Film Thoughts: Peranmai (2009, Tamil - Jeyam Ravi)

I could not last longer than an hour stuck in front of my laptop watching this bad film. It is baaaaaaaaaad. Yet another situation where all the fluffy, glowy reviews online seriously misled me into buying this one. Sigh.

It sounded really exciting after hearing it revolved around Jeyam Ravi taking a group of girls into the forest and teachin ‘em survival skills… or something. And you know it's going to be interesting when this is the first thing you see when sticking your DVD in.


Turns out that Ravi actually plays Duruvan, a guy who has risen up the ranks in the military/civil service from his illiterate, tribal upbringing. Apparently he still goes back and “plays tribal” to help his homeboys deliver calves and kill tigers. He even gets all nearly-nekkid and inspires the girls to gawk at his loincloth-clad bum.




Yah, so... I have a lot of nearly-nekkid Ravi caps...

These girls are from a ladies college and are taking part in “NCC Training,” which I at first thought was some sort of college contest. The chaperone/head lady told the girls that five would be selected to go to the forest and then participate in a parade. Huh? A quick googling informed me that NCC refers to the Indian National Cadet Corps, a volunteer organization for teens/young adults that reminds me a lot of the Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts here in the US but with much more a political/military/fanfare/nationalistic angle. I think.




Since it’s a ladies college, there’s a few creepy voyeuristic scenes of, presumably, the director’s fantasy of what teenage girls actually do when alone. You know, they giggle while taking group showers! They play games and steal each others panties! They dare each other to run around the hostel nude at midnight (with proper post-production fuzzing of the visible wobbly bits)! Icky.


Alongside this NCC Training set up is the plotline of the “Space Research Center of India” planning to launch a “Green Revolution Project” rocket to aid in the agricultural strength of Tamil Nadu, or something. This is introduced by a fabulously-tacky CGI sequence of the rocket itself and the facilities while “scientists” and other busy-looking individuals ask “important,” “scientific” inquiries like “how is the liquid storage?” and “how much watts is the solar panel?”

So the girls find out the tribal guy whose ass they were gawking at earlier is now their trainer, and they proceed to totally disrespect him due to his upbringing/caste. He takes it all like a meek schoolboy despite barking military orders and trying to discuss the importance of politics and socialism and Tamil Nadu’s proud agricultural background and stuff. I did feel sad for him as these much-younger, haughty girls make him feel bad for getting to where he is through “reservations.” They keep playing all these tricks on him and try to set him up and drama, drama, drama.


Vadivelu has an asinine repeating comedy track, and at one point he even starts sermonizing about casteism. I think the film was also trying to make a "point" about caste prejudice and such but it's too silly to be in any way effective here.

Then, surprise!, all five of the girls we keep seeing over and over are chosen to be the five to go into the forest with Duruvan. Despite being a total “roughing it” trek where they have to build their own tents and stuff, they are dressed in nice trendy long-sleeved jackets! They refuse to listen to anything Duruvan says and wonder off and do stupid things like suddenly confront an angry elephant or drive the jeep haphazardly off a cliff (another shining example of crap CGI work!). Duruvan enjoys giving complex “expertise” on things like warm dung and bear tracks and other fascinating wildlife facts.



During one of these “ignore-dhuruvan” outings, one of the girls spots some white folk, and when she tells dhuruvan he knows it’s evil foreign people who’ve come to stop the rocket launch! He says he needs to head off alone and save the day, but the girls refuse to leave his side!

At this point I was about ready to go bake my DVD in the microwave, so I did some quick fastforwarding and kept seeing a bunch of burly white men fighting and traipsing through the forest and showing off their grotesque six pack abs. The main guy (Roland Kickinger) even has a normal white person accent!



So, if you couldn’t tell already, Peraanmai is NOT well made in my most humblest of opinions. Having just watched Arya 2 a couple days back, I’m sorely disappointed in the contrast here in the technical department. There’s just a lack of concern about detail- many shots of actors looking self-conscious or looking at the camera, transitions done poorly, bad dubbing, out of place song picturisations- the whole thing just feels “off.” The plotline is completely ridiculous and it actually could have been done quite well but, alas, was not. There's really no point in discussing all the wacky plotholes. It’s not even campy- it’s simply just….bad. I applaud Jayam Ravi for his efforts here but it's a dud.


I did enjoy getting to see some darker-skinned actresses which stand in great contrast to the pale likes of Shriya and Asin and Genelia. There seemed to be a fascination with fake contact lenses though which made most of the girls looks alien-like.

A couple other things...

In case you had any doubt about the authenticity of tiger scenes. :)


Military sari!


ETA: I forgot to mention that my Ayngaran DVD of this had some audio problems. Certain sentences of characters would occasionally be muted despite hearing the background/atmosphere audio. Strange. No subtitles either...
I'm in a bad mood tonight, so take this review as you will. :)

Film Thoughts: Arya 2 (2009, Telugu - Allu Arjun, Navdeep, Kajal Agarwal)

I’ve now watched Aarya 2 twice this weekend. It's my favorite Allu Arjun film so far despite its flaws. My favorite parts of the film were (1) it’s hilarious and spoofy (2) Allu Arjun gave an awesome performance and (3) technical details and finesse were well done. My issue with the film was the extremely confusing characterization of Arya (primarily), and Ajay and Geeta; however, I felt like if any changes had been made to make it less confusing then the film would’ve lost its silly quirkiness and feel! I watched it a second time specifically to try to fix my confusion, but it made me even more solidly confused. I'll touch on this later on! I also thought it was much too long... Scroll down for screencaps if you wanna skip all my copious text. ;)

I most enjoyed that the film never takes itself too seriously and knows it’s spoofy and wacky, yet it doesn’t go overboard with irritating sound effects and annoying comedian tracks and everything-has-to-be-spelled-out orchestrations you see in some other Tamil/Telugu films. It certainly has these pieces, especially in the first half, but it’s as if everything is kept a bit toned down and subdued. The second half set among the rival faction families in Rayalaseema was especially hilarious! Such a spoof of the village rivalry films! Throughout the entire film I was giggling and laughing out loud regularly so it has a special place now in my heart. I've since even gone back and watched certain scenes because it's so well done. The final scenes between Subbu and Arya were so cute, especially the bicycle scene (Sholay reference I hear?) and the jeep ride accompanied by the “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” song. I don't quite know how to explain it, but it's intelligently done, simple humor and I simply LOVED it.

Allu Arjun gave an incredibly comical, varied, hyperactive at times, and subdued at times performance as the obsessive and flawed Arya. I did not always find him attractive and yet kept rewatching certain scenes because he is just too funny (see! It’s not 100% fangirliness affecting my review!). Of course, he looked damn good much of the time as well. I especially liked the recurring theme with his eating things grossly, noisily, and sticking out his tongue (the scene where he's sneaking some alcohol in the women's bathroom was classic). His omelette scene with Geeta had me in stitches. Arjun is the only actor who could’ve pulled the silliness that is Arya 2 off! He's so humorous as a drunk, and I loved all the little touches he adds to his acting (just like his dancing) such as his comedic timing, body language, and even his dubbing! It's not "critically-acclaimed" acting, but it's just as good because he's creative and funny and fits himself into the spoofy feel of the film perfectly. I can't think of another Telugu actor that could have done this role as well as Arjun. And that is what I love about him. :)

It was obvious to me from the start that this is a film rich in little humorous details in addition to being well shot and edited. Lots of clever scene transitions and effects and creative use of camera angles and details are used, but never overbearing. Whether it was a shot of Arya stopping to scratch his leg with untied shoelaces or the sound of the miniature drum toy signaling his return, there was obviously some good direction and thought put into the film. Arjun’s first fight scene where he whoops some ass whilst simultaneously performing first aid was INGENIOUS, and his later car and bus fights were fabulous! I thought it funny that Ajay’s company was called “aJ,” (a “J”, or Ajay!). And that poor little goldfish that kept reappearing even at the end. Lots of clever touches! Definitely an editing and directorial team that's sharp and with it.

The downside is definitely the extremely confusing characterization of Arya, Ajay, and Geeta. It’s certainly very clever and entertaining and keeps you on your toes (just wait five minutes and the film will surprise you), but when I actually go back and try to analyze it’s pretty much impossible. :) I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to think about Arya. He seemed a socially-inept, desperately needy guy that latched onto some quirky thoughts about friendship as a child and carried them into obsessive devotion into adulthood. Yet he’s apparently also hopelessly flawed, confused, and mentally unstable as he constantly does things that go against what he seemed to value previously. He does questionable things to his friend Ajay (the water, the pillow) but he turns it into a teaching moment, and other times he manipulates situations to his advantage. Geeta also gets in the way and confuses him between the value of friendship over the value of love.It seemed to me that Arya’s overall goal was to make the only friend he’d made his whole life, Ajay, to say and act like he was a friend back.

Spoiler (hover to show)

He does lots of things that completely go against this logic, but once Ajay reciprocates at the very end, it seemed that Arya felt Ajay now properly fell under his sacrificial definition of friendship and now he had no problem taking Geeta’s love and running with it.

Perhaps the confusion was due to the constant twists and turns and “who loves who” changes and "if x is hurt then y dies!!" threats near the end. I had to take notes just to keep track of it all! Really though, I think it's because there are some errors/missing links in the script. To fix the confusion, I think the viewer would need a few scenes where Arya is asked why he is such a sacrificial friend to Ajay, what his definition of friendship is, and DEFINITELY scenes of why Geeta loved Ajay whatsoever and why Ajay fell in love with her and… we just needed more why presented, basically. But like I said in the intro, doing so would have made the film a bit too realistic and it’s much too funny and spoofy for that. I'm already analyzing it too much as it is! So I can forgive it and enjoy the immensely entertaining ride. I can only imagine the fun the scriptwriters had in deciding what Arya would say and do next. Now that doesn't mean they succeeded in making a well made film, but they made a funny film, nonetheless.

Other random thoughts and screencaps...

Kajal Agarwal as Geetha annoyed me to no end until the last part of the film when she calmed down. I have to admit her habit of throwing cell phones to their demise was quite funny, but her “I am so irritated!” expressions reminded me too much of Genelia in hyperactive mode. I think the cheesiest heroine-introduction ever has to be the “she is like a raindrop” song that plays when Geetha enters Ajay’s car. What was that!




Arjun being totally cute and/or hot. I'm a big, big, BIG fan of sexy men in glasses. Swoon...














Arjun looking hilarious/ridiculous/weird/all of the above












Arjun has the longest tongue ever!!



I was highly amused by the way Arjun acted the shattered/amazed scenes by making his eyes slowly widen and bug out.


This guy, who's in like every one of Arjun's films, plays the guy who introduces Arya to the "scary" Rayalaseema! I loved that he's holding his arm behind his back to pretend it's a stub, and then uses a suitcase to shield the switch when he turns around!


The rival faction family leader and his son. These guys are fabulous comedic actors, especially the leader.


The opening credits have a little Michael Jackson “we miss you” tribute, and I noticed some definite MJ moves in Arjun’s dances.


No screencap, but I loved how Arjun would say blood friend “blooda frrrrienda!”

Gori-spotting time!





Shradda Das' face was completely fascinating to me. I have no idea why, but I automatically liked her and her character Shanti’s constant gum chewing and depressed expressions. She’s got such unusual, striking features.




Arya's disaorganized and anti-Feng Shui room; perhaps a sign of his mental unbalancedness?


So that's what the back of a rupee looks like!


Because I'm totally nerdy, I tried this website out. Nope, doesn't work. Darn!


Navdeep as Ajay wasn't given much scope to perform in the character and has a permanently pissy expression on his face until the very, very end, and even then he's still sorta pissy.


Arya, then Ajay, as kids.

Mukesh Rishi playing Geeta's dad, leader of one of the Rayalaseema-area faction families. Does anyone else think he's sort of hot?


Apparently Arya's obsession with the movie Shrek bleeds over into his choice of decorating his "destroy all of Geeta's suitors" car


Wait a minute! There is only one Bunny sir!! You change your name immediately!


The toy Arya plays with as a child- what is it called?


This dog plays quite a substantial role in the film! I love that it's the same breed of dog I keep seeing in lots of Indian films.



Funniest. Scene. Ever.


Very groovy color scheme and editing in the fight scenes


Whoever thought of this set design...


Writing this Arya 2 review has been difficult! There is Navdeep playing Ajay, Arjun playing Arya, and Ajay playing Subbu. Got that?!

And last - a spoiler moment I found amusing.

Spoiler (hover to show)

When Geeta takes Arya’s rose and gives it to Ajay instead with a declaration of love, I just blurted out “OH NO SHE DIDN’T!” I totally expected an “Intermission” to show up here, with the dramatic music and all, but was disappointed... :)