Cine phile salvager – Ayan
Welcome to the cine phile shipwreck salvaging service.
This is one stop shop to salvage something worthwhile from otherwise transient masala movies. Please feel free to recommend things to be salvaged from your favourite masala movie here.
This week I was asked to salvage some useful things from AVM’s current masala hit ‘Ayan’, a thamizh language masala ship captained by ace lens man K.V.Anand. This is a masala ship powered by the latest remodelled turbo nuclear engine called Surya. The ship’s engine itself was remodelled to fit some awesome ships like ‘Nanda’, ‘Kakka Kakka’, ‘Pithamagan’ and ‘Varanam Ayiram’. For this trip the ship is carrying a much lighter pay load of ‘Aachi masala powder’. The ship has been colourfully decorated by Rajeevan and nicely presented by the lenswork of M.S.Prabhu. In flight entertainment was enhanced by Harris Jayaraj music troupe and acrobatic stunt entertainment by ‘Kanal’ Kannan and some guys who choreographed Casino royale’s stunts.
The ship has some really dead weight elements like the mannequin Tamannah and scarecrow Akashdeep who pretend to be the stereotypical heroine and villain characters to hilarious effect.
The ship could have easily been remodelled from the light weight village water raft ‘Velu’ that the Surya engine propelled to success last year. The Ship’s captain thought cleverly not to bother to use the engine in any unique way and simply changed the exteriors of the velu village boat to look like a carribean cruise. Now that the ship has achieved its purpose (providing the production house with this summer’s block buster), it has arrived at this Vizag ship salvaging yard where we will identify only the parts that we can take and use and throwaway the rest.
Inventory of Real Assets
- The ship’s nuclear engine – Surya modeled as Deva Veluchamy
- The ship’s propellor – Prabhu Ganesan as Doss
- Ship’s navigation – Vijay TV Jagan as Chitti
- Ship’s way points – Locales in Africa
- Drug smuggling scenarios
Detailed Description of assets
Surya – this engine was initially a raw – engine – unsure of its power or performance. Ever since the master ship builder Bala and co have re caliberated this engine – it has been a high performer pulling heavy payload ships like Kakka Kakka to its destination. This particular ship is rather light and for the engine the load is just chicken feed and it shows when the ship is in its ‘cruise mode’ – The engine has had a complete blast in this ship – but from a salvager’s point of view – the engine has got to be careful and more lighter payloads can easily cause engine burnout. The salvaging team recommends ‘ appropriate payload commensurate with the engine’s capability’ for future use.
Prabhu Ganesan – This is one asset that has been grossly misused by almost all ship builders except Mani Ratnam. K.V.Anand has rightly remodeled the erstwhile engine cum propellor as the modified turbo propellor that also doubles up as the ballast providing the necessary weight to the light weight ship – Without this, the extreme power of the ‘Surya’ engine could have toppled the ship much like the fabulous speed boat crashes like ‘Aaru’. Well done to the casting team and a note for other ship builders to use this asset carefully and with purpose.
Jagan – This is the first time this system for navigation is being used in a vehicle of this sort and the system sure lives up to its promise. The system is loaded with a twisted sense of humour and its audibles are hilarious while at the same time being sensible. The ship which was proceeding in the initial phases like being in a race without the track map, gets a course correction near the half way mark from this system and thankfully the system is tolerable and thorough when it is seriously jotting out direction. This system can be a good asset to all ship builders. The system – being new has been somewhat misused in the initial phases for entertainment sake and for the sake of ‘hero- heroine’ bonding and associated triviality. The salvaging team recommends sensible use of this system going forward.
Congo and Africa – The ship makes some stops in Africa in its journey and the way point is much more enticing than the destination. The mountains and valleys and the crowded bazaars of africa have been nicely recorded by the roving camera crew of M.S.Prabhu and the ship’s video logs of the bewitching continent are worthy of revisiting.
Drug smuggling scenarios There is a brief phase in the journey where the story of a group smuggling drugs in their guts is retold with some disturbing candor. This phase is easily one of the best phase in the ship’s journey, while sadly this phase is used as a side trick for entertainment instead of according a due elaboration. A note to the ship’s captain K.V.Anand – please use the research and create a more detailed recount of this story in future.
Apart from these assets – sadly the rest of the ship is wreckworthy after the purpose has been served – The salvaging crew recommends Thamizh film ship builders guild that more wreck worthy assets they make, more polluted waterways they get. With assets like Surya engine, more care should be exercised and better course designed. It is a bane of the thamizh cine philes that some awesome components are found isolated in more such masala ship wrecks than as individual intelligent ships filled with worth payload and good design. Till that day comes, we will continue to keep salvaging the masala waters of Thamizh cinema.
Tags: AVM, Ayan, K.V.Anand, surya
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Jai- ROFL extremely hilarious, I loved the post.Yes the movie had loads of potential but ends up as a has been.Not bad at all especially considering the current spate of movies.But not the brilliant entertainer it could have been.all said & done Surya packs in a lot of confidence, the action scenes are well canned and Jagan rocks.I think he should get some good projects now.With Ananda Thandavam turning out to be a disappointment this should make money at the box office.
Jaiganesh..you saved me from an journey into the deep blue sea, on board this frail carrier..
@Ram – I am not discouraging anyone from seeing this movie – just that proceed without expectations and you might be sweetly surprised at the ‘time pass’ value – However for a time pass movie – a lot of research and detailing has gone into it – I am not sure if it needs to be that way – more justice could have been done to it if the approach would have been to handle it a bit more seriously. A slightly shankar approach would have helped a little bit – but looks like KVA never wanted to take this film seriously – just a surya talent show.
@Jaiganesh..I am with you in your intentions..but I would not like to spend my money anymore on such movies..unless they are worth every penny..I would expect every movie to be supported by immense research and detailing..along with imagination and creativity..Already wasted lot of money on nonsensical cinema…If I dont watch Ayan, then it would be a lesson to KVA to do his work better next time..I would continue to patronize a ‘Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu’ , ‘Poo’ or ‘Sub.Puram’ instead..It gives me more satisfaction and fulfillment..a personal choice..your post was a guideline..inspite of your intentions..
@RamV – I guess you are taking a stand – ‘there is no such thing as a good masala movie’. However it is undeniable fact that sometimes masala movies too can be fun – however not in a wholsome way.
@Jaiganesh…Not any stand as such…but I prefer to promote cinema that can be appreciated in different dimensions over a long period of time…Momentary pleasures is starting to look shallow…sometimes, these films dont even give me momentary pleasure…for example ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ was an ordeal for me..It was a honest effort by Menon to do something different..but somewhere he faltered…may be too many things not properly paced into the screenplay..thats all..While films which have depth and reasoning in them, stay for a longer period in ones mind..some die with us…Vedam Pudithu will surely..Ayan, I am sure might not be categorized as any commercial vehicle, as both KVA and Surya strive to achieve some quality..It might be fun..but not worth my Rs.200..If you suggest it is worth a look..I would definitely take a look..
@ Ram V – true – however the broader topic I want to discuss in this post is the problem with cine lover in thamizh movies – they have to watch an entire masala madness to catch that 30 to 45 mins of brilliance – this is a problem as there is no parallel cinema in Thamizh film world – the works like Subramaniapuram, Chennai 28 and Paruthiveeran are so far and few in between that such 45 mins phases in a masala movie is all that one has hopes for these days.
@Jai..if its ok to call you that..yes its difficult for anyone to do that..but as Adoor said in one of his interview’ Without People Movement, good cinema cannot survive’…The whole point being…film makers are obviously and rightly after making money…they invest and they want returns..but when they realize only good movies, gets them return..ones with little masala..they would themselves start emphasizing on attention to details..
The other group of filmmakers dedicated to good cinema, will be few and always be there…
So the idea is the cine lover and the film maker to join hands for good cinema..A very high ideal..how to achieve?????
Finally, a post on ‘Ayan’!
Was this meant to be a Telugu remake or something?!
It wasn’t all that, although it kept me mildly entertained.
Am I the only one who thinks that Tamanah looks like Madhuri?!
Well, she looked like a cross between Rinke Khanna and Isha Koppikar, but in the songs she ‘became’ Madhuri!!
Surya was alright, but the film had TERRIBLE dubbing!
And weren’t those drug portions taken from the gripping ‘MARIA FULL OF GRACE’?
I did like the chewing gum with diamonds scene though :-)
Nice read VPJ…:)….
@steve – thats where PFC scores the goal. Tell me more of the film MFG and offcourse the chewing gum scene too reminds me of some movie – I am not just able to place it. Biggest fun aspect is that the movie’s dialogues are full of sarcastic poke at conventional masala thamizh movies and in one particular scene the movie shows a film director asking for english movie DVDs for ‘inspiration’!!
However to be fair to KVA. Chennai is long known as a smuggling hub and crazier ways of smuggling Gold, diamonds and drugs have been reported in news papers including the ‘gut’ channel as portrayed in the movie.
Felt the movie could have been better (especially in the second half). And also I felt it was tad longer because of all the preplanned fights and stuff to encourage masala viewers and also songs slowdown the movie.
@ Ram- if spending Rs.200 on a movie like Ayan is the issue for you,why dont you watch it in a single screen for less than Rs.100 then? Since you are in B’lore you have a lots of options to watch Tamil,Telugu & Malayalam movies and not limit yourself to the multiplexes alone.Will be writing about B’lore single screens this week in the next part of my single screen series.
@Sethumadhavan…Rs.200 was just an example…it can be Rs.50 and 2.5 hrs also…Jaiganesh’s review, unintentionally, though, is suggesting the drawbacks of the the movie…I am skeptical about going to the cinema hall..with these in mind…thats alll..
Ram- if you have decided to completely stay away from the masala movies altogether & want all your movies to be intelligent cinema then maybe you should stay away from Ayan.But if you still feel like watching a masala movie once in a while while still keeping most of your time for the movies like S’puram,Poo,VKK etc then maybe you can watch Ayan.
Sethu..its not that I have completely decided to stay away…I avoid them as much as possible..I do go to see a few..but I have been dissappointed from whichever one I watched recently…like ‘Vaaranam..’ or ‘2 Harihar Nagar’ or ‘Duniya’(I felt it was tad amateurish) or ‘ADZ’ or ‘Arundhati’..I did like ‘MMale’ for its photography and simplicity…but for the other films listed above…I just felt my time was being wasted…thats all…I am very careful about going to a cinema hall now, for a masala film, however I am ready to take the risk for a different film like Gulaal, DEV D, Thalappavau, Delhi 6, VKK etc…even if some of them might be not quite good..they still have something to offer as against the earlier movies…
Sethu..all said and done…I end up watching almost all movies…ha ha…bad habits leave late..If I am trying to cut down on them..Masala should be the first kind to prune…thats it…just a choice…nothing more to it…no stand…no stay away…no walk out… :-)
Hilarious review Jai. Couldnt agree more with you; without Surya, the film would have capsized. lol
Superbly written review. I have no plans to watch the movie, but I might for Prabhu’s sake. Again, great writing, bro.
Ah!
welcome NOV and Rakesh to PFC!!
Thanks for your generous comments.