SHIVAJI- THRO VANA'S EYES :)

I know many have given their views on shivaji...just wanted to let all of you in on my oppinions :)

After the long wait, finally my friends and I went to watch Shivaji all the way to mangalore. And that of course is around 1hr and 45mins from manipal. All of us in the gang, had been going through mere mental torture when all our friends and family kept calling us an talking about Shivaji. May it be good or bad. All of us were ardent Rajini fans. So we were going bonchus. And we were practically pushing ourselves to finish exams off so we could go watch it. Imagine medical students studying with the motivation of finishing off the exams well so we could watch the movie in peace he he he :) just kidding...Anyway we took a taxi all the way in the crazy monsoon weather just to watch Rajini on screen :) and a friend of mine who is Punjabi by origin wanted to come as well...Because he was so curious as to what made us tamilians so crazy about Rajini. You'll see as what to he thought about the movie and the idea of Rajini being the Super Star :)

Ok coming to the movie..enough about my journey. Well the movie's cast consist of some of the pinnacles of south indian cinema: AVM, Shankar, Rajini and then of course the legend AR Rahman,So from the time the agreement was made, expectations of the public started multiplying like bunnny rabbits ;) Anyway so expectations was sky high..Rocketting all along.. Was the expectations met??? Well to be honest it quite wasn't.. Hey don't be mad at me... I'm a crazy rajini fan myself and couldn't really come to term that it wasn't as magnificent as it ought to be. But wait the review isn't over yet.
The story~ was a simple story with a mixture of gentleman, mudhalvan and anniyan. But you have to accept that it's easy for us to say but isn't that easy to come up with a theme of black money. Shankar was creative. But a very less complex story..It was basically a success formula as one of my celebrity friends would call it. Basically a modern Robin Hood story..Stealing from certain undeserving rich and giving it to the poor.. Not as thrilling as gentleman, mudhalvan but still was enjoyable...
Cinematography~now this is what you call breath taking material. Absolutely mind blowing sets and camera work...Just magnificent...Hats off to the art director the camera man...And of course the make up artist is to be given a pat on the back.. He made rajni look awesome...hairstyles changing with the situations...beautifully done and thought of.. Kannal kannan's stunt were very mind boggling..The stunt men risking their lives to make things look as a realistic as possible is definitely something to appreciate...
The songs were beautifully choreographed.. Ballelakka with gorgeous nayanthara and the meticulous work on the video...It was just unbelievable. Costumes were gorgeous. And I should say that the Shreya's costumes in the song exhibited alot of 'thamizh panpaadu' ( tamil culture) Rajini was talking about in the movie ;) Adhiradi song was also very creative..Songs were beautifully filmed with great precision. Looks like they spend unimaginable money on planning and shooting the whole movie...One of the most expensive movies made in the history of indian cinema. But used in a way that would be sickly too grand. Everything was doen in the right proportion.

Music-Music by AR ji. It was music that as usual made you go crazy but again he didnt meet the exhalted standards he had created from himself. But the AR Rahman touch was certainly there. But his music wasn't as magnificent as Roja, Alaipayuthay, Mudhalvan, Gentleman and the rest of the movies in the unending list of AR Rahman masterpieces. Songs which even if quite old, still never fails to throw you into a trance everytime you listen to it and each time you discover a minute detail you hadn't come across the last time you listened to it even when it's running on your ipod 24/7. :)And he makes you wonder how God could gift one man with so much of talent.

Cast~
Rajini- He was just awesome. As always :) His style, his talk no chance man!!!no one can be like him..His sense of comedy as usual was just great.His expressions. The dialolgue line delivery. You name it and rajini was out of the world. His humble line 'kamal haasan maadhri color aahiduvan' was just admirable. He was Rajini. The super star and always my favourite for all time. I know certain things are crazy but then it was Rajini and anything he did was acceptable to most of us. He was just incredible especially as the 'motta BOSS' ha ha ha...Style is not an enough of a word for him :) He defines style
Vivek-He was the second hero I would say. A huge role in this movie which I'm sure is one of the highlights in his cine career. He gave in a fresh performance. Focussing more on comedy through mannerisms. Great job done by him. Less of perverted jokes in here. So that was a relief
Suman-A very refined, subtle villain with immense class. He was so majestic..On the contrary to monstrous, boisterous villains these days, this was a very admirable performance..A villain who made u burn from inside. I think he was just great
Shreya- she looked amazing.Made all the men in theatre go ga ga and all the women green in jealousy with her looks ;). But her acting needs serious damage control ;) you know in forensic medicine we were taught that the leisure drug Heroine causes symptoms in which the patient claims they can see music and hear colours when he was high...well heroine is not needed... You could see music with shreya's graceful moves in the songs :)..She's an extraordinary dancer

Altogether it was great entertainment. Not as bad as many told me it was. But not upto the mark... You would tend to expect more with this once in a lifetime combination.

Coming to what my punjabi friend thought: He liked it and kept giving me thumbs up during the movie.He applauded alot during the movie even when we were silent and laughed at many of Vivek's comedy he was able to comprehend.He wanted subtitles though.So we had to translate alot for him.. But he enjoyed..According to him he.."The movie had it's moments" :) and he did accept that there was unexplicable karisma in Rajinikanth...

All together it was tremendous fun :) It was a 3hours of awesome,entertaining mind blowing fun.. Now waiting eagerly for SULTAN THE WARRIOR :)
Your's truly
Vana