Mozhi: a new language
Many of us catch the blockbusters and the critically acclaimed movies, while we miss out on the good ones that lie in between. I didn’t want to lose out this time when I heard of the surprise Tamil hit, Mozhi (Language). Yes, it wasn’t the ultimate in movie-making; it was feel-good, but a good kind of feel-good.
I had already read Sudhish Kamath’s post on this movie. So, I didn’t need a flash to notice the similarities with the Rajkumar Hirani (Munnabhai) type of movie-making. For the same reason, I won’t delve into it any further than saying that the resemblance is remarkable.
But the story isn’t really about a soft-hearted don or some thing like that. Though the core is the love story between a musician (keyboard player for movies) and a deaf-mute girl, their respective friends too aren’t ignored. The protagonists lead the pack of kind-hearted people who fill the movie. The other angle is the heroine being strong-willed and doing well in life in spite of her disability. Sounds different, overall? That’s where it all starts.
There are many similarities to typical commercial movies; yet this movie stands out. There are the usual comical scenes at the start to fill up time and lighten the audience. Songs are mostly foreign escapades to the shores of Mauritius. Certainly, the screenplay is full of loop-holes and songs are commercial intrusions mostly. But we can forgive all that when the intention is noble, right? Songs are melodious but not really memorable. If the songs and their picturisations were a couple of notches up, the movie would have been a lot better and not just a wannabe musical.
The comedy is mostly original, thoroughly enjoyable and blends well into the script. This includes some digs on movies too. A certain amount of subtlety is a constant presence, matched by the realistic dialogues of Viji.
This is the so-called last movie of Jyothika, before she retires into marital bliss. It is said that she decided to do this one last movie though she wasn’t planning to take up any more offers. Good decision on hind-sight — she has done well though not excelled, but it is a role you’ll remember her for. Prithviraj, the mini-superstar of Malayalam movies, fits easily into his character. He actually has more screen-time than his pair. Prakashraj (aka Prakash Rai), along with doing an unusual light role, also produces this movie. Brahmanandam, the comedy king of Telugu, does well here even with a possibly dubbed voice.
Kudos to the team of Radhamohan (director) and Prakashraj for bringing back decent commercial fare! The people seem to be lapping it up eagerly. Now, we need to get behind those in the industry who say “we are only giving what the audience want”!
Tags: Tamil
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
Great job by the Prakashraj team. Except for the lame King Kong animation for logo, his production company has done a good job. Prithiviraj did the best acting in this movie, IMHO. What i find to be the crowning achievement in this movie is the various sub-plots. Each character has a back story and for a tamil commercial movie, that is something new.
waiting to catch this one.. i really like jothika, and unfortunately she disappointed with an avg jillunu oru kadhal, so i’m hoping she makes up for it with mozhi. and having only seen prithviraj in kana kanden (his tamil debut), i’m curious to see how he does as the good guy.. loved his villainous act in kk though
man!! its so frustratin tht tamil movies are not releasin in blore coz of the cauvery issue… been waitin to catch this movie
Vidya: let the pirates have a hey-day! You could walk down the street and get Mozhi and probably 1-2 movies more on a single DVD for about 40 bucks…
hey randramble… well i tried tht too… but no luck.. can find all other movies except tht…