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ALAVANDHAAN - fails miserably?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Topic started by abhinetri (@ 202.56.193.250) on Tue Nov 13 21:04:29 EST 2001.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

This 'so-called' film critic from REDIFF.COM says 'ABHAY' (Hindi Version of ALAVANDHAAN' is a crap movie. The link is given below...
http://www.rediff.com/entertai/2001/nov/13abhay.htm

How crucial was 'music' a crucial factor for a film like ALAVANDHAAN?

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: ash (@ 12.5.196.254) on: Thu Nov 29 17:00:45 EST 2001
  
  The only problem and the strength with Kamal is Kamal. His over enthusiasm has given us some great entertainers like "Apoorva Saghodharargal", "Sathya", "Devar Magan". The same overenthusiasm has killed the producers of "Mahanadhi" (SA Rajkannu) and "Aalavandha" (Dhanu). People do see him as a genius as well as a cynic. In my opinion there has to be someone like Kamal who can try new stuff. Or else Tamil cinema will be still taking revenge on villians and singing duets running around trees in "Phoren" locations
  
  
• From: Isai Priyan (@ 157.95.211.50) on: Thu Nov 29 18:32:38 EST 2001
  
  Ash,
  so you mean to say Mahanadi was not of the class of the other films you mentioned??
  Just checking.
  
  
• From: San RJ (@ 166.121.36.6) on: Thu Nov 29 21:15:27 EST 2001
  
  I had watch "Alavandhan", and its not an ordinary stories, compare to the other movies where there is repeating sequence of love stories, gramam stories, patriotic stories. "Alavandhan" is the movie dedicated to those have a good imagination in their mind.
  My downs of "Aalavandhan" movie is too long. Any good stories or good movie should reduce the timing of movie. Otherwise the stories doesnt seems to be understand. A good stories should finish within 2 ~ 2 1/2 hours.
  
  A good acting by Kamal, should give him a credit for that.
  
  
• From: San RJ (@ 166.121.36.6) on: Thu Nov 29 21:16:24 EST 2001
  
  I had watch "Alavandhan", and its not an ordinary stories, compare to the other movies where there is repeating sequence of love stories, gramam stories, patriotic stories. "Alavandhan" is the movie dedicated to those have a good imagination in their mind.
  My downs of "Aalavandhan" movie is too long. Any good stories or good movie should reduce the timing of movie. Otherwise the stories doesnt seems to be understand. A good stories should finish within 2 ~ 2 1/2 hours.
  
  A good acting by Kamal, should give him a credit for that.
  
  
• From: siva (@ 210.186.220.106) on: Thu Nov 29 22:55:57 EST 2001
  
  well, i liked the beginning half of aalavanthan... it had a different and excellent storyline till the point where manisha koirala is murdered..
  after that, its plain old tamil film...
  
  the animations sequences reminds me of Natural Born Killer by oliver stone... it has the same kinds of animations like aalavanthan, though they are not photorealistic, it still blends with the story to give an overall idea of madness (IMHO)..
  
  but after the first half of the movie, its stale.. especially the part where kamal tries to jump from the building and land on the huge balloon... its so fake.. even the whole frame quality drops, and becomes dims... signs of poor special effect.... he has spent soo much for other special effects, why not spend to make this effect as realistic as possible? or better still be like jackie chan and jump off free fall.. i am not condemning here, just saying that, he did a VERY good movie, but falters at the end...and audience will remember the ending very well...
  
  
• From: ash (@ 12.83.8.27) on: Thu Nov 29 23:18:09 EST 2001
  
  Isaipriyan,
  
  Mahanadhi is by far the best of Kamal's Performance. One thing for sure, it was not an entertainer. Also the producer, SA Rajkannu (16 Vaythiniley fame) suffered severe losses.
  
  
• From: vel (@ 202.88.154.169) on: Thu Nov 29 23:53:30 EST 2001
  
  guys...take a break yaar....look at the enornormous amount of effort the guy has put in into the movie...i really loved it..and those of you who harp about kamal lacking 'screenplay' and 'directorial' skills, think again. He has been 'ghost directing' almost all of his films after NAYAGAN...did he not succeed with 'Thevar Magan' or 'Avvai shanmugi'?..In Alavandhaan, he did not want to include hardcore commercial items...Anyways, i bet all you guys will definetly want to watch it atleast once...afterall, KAMAL is KAMAL!!!!!!
  
  
• From: unmaivilambi (@ 63.75.49.120) on: Fri Nov 30 15:07:08 EST 2001
  
  kamal is not bad in screenplay. He has faltered a bit this time which is okay. Atleast he tried something different. Anyway donot say that Thevar magan and Avvai were completely ghost directed. Both the directors have their own strengths. The screenplay of Avvai has been credited to KSR. Kamal might have had good suggestions which would have been gladly taken.
  
  
• From: Kamal fan (@ 192.19.194.27) on: Fri Nov 30 16:21:02 EST 2001
  
  Kamal is clearly one of the best screenplay writers around in town.
  My two cents worth on Aalavandhan.
  The movie raced thru the first 90 mins. The second half there was appreciable drop in the quality. I am not sure wether Kamal lost interest after this tiff with the producer. There were rumors galore that a lot of production problems came into play in the later stages of making. I think during the last 30 mins, execution was done with less intensity and purpose.
  
  Otherwise worth once a watch.
  
  
  
• From: Trend (@ 216.68.113.230) on: Fri Nov 30 16:43:26 EST 2001
  
  Kamal fan,
  
  "Kamal is clearly one of the best screenplay writers around in town."
  
  Could you pass on one question from me to Kamal?I would like to know from Kamal what does he think of "Character development" of characters other than his, when he is writing screenplay.
  
  
• From: Bharath (@ 192.25.158.12) on: Fri Nov 30 16:46:58 EST 2001
  
  Dear Trend,
  
  What "other" characters?
  
  Affecly
  Kamalhaasan
  P.S: oh! did u mean those people who came and went in the background... sorry! i thought u were talking about my goggles as a separate character...u know it came for a longer time than fathima babu
  
  
• From: Trend ready for the weekend (@ 216.68.113.230) on: Fri Nov 30 17:16:11 EST 2001
  
  Bharath,:-).
  
  "i thought u were talking about my goggles as a separate character"
  
  That was a good one!:)
  
  
  
• From: sabesan (@ 170.35.240.203) on: Fri Nov 30 18:21:22 EST 2001
  
  come on guys..... iam not sure about Alavandaan.... but i know in Devar Magaan, Kamal had a very neat screen play (till date i think he was the screenplay writer, correct me if iam wrong), and each and every character in that movie made a hell of an impression..... take vadivelu, thalaivasaal vijay, especially naazaar and revathy..... and of course our Perisu.... all had very good roles and they characterisation was very good.... may be kamal had to think in that line, rather than SINGLE MAN SHOW......
  
  
• From: kamal (@ 63.87.244.18) on: Sat Dec 1 14:14:25 EST 2001
  
  Trend...how is this for a screenplay:)
  **************************************
  Trend in a restaurant
  Trend shouts at the waiter...
  Trend: What is this nonsensense?!! How can this grave injustice be done to me?
  Waiter: What's the matter sir? Should I bring you some prozac?
  Trend: What sort of cook do you have? He has given me a bowl of thayir saadam and just a single maavadu!! This is grave injustice to me and ofcourse the maavadu! A bowl for bowl it shall be...I demand a bowl of maavadu!!
  Waiter:??!!!!
  ****************************************
  
  
• From: Trend (@ 216.68.113.230) on: Sun Dec 2 00:21:27 EST 2001
  
  sabesan,
  
  I agree with you on "Devar Magan(DM)".When Kamal has a "genuine" director to direct the film the characters are developed properly in most of the films after "Nayagan"(I think it's after "Nayagan" he started poking his nose in other areas).In case of DM, LATE Bharathan was the director.
  
  One cannnot spot many flaws in character development in movies directed by Malayalam director.If I'm correct, in the drawing room, the director and screenplay writer usually sit together and modify and/or refine sequences of the film.His co-characters are usually underdeveloped when he has dummy directors and he gets the power to ghost-direct.
  
  kamal,
  
  I don't think I'm expecting too much from Kamal in a Tamil movie.:)
  
  
• From: WhyNot (@ 203.24.100.137) on: Sun Dec 2 06:12:11 EST 2001
  
  >>His co-characters are usually underdeveloped when he has dummy directors and he gets the power to ghost-direct. <<
  I agree. It looks like unfortunately wit such a big fat ego, kamal doesn't like any real directors bcos when the movie does well (eg. Indian & Nayagan), he likes to take the credit.
  
  
• From: Kamal_fan (@ 202.41.117.3) on: Sun Dec 2 07:49:32 EST 2001
  
  Guys , I cannot understand this thing about Kamal's big "EGO" - the Times of India film reviewing critic
  Khaled Mohammed openly writes "Kamal Hassan is on a big ego trip with excess baggage on his shoulders" - when Amitabh Bachan started ABCL limited, it was not MAGALOMANIA, when SUbhash Ghai makes those nonsensical extravaganzas like KARMA, SAUDAGAR, TAAL, they are not megalomaniacal ventures, but when Kamal strives to do something different it becomes an EGO TRIP! agreed that ALAVANDHAAN/ABHAY could have been made much better, but this attitude of everyone, especially in the Hindi film critics waiting for an oppurtunity to wield the axe on Kamal is
  ridiculous to say the least
  
  
• From: joe (@ 63.68.217.35) on: Sun Dec 2 15:01:01 EST 2001
  
  Aalavandhan is clearly the pits for Kamal... I cant think of a worse movie that has come out of the Tamil stable relative to the strength of the team behind the movie. There is obviously a need for Kamal to take on 'all aspects' film making and end up clueless as to where to go from there..If he was just attempting to make a 'different movie' how about trying something original instead of mixing up a cocktail of hollywood films which is beyond redemption.....and yes, I used to be Kamal fan.
  
  
• From: brijesh (@ 207.46.137.8) on: Sun Dec 2 18:27:13 EST 2001
  
  i absolutely agree with joe. i'm a hardcore kamal fan, but haven't seen a more senseless movie than this in a long while. several gripes on the overall plot that was going nowhere, but even in screenplay these primary flaws killed the movie.
  
  1. cartoon characters - it would make logical sense to see the rest of the world as cartoons when blown high on ecstacy. but himself as a cartoon?!! that is simply ridiculous. does this mean that the audience is blown high too?!
  surrealism for surrealism's sake is stupid.
  
  2. kamal has no idea on the pulse of the audience. he starts a long-drawn flashback 1-1/2 hours into the movie. bad tactical decision.
  
  3. the scene where the janitor unlocks the suite for the "mottai" kamal. can't you tell the difference between a guy with a moustache and without? the physical distinction between these 2 kamals was as clear as night and day, and yet, 2 characters in the movie mistake one for the other.
  
  4. so much bloodbath was simply unjustified - i'd any day take duets and running around trees over blood squishing generously out of people's stomachs, necks, wherever.
  
  plot-wise, more "paethals":
  "mottai" kamal has lived in a jail ever since his childhood. how can he dance like prabhudeva? how can he drive trucks and cars like ayrton senna?
  etc.
  
  i thought thenaali was bad. aalavandaan is the pits. i hope, as a genuine kamal fan, that someone knocks some sense back into him before he embarks on "marudhanaayagam" or "pammal k sammandham".
  
  
  
• From: Thamarai (@ 203.199.220.65) on: Mon Dec 3 00:53:59 EST 2001
  
  I think, this is the best review. Both positive and negative aspects are analyzed.
  
  http://www.3to6.com/final_rewiew/abhay.htm
  
  This film is not upto the expectations. I really wonder this picture was given by kamal, who is capable of producing standard movie like hey ram !
  
  

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