the road(MATRIX), a disgusting scene including first boy with the prostitute(Forrest Gump) and the dance sequences which are copied mostly from TV music channels.

The sexual content of this movie may pioneer the way to most of the films yet to come. The song having the couple dancing in junked place with bottles and bats are a poor imagination and rotten graphics. Shankar-no more audiences like you old style graphics in songs.

AR Rahmans songs and the camera lifts the film. The actors don't do much coz they try to act natural.

On the whole its worth seeing it once for not seeing it again. Coz its a special movie!!! :-)

Boys is a movie of Chain of what the director thinks are good scenes

5/10

Most of the criticism surrounding Boys more or less relates to Shankars traditional story lines with high morals and family entertainment. Boys in far from a family movie and it is perhaps the most sexually explicit Tamil movie to ever come out, without actually having any nudity after censorship.

Boys is thus something one just cannot watch together with the family as most of it concerns the sexual adventures of 5 Boys, all newcomers, putting in superb performances. Now, while people who consider themselves morally upright and strict may find this embarrassing, most of the actual teenagers of India will actually be disturbed at how accurately it depicts what they actually do, without their parents knowing.

Boys will be Boys and that needs to be accepted. Society is'nt as squeaky clean as one would like to believe. First the teen, especially college going, audience will be disturbed, then thrilled and then appreciative. This made the movie a success in the cities but a lot of revenue actually comes from conservative suburbs and villages where people viewing will not have a clue of whats going on since the movie reflects the behavior of mostly, socialite urban populace.

But with Shankar's style and AR Rehman's music, Boys is certainly a superb movie if you don't have any of the reservations discussed above. It does'nt have a great storyline on the line of Indian, Mudhalvan etc but Shankar injects quality into each and every scene, making this movie highly enjoyable from the beginning to the end. Its just sheer bloody fun and genius.