Eeram- S Pictures does it again
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Imagine a typical day in your life when you go around with the regular routine, be it at work or home and then settle down to end the day on a rather nonchalant note. And at that particular moment if you were to come across something out of the ordinary, wouldn’t that really catch you by surprise? I had a similar experience last week when I saw the latest Tamil movie from the stable of S Pictures- Eeram. Now S Pictures, the movie production firm of Director Shankar has been known to make some small/medium budget interesting movies (unlike the big budget mass movies directed by Shankar himself for outside production houses 
) like Kadhal, Veyyil, Kalloori etc. S Pictures has enabled debutant directors like Simbudevan to make a mark and also given a fresh lease of life to directors like Balaji Sakthivel,Vasantha Balan etc who couldn’t achieve much success with their initial movies. Continuing in this journey we now find another debutant, Arivazhagan (who has assisted Shankar earlier) coming up with his first film- Eeram (which means dampness in English).
As the movie begins, a cop Vasu ( Aadhi of Mirugam fame in a totally different avatar ) is called on to investigate the death of Ramya ( Sindhu Menon ).When Vasu arrives at the spot it is raining and throughout the movie water in the form of rain or otherwise is seen as an element in the narrative. Ramya’s body is recovered from a bath tub in an apartment of a high rise apartment complex. And since there is a suicide note left behind, it makes everybody including the police convinced that it’s a case of suicide. But somehow Vasu feels that there is something else apart from what meets their eyes and carries on with the investigation. And as Vasu gets emotional after seeing Ramya’s body, it is revealed that Ramya and Vasu used to love each other in their college days in Trichy.
Ramya’s sister Divya ( Saranya Mohan ) supported their love affair but since Ramya’s father disapproves of the same, they drift apart. Vasu goes on to fulfill his dream of becoming an IPS officer and Ramya marries Bala ( Nandha), a businessman and moves to Chennai. All this is depicted through flashback and then cutting back to the present there occurs a series of deaths all in a bizarre manner, one after the other. But this makes Vasu all the more determined to solve the mystery as he thinks there is a link to all these deaths. Slowly the movie evolves into an interesting thriller with a hint of the paranormal/supernatural touch.
One of the major highlights of the movie is the interval point where the director makes a startling revelation and manages to maintain the flow of the narrative later on adequately.Manoj Paramahamsa’s camera work literally adds strength to the film and brings out the blue and red colors (the colors by themselves qualify as elements in the movie) brilliantly. Thaman’s background score is certainly adequate and talking about the performances from the cast one can say that Arivazhagan’s choice of actors is excellent. Aadhi carries off the cop act convincingly and Nandha once again reminds you that he is an actor with potential. Sindhu Menon truly impresses and both Saranya Mohan and Srinath (as Nandha’s friend) do justice to their roles.
Overall this is a film which does manage to impress and keep the viewer fairly engrossed. It’s a welcome addition to the growing list of interesting Tamil movies the current year has witnessed so far.
Tags: Aadhi, Arivazhagan, Manoj Paramahamsa, Nandha, Saranya Mohan, shankar, Sindhu Menon
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
I have been hearing a lot about this movie, waiting for it,s release in Mumbai.
By the way your first para was priceless.
Glad you liked it.With positive word of mouth that the movie is generating I’m sure it will find a release in Mumbai shortly- keep your eyes open.
am with you about the first para! sethu… good one bro!
Was a treat to watch that movie. http://mylife-intercut-cinema.blogspot.com/2009/09/review-of-my-reactions-after-eeram.html
Glad you liked the movie.Just left a comment on your blog !!!
Really doesn’t seem to be a very different subject, but again we see that the subject treatment and team work has done wonders.
This is where we should appreciate foriegn film makers who make audience glued to the screen with concepts which are the same. I feel many can draw inspiration from these guys. By foriegn, I just dont mean American. For instance Chinese, Korean, Italian directors…films made by these guys are not different in concepts, but the treatment and the passion to make it in thier own terms and believing in ‘originality’ of works and we always are awed by them. I am
And, yes we have our very own directors, like the ones Sethu has mentioned coming from S Pictures banner and the others coming from UTV banner. I hope there are many banners which encourage these film makers.
Nice review Sethu!
Yes Sridhar you are right – subject and team work will surely make a difference to movies of this genre.Look at Yaavarum Nalam ( 13 B ) or Eeram as examples.Yes we now should look outwards- not to copy but to prove we can make movies of International standards too.
While Shankar continues to make big budget mass movies, through S Pictures he is able to encourage other filmmakers to make sensible cinema and that is something to be noted.Now Simbudevan after making 2 films for S Pictures is making a new movie outside called Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam- a complete western adventure comedy film, something to look out for.So its great to see more such people coming up.
Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam – Has Prabhu Deva as hero right? With a varied cast.
Look at the smartness, its a cow boy film but these guys add comedy and a south indian angle to it(QGM was different, it was a satire I would say). But, IKMS is straightforward for masses and the treatment would be different.
IKMS would be an out and out entertainer mainly focused on masses(with different treatment, correct!). However, my point of view is on serious films(Not literally serious) which add value to the Indian Film Arena. Thats where I guess the foundation is being laid now.
Tamil film makers are good in thier thinking, they want to make sense and also want to make money out of it!
@ Sridhar- Irumbu Kottai has Raghavendra Lawrence and not Prabhu Deva.Yes its a mass movie- but imagine the genre – not something that a lot of people would have dared to do even recently.We need more variety in the films we make.
IKMS has Lawrence!!! eh!!! Gayi bhains pani me…
Lets wait n watch.
Any chance of this movie being available with English sub-titles in a DVD?
The movie is hardly 2 weeks old in the theatres.So DVD with English sub-titles will take some time.
Saw it over the weekend at sangam cinemas…gr8 stuff from S Pictures…gladly this tamil cinema has given quite a number of good films…
Hey Sethu,i dint know how to contact you so I m making this post.This is not about this blog.I don know if u have already read this review.I became a little excited after reading it and had to write a few comments after the review.This might waste your time
all languages.
http://indiablogs.searchindia.com/2009/09/17/unnaipol-oruvan-review-unnaipol-oru-madayan/
Can u please read it and try to guess if this man has meant anything,if hes being honest with his opinion??I m very curious about that link.I think they need publicity and i might be giving it to them.But this is a topic that has fascinated me.A lot of people might adore a movie like anything and the same movie can be hated by a section.But this man says that he likes “A Wednesday” and he hates UPO.But i found both of them to be more or less the same,even the dialogues were translated literally,I m not saying UPO is bad.Sorry if I am wasting your time.I read most of your blogs and I thought it would be ok to approach you.My name is Arun and i see a lot of movies
Hi Arun- I’ll check the link you’ve mentioned sometime soon & give you my response accordingly.IMO I think both UPO and A Wednesday are good movies- one a good adaptation of the other & dont see why any hue and cry over the same is happening