Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu

Three words to describe this movie: Masala cop thriller.
If you liked Kaaka Kaaka, there is a very good chance you'll like this one as well. Since I wasn't a huge fan of the former, it stands to reason I am not exactly crazy about this one either - despite Kamalhassan.
It was entertaining though. I'll grant that.

What I liked about this movie:
1.) Kamalhassan's understated acting. He acts his age, mostly. There are no unnecessary theatrics on his part, which make his actions stand out more.

2.) Kamal -Jyo romance - different, mature and more appealing with a realistic grounded chemistry instead of the obvious dance-around-the-tree sort.

3.) Americans speaking and sounding like Americans

4.) The non-masala parts which are fast paced albeit gory at times.

5.) Jyo has a kid. There is no nonsense about the heroine being pure and untouched for the hero, keeping with Tamil tradition. I liked that!

What I disliked about this movie:
1.) Unnecessary masala that detracts from the main flavour of the movie. This movie would have been so much better if it had been more consistent in tone.

2.) Poor character definition of who the killers are and what their motive is. Psycho nerds? Sure, they look and sound a bit crazy and they have a medical degree as proof of their intelligence. But why? This is not very clear and the explanation scene where Kamal and killer meet doesn't do a good job at making it any clearer

3.) Logic that makes an appearance occasionally in parts of the movie only to disappear completely in other parts! This was really the weakest point of the entire movie. A fast thriller, without a logical plot at its backbone, becomes weak and tries to rely on other forms of support - and I guess thats where the masala and romance try to chip in.

Overall, worth watching once and certainly a better option than many of the other movies out there.

Food of Indian Origin

When is a plate of samosas, not just a plate of samosas?
When it comes garnished with interesting sauces and accompanied by exotic bean salads and chutneys!

My husband and I dined out at Mango Shiva - a restaurant in downtown Calgary recently and it was an excellent though different dining experience. They call their cuisine contemporary Indian and it lives up to its name. While the spices and flavours seemed familiar, the end results were nothing like the standard fare of Indian restaurants in North America.

Being vegetarians our options are usually limited in most restaurants, but we had no such problems here. My husband ordered a Vindaloo bowl with skewered veggies and I ordered Tandoori vegetables. His dish came with rice and mine with a poori. The portions were quite generous and the food was tasty! It didn't seem overly rich or overloaded with spices and the service was good too. We ended our meal with dessert - hot rich delicious Carrot Halwa!

I did not try their different varieties of Chai but have every reason to believe that they're all just as good as the dishes we had. If you live in Calgary and like Indian food, but are a bit bored with the same old same old, try Mango Shiva -Indian Bistro and Chai bar.

ka ka ka .. po

Easily my favorite peice of dialogue in the entire movie - 'Imsai Arasan 23vadu Pulikesi'. After seeing tired formulaic tamil movies, this was actually quite entertaining.

The movie is meant to be a historic comedy. Historic it most definitely is not - what with timelines of different emperors being mixed up and the British guys speaking contemporary Madras Tamil "Pulikesi, tension aavaathey pa". But it definitely is a comedy and a pretty good one at that. While there are very few scenes that make you laugh heartily, the movie does manage to sustain a continued smile and the occasional chuckle.

Vadivel seemed like an odd choice for a hero, but it makes sense once you see the movie. Who else could play both roles so well? Vadivel 1 is your typical comic V role: an arrogant but foolish and cowardly king, who walks with a swagger and fools around in the incredibly serious business of running his kingdom. V2 on the other hand is serious, wise and noble - charecteristics that aren't typical V, but he pulls off the role anyway splendidly. There is no doubt: the movie is so funny mainly because of Vadivel's brilliant acting.

The story is nothing brilliant though - just the usual twins separated at birth and re-united later thing. One grows up stupid and boastful while the other is wise and kind. One sucks up to the British and the other opposes them. One promotes disastrous policies for his profit, while the other believes that true profit is not at the expense of the people. By the end of the movie though, the bad twin meets the good one and becomes reformed. Yep, I gave away the ending, but really, could it have been anything else? To paraphrase the astrologer in the movie "If you have a screenplay with separated twins, they eventually have to meet."

There are even bits of social satire, but they've been careful to not let it dominate the tone of the movie. After all, when one seeks to escape reality (all the opiate for the masses thing should be about movies), one doesn't need a constant reminder of how crappy the reality is.

All in all, good entertainment and definitely worth watching once. Maybe even enough for you to say 'ka ka ka ..po' with a silly smile at random intervals for the next few days.