My Chennai Cinema Diary
Well as work beckoned, I was back in Chennai for a short visit of 3 days, incidentally my 2nd visit in less than 2 weeks time. Chennai has more than been home to me and so always has a special place in my heart. This visit was extra special because I ended up watching 3 movies on the big screen all in a span of 24 hours. It was back to my old days of glory and the feeling was accentuated since I saw the movies in Sathyam Cinemas, which is virtually my 2nd home in Chennai.
Considering that the last 2 months have been fairly drought prone in terms of movies, what with the strike in Bollywood (now finally called off) and hardly any major Hollywood release too, it was mainly regional cinema that kept me busy. So it was all the more interesting that I was watching a Hindi movie and 2 Hollywood movies one after the other after quite some time. And adding to all this was the fact that I genuinely enjoyed 2 out of those 3 movies, so without too much of a prologue, let me get into the details.
Thursday, 4th June,’09- 3.45 P.M show at Studio-5 (Sathyam Cinemas) – Movie-99
No one could have asked for a better way to capitalize on getting free so early on a working day. I was there with an industry friend to watch 99 again. Another friend, also from the industry was supposed to join in, but couldn’t make it due to some work. While I had asked my friend to get the tickets booked, my friend was slightly hesitant. His contention being that the movie was about to enter the 4th week and it was an afternoon show on a week day, so tickets should be easily available. But the scenario seemed to be completely different. Yes it was the smallest of the 6 screens in the multiplex but still it was a full house and hence very creditable for a movie on the 21st day of its release.
Quite a few people among the audience were watching the movie for the 2nd time & most of the people seemed to be having a great time watching the movie. I think if the Bollywood strike has benefited anyone the most; it should definitely be the team of 99 as the movie certainly seems to be getting watched by a lot of people. I would not want to review the movie now as by now most of us know quite a lot about the movie. But yes I would definitely like to mention that by and large I was impressed with the casting choices. Of course I felt Vinod Khanna’s role had no meat and it could have been done by nearly anyone else. Kunal Khemu is a good actor and I would like to see him in more such movies than a Jai Veeru 
Soha Ali Khan,Cyrus, Boman Irani were all more than adequate. But I think Mahesh Manjrekar and Amit Mistry in particular rocked. I would really like to congratulate Krishna D.K, Raj Nidimoru and the entire team of 99 for not only have they been able to make a movie that’s entertaining yet made within a reasonable budget, they have also been able to bring in a lot of authenticity as seen by the way they have captured the years 1999-2000 in the movie. And considering that they have got the nuances of Mumbai and Delhi so well it becomes an even better spectacle to watch. There are so many wonderful moments in the film, that one always stays glued to the screen. Oh! Yes I do plan to catch the movie again probably sometime later this week.
Thursday, 4th June,’09- 7.00 P.M show at Santham (Sathyam Cinemas) – Movie- Angels and Demons
Based on the book of the same name by Dan Brown, this one is the filmy sequel to The Da Vinci Code (while the book is more of a prequel). While the book series and the previous movie have created enough controversy, this movie has also generated enough curiosity. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon in this movie directed by Ron Howard. Set within the Vatican, this movie is the archetype Hollywood masala movie. With its stock characters, some fair bit of intrigue, twists and turns and some rescue acts galore, this is a movie that will be lapped up by majority of the audience and the crowd at Santham (Sathyam Cinemas) seemed to be no exception too. Thankfully the movie moves at a reasonable pace and is technically good (not a surprise for a film of this magnitude). All in all it was a movie I didn’t regret having watched, but not something that I’m proud of either.
After the movie was over I realized that there was a paid preview of Star Trek, later at night and being a Star Trek fan (Trekkie/Trekker), I was tempted to make it 3 movies in a row, but restrained myself as I already had taken tickets for the next day.
Friday, 5th June,’09- 10.15 P.M show at Santham (Sathyam Cinemas) – Movie- Star Trek
Ok this is a brand new installment of the franchise that I kind of grew up with. I still remember watching the T.V series on D.D as a kid and watching the movies those days. Oh! Yes I also remember reading the books/comics of the series when I was in school and so when I heard of the movie being made, I was naturally excited. When PFC had reviewed the movie after a sneak preview in the U.S sometime ago, my curiosity levels were raised and so there I was on the first day of its India release to watch it. First things first, the movie does not disappoint. For a lot of Star Trek fans, it’s like re-visiting the franchise as you are shown the origins of Kirk and Spock. And for most newcomers among the audience (majority of the people didn’t seem to be aware of the franchise) it was good that they got to understand the concept quite well. The actors have changed, some personality traits have changed but at heart the franchise remains the same.
So there’s time-travel, black holes, Starfleet Academy, distant planets and more such things that the franchise had started to symbolize. And for all the original fans, one also gets to see Leonard Limoy (the original Spock) who reprises his role as the senior Spock in the movie. All in all, this is one adventure ( directed by J.J.Abrams )that’s lovely to experience. I’m now looking forward to the next movie in the series.
Finally before I left from Chennai for a short vacation to Kerala, I was almost set to watch another movie- the Malayalam hit, Passenger. But due to shortage of time, I had to cancel the plan and looked forward to watching it in Kerala instead. So coming up next is my Kerala Cinema Diary.
Note- This was written a few days ago and was to be posted over last weekend. Now at the time of posting this I have already watched 99 once more. Viva cinema!!!
Tags: 99, Amit Mistry, Angels and Demons, boman irani, Dan Brown, J.J.Abrams, Krishna D.K, Kunal Khemu, Leonard Limoy, mahesh manjrekar, Raj Nidimoru, Ron Howard, Soha Ali Khan, Star Trek, vinod khanna
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
sethu: now thats a passionate reboot to the good-ol-days. u hd told me abt ur chennai-sojourn, and somehow i was expecting a write-up sooner. 99, A&D and Star Trek is an ecelectic combo.
NB: i noticed the “cinema” in the title. thanks. me being the first to comment shows what i mean…
hi Sethu
welcome back to chennai…in past Satyam cinems was ur second home…currently it is a second home for me in chennai….came here 2 years back and till now i have there atleas 35-40 times
PFC .. Where are we heading. People are writing just for the sake of writing.
Sorry Sethu, this should have gone into your personal blog and not PFC.
viva filmi keeda log!
@ Jha-
Is baar maine bahut koshish kiya to rephrase the title, but couldnt get anything better.But the very fact that your comment is the 1st one, shows your passion,lage raho
@ Magik-
My affinity for 99 is dedicated to you,my friend.You are the biggest fan of 99 that I know.
@ Prashant
Great to know you are fond of Sathyam Cinemas too.
It certainly is one of the best multiplexes in the country for sure ( I can vouch for it, having lived in so many cities and having visited so many multiplexes ) and the pricing thanks to the T.N govt is quite comfortable too.
@ Urban Crusader-
Strong words there my friend.Well I could have just done a customary review of all the 3 movies in this post, but added a personal touch only to make it sound a bit interesting ( or so I thought).Nevertheless there was no unnecessary ranting in this post.I have gone on to look at the 3 movies concerned and add my views on them.Sorry you didnt like it.Lets say I’ll try to keep this in mind when I post something else.
Urban
I have noticed similar comment on another post as well. What’s the difference between a blog and a personal blog? PFC is a blog not a magazine (yet) as far as I know and it’s the personal touch that makes these posts so special. Without personal touch, PFC would be only about edited and in some cases dumbed down posts and that to me would be end of PFC as we know it. In the current format , we may see some under quality post once in a while, but the reader community and comments would keep the writer honest and sincere.
That’s my two cents.
@ A. Singh: cudn’t agree more. sab kuchh niji hai.
@ A.Singh,Magik-
Certainly agree with you here.A little bit of personal touch certainly makes a difference.In any case there are plain vannila movie reviews elsewhere too & I dont think we need to do the same too.
cool post Sethu!
I haven’t seen any of these film yet,
but my first priority is ‘Star Trek’.
@ Shekhar- thanks dude.
Would strongly recommend you to watch Star Trek and 99 – I’m sure you’ll have a great time.
Enna Sethu, full trip mela trip podra macha…I am sure you will enjoy the monsoon in Kerala ;)
Gonna watch 99 todayyyyyyy
@ Sridhar-
Yes no better place than Kerala in the monsoon.
99 parthu enjoy pannu!!!
Arre NO WAY, Sethu yaar!
Boman Irani was FANTASTIC in ‘99′ man!
I thought it was his best since ‘Being Cyrus’ and ‘Sorry Bhai’.
And I thought Vinod Khanna was a treat too :-)
Woh ‘Star Trek’ vagera dekhne ko mann nahin karta.
Although, do try and catch the silly, but entertaining, ‘Drag Me To Hell’ if u can :-)
@ Steve-
Are yaar I never meant Boman Irani was bad.In fact he was really good.Its just that I felt Amit Mistry and Mahesh Manjrekar were even better.
And no ways – VK was no ways a treat in 99.
Will surely try to see ‘Drag me to hell’.
Sach boloon, then i’d go as far to say that Boman was the films major highlight for me.
See, with Vinod Khanna, i’ve never been a fan.
But here, he managed to leave quite an impact on me.
Infact, he went beyond expectations for me…
‘Drag Me..’ will DEFINITELY be remade in Hindi.
The story would work brilliantly in an indian film :-)