Cast: Vijay, Tamannaah Bhatia, Vadivelu, Dev Gill
Director: S.P.
Rajkumar
It’s time for
Colin and Wes Watch 100 Bad Movies to go high brow and international
again, as our next movie is direct from India.
Back at #34b, At
Long Last Love, (see review here), I mentioned the fact that I hated musicals. Now I
didn’t know much about Indian movies but I was led to believe that
there is a lot of singing and dancing. Couple this with the fact
that it’s subtitled and nearly 3 hours long and you can probably
imagine my reaction. I think my exact words rhymed with duck’s
bake.
But I had to
remind myself, I have not watched an Indian movie before and perhaps
my preconceptions were wrong. Therefore I had to approach this with
an open mind and several cans of medium strength lager.
So what would I
make of my first Indian movie? It’s time to be cultured once more
as we head to India for the movie Sura, (2010).
I even put my
lager into a glass.
The inhabitants
of a small fishing Hamlet called Yaazh Nagar are worried as one of
their fisherman, Sura, (Vijay), has gone missing. Loved, adored and
considered their leader by the Hamlet, the entire population look out
to the ocean in despair as hope appears lost. Fortunately within a
couple of minutes, a handsome young man swims to the beach like a
dolphin and we find out Sura is alive and well. Hurrah!
I thought this
was the end of the movie but when I checked we still had 2hrs 35mins
left my heart sank and I realised the story we had just witnessed was
in actual fact just the opening credits. It’s no wonder this movie
is so long if something which should take 15 seconds takes 15
minutes!
Sura and best
friend Umbrella, (Vadivelu), encounter a young lady, Poornima,
(Tamannaah Bhatia), who is about to end her life by attempting to
drown herself. Sura manages to save her and finds out that Poornima
has been driven to suicide by the rejection of her love, Ramesh.
Sura is understandably concerned, until he finds out that Ramesh is a
dog!
Poornima starts
to fall for Sura, (Poor nima? Poor Sura!), but Sura does not seem so
keen at first, (after all the daft whatsit has just tried to give
herself a lethal bath and all because some mutt has stopped licking
her face!).
Meanwhile, evil
bastard, Minister Samuthria Raja, (Dev Gill), has hatched a plan to
turn Yaazh Nagar into an amusement park. Raja is ruthless and will
stop at nothing to get what he wants, (he fixed the election to get
voted in, killed the 2 people whose actual idea it was to build the
park and gave someone a right good stare when they dared to question
him), and he soon realises to get rid of the Hamlet, he must get rid
of Sura.
When Raja burns
down the huts of Yaazh Nagar, the villagers believe that Sura has
been killed. Losing their likeable and influential leader, homeless
and desperate, they accept Raja’s offer of R.10,000 and a new home
many miles away. But as they are about to leave, Sura emerges from
the ashes…….
Can Sura stop
the evil Raja? Will Sura fall for Poornima? Will Ramesh stop doing
that thing he does on the couch?
Watch the next
2hrs 30mins of Sura to find out!
I have read many
reviews which suggests that Sura is a cliché and that everything in
this movie has been done before and better. This is hard for me to
comment on as this is my first Indian movie. I guess if, like me,
you have seen pretty much every Wrestlemania since 1985, then you’re
going to think this year’s matches have been ‘done before’ or
‘was better done by so and so’ or ‘offers nothing new’.
Likewise if you are watching Wretlemania for the first time, you have
no comparison and so probably couldn’t comment on what has come
before.
So this is where
I find myself, I can only really judge this movie on this movie as it
is the first of its genre that I have watched and I have nothing to
compare it to.
The story itself
is not difficult to understand, which is a great relief if you are
having to watch subtitles, tweet and stop a cat trying to climb onto
your laptop all at the same time! It’s not a very in-depth story
and in truth could have been told in a lot less time than the 3hrs
deemed necessary by Rajkumar. In fact it probably could have
replaced the opening credits about Sura’s ‘disappearance’ and
still had time for the 6 mins song and dance number.
I like the
complete opposites of Sura and Raja’s characters. They are Yin and Yang exaggerated for effect. Considering this is a U movie, the
method in which Raja dispenses the 2 people who originally came up
with the Fair building idea is quite dark, but for most of the time
he is a pantomime baddie.
Vijay is
obviously good at being the lead role in a Bollywood movie. This was
his 50th movie and so you would hope he knows what he is
doing by now, (although Adam Sandler is on his 500th movie
and seems to have less of a Scooby Doo what he is doing now, than he
did some 300 movies ago…..).
I guess Sura was
very similar to his other lead roles, however, I have to admit his
goody two shoes, can do no wrong, kindness did begin to grate on me.
If it wasn’t for the fact that his exaggerated niceness was done
with a cheeky nod and clearly tongue in cheek at times, then I could
have easily found myself cheering Raja on and hoping the fire is the
last we’d see of the smug do-gooder.
The reason why
Sura is not killed of earlier though is probably due to the rubbish
fighting his enemies produce. They are clearly hitting air 3 feet
from each other, but slapping noises and punch sounds from a 1970’s
stock library tape fill the speakers and we are led to believe that
these are all landing crisply. It’s not convincing and if the
sound effects were removed it actually looks like the cast are trying
to swat a pesky fly.
The support cast
is largely background and uninteresting. Umbrella’s character is
only there as light relief to the main story and his side stories are
generally unfunny and forgettable. Poornima’s character is
one-dimensional and only serves as Sura’s love interest and someone
to sing the duets with!
The songs
themselves did not rile me as much as they did in ‘At Long Last
Love’. I think this is because the cast don’t spontaneously
burst out into song and dance in that creepy way I don’t like, but
rather we seem to cut to the cast and characters who are performing
their song and dance. It feels like it is separate to the movie and
that I have accidentally sat on the remote and changed TV channel.
Because of this
it did not annoy me and also because the songs are not in English, I
ended up reading the lyrics, which again, softened the blow of having
to put up with musical numbers in the middle of a movie as I was
distracted by the reading.
The songs
themselves did sound alike to my untrained ear and all seemed to be
about Sura being some pure soul with a good heart and the courage of
a lion, or something. One song is about inserting a key into a doll,
which is just pure filth, (or maybe something just got lost in
translation?), but thankfully there are only a handful of songs
throughout.
The best thing
about the songs were that they served as useful toilet breaks / drink
refreshers throughout this very long movie. And it is the length of
the film which is my main problem.
JFK is one of my
favourite movies, as I love a good conspiracy, but I simply can not
concentrate for 3 hrs long. I have never and will never manage to
sit through the movie in one sitting; I need a break! The same is
true for Lord of the Rings, Ben Hur or Schindler’s List, great
movies, but both my brain and bladder can not manage them in one go.
So a subtitled
movie in which you have to concentrate for 3 hours was always going
to be a challenge to me. The movie itself does have an Intermission
around half way, so it appears it is recognised that no-one is
expected to sit through the whole movie without stretching their legs
at some point. But when you are cramming this into an already busy
evening for a crap movie blog read by your mum and a couple of
friends, (hi guys, thanks for getting this far down the blog), time
is precious and when I am watching something I feel could have been
told in half the time, I get a bit annoyed.
So what did I
make of my first Indian movie? Well it’s not as bad as I thought
it would be. This is hardly a glowing review, I grant you, but I was
dreading this movie and was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t hate
it as much as I thought I would.
The time thing is
a big factor, but the movie was easy to follow, the song and dances
not too annoying and some light hearted moments made it enjoyable.
It was a new experience, which probably made it more interesting and
witnessing another culture and their ideas into what makes a movie,
held my attention long enough to not get bored.
But giving the
time it takes to watch a movie, would I watch another Indian film?
I’d like to think so, but it’s not a Sura thing.
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