Penguins of Madagascar Review:-

Plot:-
     The Penguins:Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski(Chris Miller), Rico (Conrad Vernon), and Private (Christopher Knights) are beginning to have trust issues,but they have to get along as team after they kidnapped by the North wind leader Wolf (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Technicalities:-

Model and Rendering -  All the characters look kinda pretty and smooth especially the facial expressions of the penguins and wolf are rendered so good as If like its a treat to watch.

Voice Acting - All the characters are backed up by humorous voices especially Christopher Knight and Benedict Cumberbatch are at their very best.

Production Design - Its nice,the background looks cool,the gadgets are cool and instantly strike a chord with Children.

Special Effects -  While they are overused at certain points,they also keep the pace smooth with photo realistic effects.

Music Composing & Mixing - The soundtrack is nice and pleasant to hear but sound editing & mixing could have been better as they are too loud sometimes.

Editing - With a running time of less than 100 minutes,it would be smooth watch for the viewers.

Screenplay:-
       The screenplay is one of the highlights of the film with unexpected twist and turns all over the film.

Direction:-
       Simon J Smith & Eric Darnell have done nice work with this TV series Adaptation.

Plus:-
Screenplay
Special Effects
Benedict Cumberbatch's voice acting 
Direction

Minus:-
Logic flaws 
Over top scenes 
Sound Mixing could have been better

The Final Word: Penguins of Madagascar is entertaining,not as good as its TV series but still nice,watch it with your brains at home.

Rating - 7.5/10.

Kaaviya Thalaivan Review :-

Plot:-
     The film revolves around the reputed drama troupe,Thavathiru Sivadas Swamigal (Nassar) is the leader,Kaliappa Bhagavathar (Siddharth) and Gomathi Nayagam Pillai (Prithivaraj) are his apprentices,When everything seemed to go fine with the film,Gomathi becomes jealous of Kali.

Performances:-
     
Siddharth as Kaliappa Bhagavathar  - Siddharth's character got overshadowed by the villain in his previous film Jigarthanda,but here he gets his chance to even himself with his fellow actors,his new style of dialogue delivery especially in the scene where he plays Rajapart is sure to make a deep impact among the audience.

Prithiviraj as Gomathi Nayagam Pillai - His character is quite similar to Pasupathi's character in Veiyl (Also a Vasantha Balan film),Despite putting in his best efforts his character is goes unnoticed among the drama troupes as they give more preference to Kali,this leads to jealousy,Prithivaraj should be commended for taking up this role,he gave his best performance in his Tamil film career with Gomathi.

Vedhika as Vadivambal - Arguably one most of under used actresses in film industry today, last year in Bala's Paradhesi she showed that lesser familiarity with the language,won't effect their performances If they put serious effort to get the right output,and yes she did it again,she deserves accolades for her performance.

Nassar as Thavathiru Sivadas Swamigal - Nassar is a versatile actor and he just proved it again in his role as a mentor for his actors in his drama company.

Others - They are adequate 

Technicalities :- 

Cinematography by Nirav Shah - Considering the fact that this film is based on stage dramas,it needs special attention from the film's cinematographer,and Nirav Shah did his fine best to get the lightings right according to the drama sequences.

Editing by Praveen KL - He has been doing very smooth editing for his films of late and his tried his best to keep the film engaging,the 1st half was entertaining while the 2nd half is a bit cheesy with overlong melodramatic scenes,Praveen could have trimmed those scenes a little.

Production Design by Santhanam - Given that the film is set in the pre-independence era,it needs a lot of sets to bring back the current feel,added the medium budget of 20 crores,the job would be even more harder,but Santhanam proves to be exceptional with his convincing work with a relatively lesser cost background arts.

Music by AR Rahman - The musicals involved in stage dramas are long forgotten and it would be hard to get people's attention, roping in a popular Composer like AR Rahman worked in the favor of the film,he not only gave the perfect background score and songs but also his popularity is niche audience to the theater.

Writting & Direction - Vasandha Balan :-
         First of all Hats-off sir for attempting to make a film on this rare genre,it takes more than just guts to come this far. Vasantha Balan is a great director and Kaaviya Thalaivan is a fine example of his skills,his writing worked out very well to a large extent but still it does have some flaws,the first half was fabulous and entertaining, but it seems the film lost its path suddenly turning into patriotic film midway overlong emotional scenes dis-appoint at the end.

Plus:- 
Performances of the actors 
Production Design
Cinematography 
Music 
Direction 

Minus:-
2nd half  Very Predictable 
Screenplay could have been handled in a better way.

The Final Word -  Despite its flaws,Kaaviya Thalaivan is still a must watch for the efforts put in by the entire team...

Rating -   7.5/10.....

Naaigal Jaakirathai Review :-

Plot:-
     Karthik (Sibi Raj) is a Police Officer and Subramani (Idho ) is a Military Trained Belgian Shepherd,They work together in their jobs,One day Karthik's wife is kidnapped by an unknown Gang,What Karthik and Subramanai do to save her forms the rest of the story.

Performances:-
      
      Sibiraj as Karthik - He is said to have done a lot of research for almost 4 years to get into the skin of his character,and the hard work has helped indeed,He is energetic and confident,probably he would get his much needed break through this film.

     Idho as Subramani the Dog - This is something unusual,not often do we get to see animals play such meaty roles in films,This is quite surprising and I think If Filmfare revises rules to allow animals for award nominations , then surely Idho deserves a filmfare nomination for its performance.
     
     Arundhathi as Karthik's wife - Her screenspace is very limited and she is okay in her role and thats it for her performance.

     Balaji as the Villain - Despite his underdeveloped Character in the film,Balaji packs a punch in this powerful role and I think we might get to see more of this actor in future.

Technicalities:-  

     Cinematography by Nizam Sharfi - Again another highlight of the film very good camera work, he makes the best use of the weather conditions and tricky shots. 
    
     Editing by Praveen KL - A repeat of Sigaram Thodu,Sharply edited every frame and the converted the screenplay smoothly with laser sharp cuts and transitions.

     Music by Dharan - This is probably his best album since Poda Podi,for me it was better than that,the theme music along with the En Nenjil song are top notch and they bring a lot of energy to the film.

Writing & Direction Shakthi Sounder Rajan :- 
         Unlike a few others I actually liked Nanayam,many of my friends including a few people in Facebook said that Nanayam is just mashup of several Hollywood style robbery films,I think they should think about it once more because the real fact they only took inspiration and inspiration is not bad thing If someone could make quality films like these,Sakthi's work in this film is one to be remembered for several years,not just for the crisp screenplay and the complex narrative structure but also for the his direction,in a time where several directors find it hard to get the correct performance from experienced actors,Here is a director who managed to get a brilliant performance from a dog. The only I was dis-appointed was with the Climax,it ends like any other Investigation thriller would but in this one there is not enough justification for the motive of the villain,he kidnaps Karthik's wife but why? .. That is the only problem with this well crafted modern day thriller.


Plus:-
Sibiraj
Idho
Balaji
Cinematography 
Editing 
Theme Music & En Nenjil song 
Direction 

Minus :- 
Climax 
Less developed scenes 
Lack of depth in romance which was needed.

The Final Word: NK is a well crafted Thriller with brilliant performances from actors and the dog, Perfect film to watch for this Weekend. 

Rating: 7.5/10