When I wrote the last post a month ago, I finished it saying I was greedy that I wanted to watch The Godfather Part II also in the theatre.
And this time around, the universe was kind enough.
Yes, The Godfather Part II got re-released last week and I grabbed the opportunity to see it on the big screen.
Even though many regard the first part very highly, it’s the part II that actually works more for me.
Because of one reason.
Rather one man – Al Pacino
It was so awesome to see his performance on the big screen. Especially the eyes – the way those magical eyes emote and can convey what’s going on in Michael’s mind without uttering a word. The mannerisms that he very consistently portrays at multiple times in the movie living Michael in and out. For example:
The way he uses two fingers and rubs both his eyes whenever he comes to a place after dealing with lot of “stuff”
Or the way he moves his left hand fingers when he is making important decisions (such as the below one when he is meeting Hyman Roth at his home in Miami)
Al Pacino also lived the character of Michael with so much consistency in terms how he reacts when people betray him. He is genuinely trying to make the family business legitimate, but when people within his family betray him or do not understand him, he simply shuts the door for them.
A great example is, how he literally shuts the door for Kate when she visits the kids without his knowledge. No words are uttered. Just a strong hatred in his eyes. Walks straight to the door and shuts it.
It’s the same with Fredo. When he discovers that Fredo plotted against him and his family, he simply shuts him off from his life – so much that he decides to kill his own brother. And that too, a brilliant scene where he gives a go ahead to his assistant to kill Fredo after their mother dies – again with just his eyes.
The Nayagan Connect
Of course, it’s inevitable that one cannot find how much inspiration that Kamal had taken from Al Pacino for Nayagan. If Al Pacino moves his left fingers, Kamal moves his right hand over his bald head. All those close up shots where the scenes were focused on Al Pacino’s reaction in his eyes – one could see how much Kamal and Maniratnam embodied it in Nayagan.
If there was a baptism scene in this movie where Michael kills his enemies, there is an equivalent scene in Nayagan where the Reddy family gets killed while Nayakkar performs the last rites for his wife.
Overall, I am super glad that my greed got answered.
And of course, there is no end to one’s greed. I am seeing news that Nayagan is likely to get released in theatres. And that will just complete it for me 🙂
Never, ever, in my wildest dreams, I ever imagined that I would see this movie in the big screen.
I was casually checking last Wednesday if there are any good English movies to watch during the weekend and saw this being listed as a “Re-release”.
I saw it was running only in a few theatres across Chennai and just one show in a multiplex that I and my friend regularly watch any movie.
I didn’t bother to check with my friend and I just booked two tickets for the following Saturday. I knew very strongly that my friend would simply drop everything else for this lifetime opportunity.
And, it was a lifetime opportunity for us.
Watching one of the finest craft ever made. On the big screen. The way the director intended it to be seen.
Obviously I had seen this movie a number of times. This friend of mine recommended it back in 2007-2008 times.
In the 90s when I got exposed to Hollywood movies, I was just watching the regular sci-fi, action movies. The Speed, Independence Day, Cliff Hanger type of movies. Crime-Drama as a genre was something that obviously a school/college going kid doesn’t like to see. Especially the ones that goes in a slow pace.
So was my friend until he went to the US and accidentally stumbled upon this genre. He came back and highly recommended to see this.
I tried initially and couldn’t sit through the first 30 minutes – this was sometime in 2007/2008. I normally watch during the night and I dozed off in the first 30 minutes.
A couple of years passed and my friend pushed me to watch it again during the day – like an afternoon.
Sometime in 2010/2011 I saw the first part of “The Godfather” series and was completely blown away.
Ever since, I have come back to this movie at least once every 2 years to notice something new.
Though we now remember every single scene in the movie and of course most of the dialogues, it was still a different experience seeing it in the theatre.
The beauty of watching it in theatre (any good movie) is that you are locked in that dark room for 2-3 hours. And you are completely taken into the world the director has created.
It was the same in this case too. For 3 hours, I was totally in the world of the Corleone family. How the power was being transitioned and all the dynamics within the family and with the outsiders.
And I noticed another brilliant performance
Above is the scene where Al Pacino has come out of the bathroom having taken the gun that was hidden in the bathroom.
He is going to take out Solozzo in the next few minutes.
He comes back to the table and sits in the table. The camera zooms to Al Pacino’s face.
Solozzo continues to chat with Al Pacino.
Al Pacino is listening to what Solozzo is saying.
But he is also listening to something else.
The sound of an approaching train.
He waits for the train to make the crossing near the restaurant where they are dining.
And when the sound of the the crossing train is at the max, he shoots Solozzo.
A brilliant piece of scene staging by the director.
And an amazing performance by Al Pacino. He simply keeps his head titled (to show that he is forcing his ear to listen to the train sound) and he moves his eyes to express what’s going on in his mind.
You need to watch this scene to fully appreciate this.
The train sound is also played out to us in the background when Al Pacino comes out of the bathroom – thats when the character “Michael Corleone” had listen to the approaching train sound. And decided that another train must pass soon and will use that opportunity to make the kill.
I noticed this during the movie (thanks to my friend who pointed it out). Something that I had never noticed in so many times I had watched before.
I am truly grateful for this once in a lifetime opportunity of watching this masterpiece in theatre.
And now I am greedy – I want the part 2 to be re-release again. For me, personally, part 2 is still the best in the trilogy.
ps: Of course, I and my friend were discussing and comparing how Kamal and Mani had got inspired and used many techniques in Nayagan. Kamal’s hairstyle, the expression in the eyes, the calmness are all direct lift-off from Al Pacino.
And of course, the opening scene where “Bonasera” describes about the cruelty his daughter faced is a direct life-off and played by A.R.S (the DGP) in Nayagan 🙂
This movie made me come back to the theatres like never before. I don’t think I have done this for any other movie.
The production quality of this movie is right at the top. It’s probably the best produced movie by Hollywood this year.
When I saw the trailer of the movie a few months ago, I had told my friend (and movie buddy) that this one is a theatre watch and we had to watch it in IMAX. But what I didn’t realize back then was that I would end up watching it a number of times in the theatre itself.
Title Card
As they Tamil saying goes “Oru paanai sothukku oru soru padam” (You may know by a handful the whole) – when I saw the title card it clearly conveyed what you can expect from the rest of 2+ hours of movie. A complete high quality production that’s truly authentic and feels absolutely as real as possible.
Here’s the title card scene:
It’s very likely that this movie will win an Oscar for Cinematography.
Let’s just look at the shot that shows the circuit. A drone shot that shows the circuit from far off. And the drone slowly moves closer to the circuit. And you don’t see the car until very late. You start hearing the sound of the car doing laps. And suddenly the car appears.
And we all know how fast F1 cars are. During the shot the car was probably doing 180-200 mph.
As the car appears out of nowhere all of a sudden, the drone shot seamlessly transitions to a high speed shot where the camera is seamlessly tracking the speed at which the car is going.
I don’t know how they got this idea and executed it – it’s probably a combination of multiple shots and some brilliant editing. But as an audience I simply felt wow at this moment itself.
Timestamp 1:29 in the video – the pan shot. This was so amazing to watch in the big screen. How the camera seamlessly pans from the front view to the rear view. This pan shot was used a few times in the whole movie and it used to appear all of a sudden during tense moments in the race showing both the driver’s perspective (front) and the driver’s reaction (focusing in the face of Brad Pitt).
What blew my mind about the cinematography was this – you obviously have to shoot the film in 4K and for IMAX which requires pretty heavy camera rigs. And an F1 car is the complete opposite of “heavy”. There is no way you could mount heavy camera rigs to shoot all those perspectives from the car. And it clearly showed that they had mounted cameras on the car to give us those perspectives.
Here’s behind the scenes video where the team talks about developing custom cameras in collaboration with Sony to bring out those awesome shots.
The Score
What an amazing score by Hans Zimmer!! The main theme that was played in the Title Card is so captivating. This main theme is played again after the end credits roll – you need to wait out for about 2-3 minutes for the theme to play again. Every time I saw this movie, I made sure I stayed for the end credits and heard the theme once again in the theatre’s sound system.
It’s kind of dangerous to play this theme in your car while you are driving – you literally feel like Sonny Hayes and might start racing on the road 🙂
Similarly the score during the final lap where Sonny Hayes feels “flying”, the score that comes right after he wins the race and the team starts celebrating took the movie to a different level.
To me, Interstellar is the best work of Hans Zimmer. This comes next.
Real IMAX Experience
When I saw the movie in IMAX in Chennai, I wished if I had the chance to see it in IMAX in the US. The IMAX that we have in India (except the Prasad labs one in Hyderabad) all have screens that have rectangular aspect ratio. This is very different from the proper IMAX theatres where the screen is more square-ish and seating arrangements are different with more vertical seats (where your knees are literally right above the head of the person sitting in front of you).
Those proper IMAX theatres are built for IMAX from the grounds up and they give a much better experience.
Every time I come to the US, the first thing that I look for is if there is a proper IMAX theatre nearby and if some great movie is being played (my unfulfilled wish so far is watching Interstellar in a 70mm film proper IMAX).
As luck would have had it, I was in the US last week and had some time over the weekend. And I saw F1 was being played at a proper IMAX near to my cousin’s place where I was staying.
I and my nephew went to watch it in IMAX. My nephew is about 17 years old, he had seen already once and wanted to see it once more in IMAX – such is the impact this movie has had on people 🙂
When compared to the IMAX we have in India, the screen didn’t make much of a difference. But the sound quality was definitely a few notches up. We managed to get seats in the absolute center of the theatre to get the perfect sound experience. The main difference is the clarity of the sound where you are able to hear even the slightest of the sounds. It totally was worth it!!
What about the movie? The plot?
It’s a standard commercial movie plot. You literally know how the movie is going to end – that Sonny Hayes will win the race. It was also a giant commercial for Apple products (white themed interiors and suits, visibly placed Apple Mac Studio, Apple Monitors and what not) and Expensify, T-mobile, etc…
But despite that, it’s a movie that will make you watch it a few times – for the sheer production quality. How real it felt on screen is something that can be experienced only in theatres.
A month and half later, as I walked into a theatre in Chennai yesterday, the movie is still being played and people are still watching it.
If the movie is still running in a theatre near you and you haven’t watched it yet – go and watch it. An IMAX preferably. You will absolutely be blown away!
ps: I haven’t been following F1 since 2004. 7-8 seconds pit stops were considered perfection back then. I couldn’t believe that they have got it down to 2.5 seconds these days. While reading out pit stops, found this amazing video that explains the precision and engineering behind those 2.5 seconds pit stops – in slow motion. Do give it a watch if you are interested!
One of the things that makes me extremely sad is this – the fact that digital recording, technologies like Dolby and theatres with amazing audio setups weren’t there when we had Ilayaraja music. Especially those background scores that has so much depth in them. While without Digital recording and Dolby mixing we were able to get so impacted through his background scores, imagine the level of impact those would have had on us with such a setup. I have always wondered how would it his BGMs sound if we are to completely record them today, digitally remaster the film, mix them again and watch it in theatres such as Satyam Cinemas or Jazz Cinemas in Chennai.
I recently stumbled upon a Youtube video by High Octavez where there was a live performance of the Mouna Ragam chase sequence. Here’s the video (do listen in a good quality headphones):
That was some awesome live performance of the BGM. What a depth when you re-create it today, capture the sound digitally and listen through a headphone.
I was wondering how the scene would have been in theatre if you are to mix these today. So here we go. The first one is the original – sourced through Youtube. And the second one is the same sequence mixed with the version that High Octavez live performed. If you listen to the second version, you would be able to appreciate the depth of the background score – the magic that Ilayaraja creates with all those voilins, the double base and the cello.
So, plug in your headphones and get into the wonderland of Ilayaraja. And once you finish seeing the second video, imagine for a moment watching the movie again in a theatre like Satyam, with this kind of digital recording. We would have laughed so much with all the pranks that Karthik does and when this sequence finishes in the screen, we would be in a mix of emotions – the magical writing from Mani Ratnam and an amazing score from Ilayaraja.
The original:
And the version mixed with audio from High Octavez’ recreation:
I think this is easily the best “inspiration” song for me. Every other time I stumble upon this song, it instantly lifts off my mood and inspires. And I definitely listen to this song more than once. I am fairly confident that for many people who grew up in the 80s “Annamalai” is one of their all time favorites – definitely for Rajini fans.
As the music starts off in Vetri Nichayam, you can instantly imagine the conversation between “Vinu Chakravarthy” and “Rajini” just before the start of the song. The scene cuts into the next one where the banker (who had originally rejected Rajini’s loan request) provides the money due to pressure from “Vinu Chakravarthy”. Till this moment it’s no big deal. These are some of the typical scenes that has appeared in umpteen Tamil movies. It’s the cut that happens now and the next scene that unfolds in front of us.
Rajini gets up from a chair. The camera starts zooming into his eyes. For about 3 seconds, Rajini stares at the camera with a look. Instantly he gives a look that has a mix of vengeance, the war that he is going to unleash on his best friend. The music (one of Deva’s best) is absolutely lifting the scene. It’s a little wonder if it’s simple writing of Suresh Krishna, or the music or Rajini – I would personally attribute it to Rajini. He just takes over that scene. Anybody would miss this one – just watch Rajini’s reaction when he smashes the coconut at the beginning – he shows the vengeance, the “veri” there. These are the small moments that shows Rajini’s acting, his involvement in the script – though for us his walk is just enough.Â
The song has very powerful lyrics that instantly connects with you when you feel that you were taken for a ride, feeling low in life or just feeling helpless. While the lyrics are powerful enough, you got to give due credits to SPB on this one – It is the singing by SPB that takes it to a completely different level. The emotions that he brings in his singing is simply mind blowing – just listen to the way he sings “Raththamum Vervaiyum enadhu raajaangamae…” and “Adaee Nanba…”
And the “WOWness” in this song wouldn’t be complete without this – Rajini’s walk at “Enadhu nadaiyil unadhu padaigal podi padumae”. I mean, literally he just walked. The director would have probably said “Sir, neenga nadandhu vareenga…” and Rajini would have just walked. But look at what has transpired on screen and the impact that it creates on you – the goosebump moment that only Rajini can create. Hence the Super Star 🙂
Go ahead. Watch this one. A few times. Get inspired. Do not miss 4:07.
As the end credits rolled over and I started walking down the stairs to exit the theatre, I had a “wierd” feeling. I wanted to probably stay for a few more mins till the credits completed to “consume” the movie completely. But at the same time I felt there was something missing in the movie that wanted me to start walking out. When I reflect after a day now, I think I would probably say this: Vada Chennai is a tipping point for Tamil Cinema and would even go one step further and say “Tamil Cinema has arrived”.
I had always felt bad that I was not old enough when directors like Mani Ratnam and Balu Mahendra were young enough making movies like Anjali, Nayagan, Moondram Pirai that fundamentally changed the movie landscape back in late 80s and early 90s. I missed seeing those movies in theatre (I was just old enough to watch Mowgli in DD :)) and I still imagine what it would have been to be immersed in those movies for 3 hours in a theatre. With Vada Chennai, I now have a sense of satisfaction that I am witnessing that fundamental change again. And I can imagine 30 years from now, someone is going to say “How I wish I was in the times when Vada Chennai and Vetrimaran was happening”.
Towards the middle of first half, I felt I was completely lost. The narrative was non-linear and I was wondering where all these are going and if I came to another “hyped” movie. It was in the second half I realized what Vetrimaran was doing – he was laying out a vast landscape in front of us and beautifully connected everything in the second half. That’s when you feel that there was not even a single shot that existed in the movie without a reason. That’s when you pause for a moment and you are not able to digest how he would have written all of these and what would have gone through in his mind. And suddenly the respect for this writer just goes up manyfolds. He is different, a great thinker and a great writer and is slowly changing the landscape of Tamil cinema.
Another reason why I feel that we are witnessing a tipping point in Tamil cinema is because of the “A” certificate for the film. Unlike every other Tamil cinema which looks for a “U/UA” certificate for producer’s tax benefits and attracting famil audience, here’s a movie which is for the Adults (I would rather say “grown ups”). Hats off for the production house (Dhanush in this case) for not comprimising on this one – this movie will not have certain type of audience and the producer/director is OK with it and its a big deal today.
Beyond the producer/director, I have huge respect for the censor board on this one. You typically get a U/A for uttering a “cuss” word (which also gets muted) or showing a murder scene with blood/body blurred. However in Vada Chennai, the opening scene itself had enough explicit blood (and I think I saw skin too) that indicated that this movie is definitely “A”. And then you hear the characters frequently using a cuss word that refers to mother. It’s when the female lead uses the same cuss word (I think it’s the first or second word she utters in the movie) you settle down and accept the fact that this movie is going to be a different experience altogether. Btw, the audience (including me) went crazy when she said that word 🙂 And just to be clear, I am not celebrating citation of cuss words in mainstream cinema just for the sake of it. But what was more satisfying was that here’s a movie which did not compromise anything.
Dhanush: Let me admit this. When I he did movies like “Sullan”, I was like “Here’s an example of what industry background can do. If you have money, you can back anybody and make them a star”. But as he did movies like Kadhal Kondaen, Pudhupettai and later Mayakkam Enna, there were signs about his potential. But I was thinking it as more like the “Selvaraghavan” effect. With Aadukalam and commercial ones like VIP, it really showed up that this guy has some genuine talent as an actor. And Vada Chennai, really brings that talent out. There are many scenes where he has pulled off effortlessly. Specifically, the scene where Kishore’s wife and Samuthrakani’s wife (Andrea) have a conversation in a family function about revealing the identity of the person (Dhanush) who stabbed Kishore. Dhanush is in the backdrop and figures what’s actually going on around him. He has no dialogue and just silently emotes. That was just enough. I would watch that scene many times over; what a true performance that was.
It isn’t that I don’t have complaints about this movie. One of my major complaints is about the length. I felt the movie “rushed” things. With a running length of close to 3 hours, it still wasn’t enough to consume the movie. For example, there were so many characters introduced in the jail episode that you didn’t have time to put all of them in your mind. Similarly in the second half when things are explained by Andrea, it was rushed (with pretty bad dubbing too). I wish this movie had another 30-45 minutes of runtime (Vetrimaran says it was originally shot for 5.5hours!) like GodFather. I am sure Vetrimaran would have loved too but had to remain within the constraints of theatres (they need to run 4 shows with breaks and all). May be in near distant future, someone will break this too.
I and my friend are great fans of Martin Scorcese and Tarantino movies and the collaboration he had with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Leonardo Di Caprio. We had always discussed how Scorcese and De Niro would have collaborated, what it would have been between them, how it would have been in the sets. Well, I didnt live in those times, but I think they changed Hollywood movies forever. I think Vetrimaran + Dhanush + Kishore combination is doing something very similar for Tamil movies now. Something tells me that this is a beginning of a different era where movies that are “raw”, that doesn’t even have one wasted scene, that does full justification for the script are going to be made. We are going to respect the writers more than the actors. And sense will prevail in the movies. And personally, I am going to go back to theatres more 🙂
Raghu's Ramblings 