Tag Archives: Tamil

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir (2019)

written by Souranath Banerjee

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir: A quirky adventure that stretches its arms across the globe but yet manages to keep its heart rooted right where it belongs to – India!

My ratings: 4/5

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir (in English) and Pakkiri (in Tamil) is the ideal definition of a Global Cinema. I will tell you why?

Adapted from a novel by French writer Romain Puértolas, made by Canadian director Ken Scott, starring Tamil superstar Dhanush in the lead, along with two beautiful actresses Erin Moriarty (American) and Bérénice Bejo (Argentinian). Also joined by the talented Somalian actor Barkhad Abdi. It is a French-Indian-Belgian coproduction released in India, Singapore, Malaysia, USA, UK, Canada and Sri Lanka today!

Now let’s explore the world of the Fakir.

At a very early age Ajatashatru Lavash Patel, a young boy from Mumbai learns about ‘poverty’, and to cope with it in his own style he invents this ‘Fakir-act’ – basically a con-performance played on the streets of Mumbai while his friends conveniently picked the spectator’s pockets.

But soon there comes a time when the talented trickster (by now grown into a young man) must prepare for a distant journey for Paris, in search of his father. A journey that proves to be far from ordinary, filled with love, friendship and excitement, much too promising than the Fakir had ever imagined!

But then it will be injustice to sum up The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir as just an entertaining comedy or a fun-filled travel-movie, punched with a Bollywood dance number.

The film also delicately touches the refugee-problem which is a serious world issue but seldom addressed. An important message conveyed effectively, though sugarcoated in accordance to the mood of the film.

The first international venture for Indian actor Dhanush and it is his performance that really keeps this movie compelling for us till the end. Sometimes the script gets a bit too whimsical and preachy, but Dhanush’s innocence, his child-like zeal to explore the depths of his extraordinary journey is what makes the audience hooked.

I really wish the film would have explored more of Dhanush and Erin Moriarty chemistry, both of them together demanded more screen presence.

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir is well directed, portrays some terrific performances, magically shot all across the globe; overall an adventure that is comic, emotional, romantic and above all inspiring.

GO watch it now at your nearest theatres!

Similar Interest: The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir: The trailer launch.

Poster courtesy:www.imdb.com.

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir – trailer Launch

written by Souranath Banerjee

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir: The trailer launch.

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
The Fakir in mid-air!

When you enter a movie theatre you don’t really expect to see a colourfully dressed Fakir (wearing a turban and cool shades) sitting calmly in mid air without any visible support, right in front of the auditorium gate! Cheerful people are busy taking selfies with the pious man who certainly doesn’t seem to mind all the attention.

And this is exactly how you know that you have reached the right location, the right event – the Trailer Launch at Juhu PVR for the film The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir.

Ajatashatru Lavash Patel has lived all his life in a small Mumbai neighborhood tricking people with street magic and fakir stunts. He sets out on a journey with the intention to find his estranged father, but instead gets dragged on a never-ending adventure.

An adaptation of Romain Puértolas‘s best selling novel by the same name, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir (English) and Pakkiri (Tamil) will release on 21st June all across the world – in India, Singapore, Malaysia, USA, UK, Canada and Sri Lanka.

An official French – Indian – Belgian production!

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
The event had just started.

And so back at the trailer launch, buzzing with reporters and film-industry people all waiting for the event to start, but in the midst of all the filmy crowd the most happy-faces were of those many die-hard fans patiently waiting for their Superstar, the Hero, the Lifeline of the movie to arrive, none other than Mr.Dhanush.

The rest of the cast include some big names from around the world, the likes of Bérénice BejoErin Moriarty, Barkhad Abdi and Gérard Jugnot.

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
The man himself!

Finally Dhanush walked into the theatre and the show began! We watched the trailer amidst deafening whistles and shrieks from Dhanush-fans which is a sure sign that the audience are more than ready to love the extraordinary journey of this Fakir!

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
Director Ken Scott hugging Dhanush.

Then as the trailer ended with huge applause and appreciations, Dhanush spoke a bit about the film, his first International movie experience, his on-set chemistry with the other actors and specially about his bonding with director Ken Scott. Then he spoke directly to his euphoric fans and answered some questions from the audience – Dhanush is such a soft spoken, modest and down to earth person. A real Star, a real gentleman.

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
Dhanush interacting with the audience!

Others on the stage were the producers of The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir – Saurabh Gupta, Gulzar Inder Singh Chahal, Aditi Anand, Samir Gupta, Piiyush Singh and music director/singer Amit Trivedi.

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
Ken Scott

Director Ken Scott spoke about his own experiences of visualising the film, interacting with Dhanush and the overall creative process.

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
Saurabh Gupta

Among the producers Saurabh Gupta and Aditi Anand put forward some interesting insights as to how the story of the Fakir had begun, the idea, the initiation, the collaborations, the challenges – an extraordinary journey indeed!

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
Aditi Anand

Amit Trivedi guaranteed us that the music and songs in the film will be something to look forward to!

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
Amit Trivedi

Finally it was the end of a superbly entertaining trailer launch, and when Dhanush was accompanied by Aishwarya on stage the shutterbugs went crazy!

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
Aishwarya with Dhanush

Save the date, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir aka Pakkiri (Tamil) will release on 21st June. You won’t dare want to miss Dhanush’s first International movie on the big screen – do you?

Image courtesy: @CinemaForensic

Thadam (2019)

Written by Yogeswaran Ganapathy @moviemanyogi

My Ratings: 3.25/5

Thadam Review: Despite a slow first half, the murder mystery gets into full speed going into the second half and ends with one the best crime thriller twists in the genre!

Thadam means CLUE in Tamil. And in this murder mystery it is all about joining the right clues and finding the killer.

Arun Vijay since his comeback has chosen pretty good scripts and Thadam falls in that list. He plays dual roles here, one of an educated IIT graduate named Ezhil and other who is a petty thief named Kavin. He excels in both the roles and gives a satisfactory performance!

Magizh Thirumeni has done a pretty decent job as the writer/director. The hardwork, efforts, research he has put for the project is very evident. A crime drama which is very much in touch with legal tussles and its loopholes in a very realistic, gripping way. 

Tanya Hope makes a memorable debut performance. She plays the love interest of Ezhil. The chemistry between them is pretty good. She plays an integral and interesting character. Smruthi Venkat plays a naive character. She is instantly having a good emotional connect with the audience. The dialogues in her scenes are very effective.

Fefsi Vijayan plays a ruthless cop role to perfection.

Sonia Agarwal plays a cameo role which affects the story in a very impactful manner. Yogi Babu‘s character has totally been underwritten. His comedy feels very forced. I feel bad that such a good performer has been underutilized.

The music by Arun Raj (debutant ) is decent, the opening credits is very catchy.

A well written script, though the screenplay is a bit dull in the first half where the romantic portions seem a bit dragged but post interval the movie shifts to a whole new level of awesomeness.

The typical murder whodunit is given a fresh and clever twist. The final moments of the film will keep the audience on the edge of their seats for sure!

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWdqv8YiQjg

Poster courtesy: www.imdb.com

Vada Chennai (2018)

written by Anu Gopinath

Vetrimaran’s Vada Chennai, the first part of his ambitious trilogy sets the tone for an ultimate gangster flick which may well go down as one of the classics in the history of Indian cinema!

My Ratings: 4/5

With his film Vada Chennai, directorVetrimaran, in this first instalment, draws the battle ground and the pawns like a painter taking his time to pour out his life’s work in to the canvas. Each character is well defined, their shades, grey and the clouds of vengeance, ever looming!

One has to hail the brilliant efforts of the director as he successfully manage to sponge up the hard life of the fishermen. Dialogues are spontaneous, jokes never seemed to be forced and the language very much limited to the slang and colloquials of the slum dwellers.

Supported by a brilliant cinematography by Velraj, the director does an astounding in capturing the stench of rural perception in the life of the people and its colony, where dreams of a man starts at his doorstep and ends in the garbage bins of the same colony.

Vada Chennai tells the story of Anbu (Dhanush) a gifted carrom board player who inadvertently gets involved in the clock and dagger games of two rival gangs.

The movie if played in chronological order will come short of a decent action flick. But it’s the brilliance of Vetrimaran and the editing team lead by G.B.Venkatesh to present the movie the way it is presented, ever holding the cards close to their chest, tantalisingly revealing each cards, one at a time n each one of them making the storyline turn a corner, keeping the audience engaged and at the edge of the seats. 

The story goes back and forth in time and the narrative is so crisp and the editing so impeccable that each story is left hanging at a tantalising point before the director jumps to continue with thread of the next story, leaving the audience in an agonising wait while their fertile imagination tries to fill in the rest.

Music and background score by Santhosh Narayanan is an absolute revelation.

India  finally wakes up to the idea of the strength and power, a decent background score holds in the grand scheme of things. Santhosh Narayanan relies on the local folk songs, soft rock and at times even punk rock to set the tone of the movie. But his talent of deciphering the director’s perception of the story comes to the fore when he saves a “gem of a move” up his sleeves and reveals it  by letting the silence accentuate the boisterous effect of the compounding suspense in many scenes. Result, drool- worthy!!!

Dhanush as Anbu is brilliant in his portrayal of a simpleton who inadvertently get sucked into the scared games of betrayal and vengeance of mafia gangs.

Aishwarya Rajesh lends good support to Dhanush as his love interest and plays the supporting role to perfection.


The director has retained the core of the supporting cast of his previous cop-flick Visaranai and SamuthirakaniDaniel Balaji,KishorePawan, Radha Ravi and Aamir play their part to perfection and holds the different story lines of the movie together through their gritty performance.

So the board is set! The game is afoot! And Vetrimaran in a move which can only be described as audacious and brilliant, gives the threads of all storylines into the hands of Andrea Jeremiah. And Miss Jeremiah, in a career defining  last quarter of an hour , waltzes into the storyline by not only tying up all the ends of the threads but also put a fucking bow on it!!!

Trailer Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5GG5HJ1hVk

Similar Interest: BEST OFFBEAT INDIAN CINEMA OF RECENT TIMES (10+1 LIST)

Poster courtesy: www.imdb.com