Sunday, December 30, 2012

It could be your love story!

Ok, first off I gotta say when I saw the trailer for NEP, I was expecting a VTV-Part 2 (as if VTV-1 was not miserable enough!) and I still went to the movie because I wanted to experience this pleasure of whining about Gautam Menon's lack of ideas and repetitive way of storytelling. But I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised :)
Not only was the story good enough, but the characters were so consistently portrayed that one could relate with them easily. And I am not just talking about the lead roles.. even the character of Santhanam and that of Jeeva's or Samantha's parents and siblings are people we see in our everyday lives.. people who live next door! Needless to say the romance sequences were truly magical, thanks to Gautam's aka Love guru's romantic expertise!! :D If you have ever experienced love in your life, you would definitely be able to relate to atleast one scene in this movie!
The transition of Varun and Nithya from school to college and later, has been portrayed so beautifully. Gautam has to be appreciated for the way he makes us relive those moments in school and college.. when you talk to a guy/girl you have a crush on.. the silly jokes you could find funny only when you are in school.. the stupid relationship advice you would get from your friends, the so-called relationship experts! :P
All the actors had done justice to their roles.. I have always admired Jeeva's acting skills and he was great as always and in some scenes he manages to look irresistibly handsome and cute too. He and Samantha have a good chemistry on screen and are convincing as Varun and Nithya, a volatile couple so madly in love. Santhanam has been portrayed a little differently in this movie.. as in.. he's not doing the usual insulting-random-people (hint: his hilarious stint in Boss engira Baskaran) kinda comedy as he did in many of his movies...  In this movie, he's a little laid back yet level headed friend of Jeeva's, and has a lovestory of his own! And those VTV-spoof scenes with Jenny(I don't know her real name) and Santhanam were hilarious! Although Santhanam has a charm of his own, that Jenny girl really steals the show with her adorable expressions and attitude. She has gotten herself a new fan now! :)
Oh yeah, before I forget, Samantha has done a great job too.. She looks as pretty as ever and extra classy, considering its a Gautam Menon movie ;) She has done some good acting in all the romantic scenes and a few dramatic scenes too, albeit a little overdone in some places. Overall her performance was applaudable and I love her even more now for the simple fact that she speaks Perfect Tamil like a proper Chennai ponnu :D (Thanks to all the directors who go to the North to find some random bimbos who can't say a word in Tamil and can't dub or even lipsync for S**T!)
Having said all that, I have to say there were 2 major negative points in the movie.. One, it is a tad too slow for the i-have-no-time-for-anything urban audience.. And two.. the music... Don't get me wrong now. I love IR's music and have been visiting Youtube atleast ten times a day listening to most of the songs in this movie..  Saaindhu saaindhu and Mudhal murai would haunt you for weeks!! But there are just too many songs in the movie.. Like almost one every ten mins.. But hey, it was marketed as "an Ilayaraja musical".. so you were warned! :P And the BGM in most places is a little too jarring for my sensitive ears! The music was more dominant than the dialogues in many parts of the movie.. and I found that a bit annoying!
Other than these two factors, I found everything else about the movie was rather above average. I went into the theater with a frown and fury.. I came out smiling from ear to ear and hanging my head in shame! The tagline of this movie is sooo true.. This really could be one of our love stories! So pleeeeeaaaase go watch this movie in a theater, with an open mind and your gf/bf, when you are in absolutely no rush to get somewhere! You would love it like I did! :)
Lastly, Gautam Vasudev Menon, you are back in business! I bow down to your amazing storytelling methods! Keep up the awesomeness \m/

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