RIFLE RANGE BOY

I (ஐ, Tamil; 2015) Many recommended that I should watch this Kollywood outing which they say is different from the usual fare. I disagree. Throughout the film, I had the recurrent déjà vu that I had seen this and that. This 49 year old hero (Vikram aka John Kennedy Victor aka Chiyaan), is saying that he is no push over and appears with body toned and muscle contours chiselled out to perfection and have no qualms of exhibiting it. Nevertheless, his age shows in the form of crow feet and peri-orbital wrinkles. Just like his previous outing (Anniyan comes to mind), he acts as a deformed hunched back (ala Notre Dam) with neurofibromatosis-like papules. And the plot of vengeance involving calculated and varied manner of getting is so overdone. Perhaps the youngsters who throng cinemas again and again and burn the ticket collections must be mesmerised with the gaudy display of props, display of the female and male anatomy, the elaborate preparation of set dances with various motif...

Thandavam (Dance: தாண்டவம், Tamil; 2012) I never really fancied Vikram (a.k.a. Chinaaya Kennedy) and his over the top overacting. One friend told me to view as it is supposed to different from his previous flicks. Unconvinced, I gave it a go anyway, but I beg to differ with his opinion. It is the same broody guy carrying the whole world's worry on his shoulders (like in Anniyan). And he is blind on top of it (like in Kasi). And trust the Indian masala to extrapolate the technique of echolocation, which was devised to help the visually handicapped to move around without knocking into things by hearing the echo of their voice, to be used instead by a blind ex-intelligence officer to become a vengeful killer! (A walking blind killer machine) It starts with a 2011 New Year bomb blast in Tower Bridge London. A year later, people are seen leaving flowers at a monument erected to commemorate the dead. So is a blind man, Vikram, who is seen playing the organ in a church later....