(One movie tailor made for Yuvan Shankar Raja – his soundtrack for this movie thus far is the best todate. Image source: Now Running)
Let me start with a flashback
Couple months ago (I lost count the actual date), we were returning from a late night event. My wife wanted to buy a loaf of bread, so we stopped at a Petronas petrol station. As my wife walked out, leaving me and my son in the car, I heard one of the best composed songs in recent times. There was no indication of the name of the movie (the RJ just moved on with another song). My son said that it was from Dhanush starred Kutty but it was not.
Some “research” later revealed that the movie came from the movie, Paiyaa and the song, Thuli Thuli Mazhaiyaai was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. The song was superb (in fact, the whole album was a gem), so it only increased our curiosity on the movie.
When we were in Chennai, we noticed that spare TV air-time (between the actual show and advertisements) was occupied by 2 movie promotions – Vijay’s Sura and Karthik’s Paiyaa. Yuvan’s compositions were heavily used in the promotion but we did not mind – the songs were just too good. We were curious on the movie. Will it be as good as the compositions?
When I first watched “Paiyaa”, there was mild taste of Linguswamy’s earlier “Run”.
Wait a minute; it is “Run” but retold in a different package. Nothing new on the storyline – the hero, minding his own business, suddenly sees a beautiful girl (heroin) on the road (in Run, Madhavan spots Meera Jasmine on a bus too) and the heroin is having a problem – a group of bad guys is involved. The same old trend in Paiyaa but the only difference, instead one group of bad guys, there is 2 groups now (good God, what the film makers been smoking?).
Storyline – there is nothing to shout about and if one was thinking perhaps change of background will provide some refreshing look into the same old story, here is the problem – too much film wasted on the highway scenes. The movie was released in 2010 and yet, the film makers are under the impression that the viewers will accept illogical scenes.
Take this scene for instance:-
Karthik is driving along the highway when the heroin noticed someone’s clothes sticking out at the door of a vehicle in front. She asks Karthik to drive up fast so that they can warn the passenger.
Mind you, at this point, the highway was congested with traffic (2 lane highway), so Karthik uses his driving skills to catch up with the vehicle.
Just when they are side by side with the vehicle, the heroin realised that the vehicle is full with the bad guys, out looking for her. She asks Karthik to stop the car. He brakes hard and quickly reverse the car, for a long time until he comes to a junction.
Surprisingly despite the heavy traffic, Karthik managed to “out manoeuvre” his car without any damage (he was driving in an almost straight line in reverse and all other vehicles took evasive action to avoid him).
If I have done the same – suddenly brake hard on the traffic full highway, it would have been a mess – dead bodies all over the place.
In a typical Tamil movie – other than song scenes, we expect to see fight scene and normally when it comes to fight scenes, the hero becomes some kind of Superman, able to take on 10 – 20 bad guys without much injuries.
Same thing happened in Paiyaa and it is now worst – there are 2 groups of bad guys, so after wasting scenes on the “highway”, a good portion of the movie is wasted on the fight scenes. At the end of the day, one is left wondering the question – so, where is story?
In Linguswamy’s Run, at least there was some kind of story and there the viewer’s were treated with a brilliant cat and mouse tactics between the hero and the big brother of the heroin (aka the head gangster). In Paiyaa, the hero just fights…duh…with the usual Superman alike powers.
The heroin going back to the grandma’s house in Bombay was superficially used as an excuse to get the heroin back to the hero’s arm car passenger seat. No further explanation was made. Who is the lady who been giving instructions to the Andra gang was not elaborated and was not shown.
So, if you really want to enjoy Paiyaa, instead watching the movie, listen to the soundtrack instead. Yuvan’s music for this movie is one of the best todate or just watch the music video over Youtube.
Final say
The plus points: Yuvan’s soundtrack, Tamanna’s sexy (hip, ahem!) dance for song “Adada Mazhaida”
The negative points: Empty feeling after watching the movie (no real substance in storyline)
hey… look at the bright side… at least u didnt watch Sura, the commit suicide… 🙂
After Vijay’s Vetaikaran, I do keep a good distance from his movies, ha ha.