Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Boss Engira Baskaran

Have you done anything on impulse? That is what we did today. We decided to go to a newly released Tamil movie, Boss Engira Baskaran. For no reason we decided to go for the 4:30 PM show. Today is Monday (working day) and how many Tamil speaking people you would expect for a 4:30 PM show? You are correct. We were the only two people in the whole theater. We were expecting at least a few others to show up. No way. When the movie started, we looked around. We were the only two people. Anyhow, we enjoyed it. Felt like watching a movie in our own huge private theater.

There was supposed to be a 15 minute interval. There was no line. We bought the soft drinks. Only 5 minutes were gone. Still 10 minutes left. The operator came to me and said if I wanted to, he could start the movie right now. I asked him to go ahead. We really felt like watching in our own huge private theater.

Bottom line is we liked the movie. It is a romantic comedy. Actors were Arya, Nayantara, and Santhanam. Rajesh is the Director. Yuvan Shankar Raja composed the musical score. Santhanam (the comedian) stole the entire movie. It is a regular Tamil movie masala. One thing I liked is there was no fight in the movie. I am tired of watching one guy fighting with bare hands 100 people with guns and knives.

The story is about an ever obliging guy Baskaran (Arya) who is always busy doing odd jobs for other people. In the process he misses a lot of his personal life and doesn’t seem to embark on a useful career. When things almost go out of hand, a no-nonsense young girl Chandrika (Nayantara) enters his life and puts him on right track. A middle class love also blooms on the way.

I enjoyed one conversation very much. Santhanam has a barbershop. The name is Thala Thalapathi Barbershop. {For non-Tamil readers: There is a rivalry going on between two Tamil actors. Ajit is nicknamed Thala (Leader) and Vijay is nicknamed Thalapathi (General)}. In a scene, supporters of these two actors wanted to know why Santhanam named his barbershop like this. Santhanam gave a long philosophical explanation. One guy told him: You are giving a long explanation which no one understands, just like the way Kamal Hasan speaks.

My opinion: Comedy is the boss. Perfect for a weekend in which you decide not to give your brain much work.

49 comments:

  1. We were also planning to go yesterday, at the mall near our place,but decided to postpone it as we had other things to do. Maybe we would see it in a day or two, seems to be good. Thanks for the review. Good you had the Hall to yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A shame to hear that you were the only two people there - this decline in cinema going seems to be a worldwide thing.

    That said, there is something special about being the only ones to be watching the film - you get to experience what it must be like for the rich and famous who claim to have movie theatres in their homes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sometimes the actors or directors show their new films to our CM in a private show...this is like that! Just the two of you, nice!

    I too heard that the movie is a clean movie and enjoyable, thank you for the review, SG!

    Santhanam had added one more line asking Nayantara if she liked men without a beard (meaning Prabhudeva...an affair is going on between Prabhudeva and Nayantara!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sorry, add this line to my previous comment ...Prabhudeva compelled the director to remove the dialogue!

    ReplyDelete
  5. We watched it sometime back .. somehow didnt like it quite as much.. felt that the movie was dragging on incessantly..Thank god for Santhanam !.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have done lots of things on impulse and it feels great when the end results are good :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like Santhanam. He's funny :)

    What a nice experience it must have been to have had the whole theater for yourself :D

    ReplyDelete
  8. Seems it was an exclusive screening for the two of you. Thats an experience as well.

    I want to hear the music of this movie. I heard it was not that great. Arya and Nayan seems to be fresh pair and after reading your views, I feel I should watch this movie. If not for anyone else, definitely for Santhanam. He is a witty guy

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for your comments Rama. I think it is worth seeing once.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for your comments Tracy. You are correct. With TV and DVD, people actually going to the movie theater has declined.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for your comments Sandhya. Yes, we felt very special. And, thanks for the trivia about Prabhudeva.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for your comments Bedazzled. Santhanam carries the whole movie. Plus I liked the fact that there were no illogical fights.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for your comments Shuchita. Is this called serendipity?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks for your comments Titaxy. We had the whole theater to ourselves. It was a pleasant expereince. We were even talking loud during the song.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks for your comments Insignia. I am sur you had been to this theater in San Jose (at The Alameda). It was quite an experience.

    The songs were not that great except "Yar Intha Penthan". This song is hummable.

    Santhanam did a great job. You can watch this movie once.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sounds like fun if you can understand it! And I agree with you, there's too much violence, especially unrealistic violence, in movies today.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh yes, I watched Azagiya Tamizh Magan and Billa in this theater when they had a Diwali release 3 years ago. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I am sure you must have felt like a celebrity there for a private screening :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. hehe .. been there ..
    once with friends, i was hanging around in Mumbai .. saw 2 back to back movies, one being Anaconda (in Hindi) :D

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks for your comments Emily. You are right. Not only too much but illogical fight scenes in Indian movies. The hero single handedly (with no weapon) will beat 100 guys with guns.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thanks for your comments Insignia. I am glad you even remembered which movies you saw. Remarkable memory.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thanks for your comments Neha. I did feel exactly the same way you described.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Thanks for your comments Vinay. And, welcome to my blog. I am glad you enjoyed the theater.

    Vinay, please visit here as often as possible.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Doing something on an impulse is such a stress reliever. Glad you both could get off to do something fun.

    I am sure you enjoyed the cinema hall all to yourselves. Will rent this movie and check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  25. It happened to us once also and we left half way. I like sitting in a crowd where people are laughing, whistling and give special comments...that is real fun for me.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Thanks for your comments Geeta. Yes we had fun. Santhanam was performed very well in this movie.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Thanks for your comments A. We loved it. We talked loud during the entire movie.

    ReplyDelete
  28. SG! Thank you for the explanation for Thala and Thalapathy. I absolutely had no clue...

    ReplyDelete
  29. Thanks for your comments NRIGirl. After Sivaji and MGR, and Kamal and Rajni, now the classical rivalry is between Thala and Thalapathy (Ajit and Vijay).

    ReplyDelete
  30. You had an entire theater to yourselves??? Wow!!!
    I liked this movie esp for Santhanam's comedy.....the cinema hall here was full....we booked our tickets a few days in advance.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Great you enjoyed the movie, 'in your own private theatre'. Yes one should do things impulsively sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Thanks for your comments Jayashree. I am glad you also enjoyed this movie. But we still miss the "dramatics" in any Chennai theater when they show the hero's name. The claps, the whistle, and the roar.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Thanks for your comments Kiran. We do things impulsively once in a while. Last Memorial Day weekend (May 29-31) we went to Paris on an impulse for no reason and had a great time.

    ReplyDelete
  34. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  35. It reminds me of the time we watched a Malayalam movie " Rain rain come again ". This happened couple of years ago.

    We were in Kerala then, and suddenly decided at night to go for any movie since we were flying back the next day. We went for 2nd show. We were four of us. Myself, my spouse, our daughter aged 4 and my brother. we went inside theater and saw only two other guys inside. We thought others will follow.

    It turned out later that only 6 of us were there to watch that movie. I didn't like the movie. My daughter slept after few minutes and my brother brought snacks from the near by canteen. the 2 guys went out after interval and we sat through the whole movie, joking chatting and playing scrabble in between. So interesting the movie was... :) but like you we too enjoyed being alone in the theater.

    ReplyDelete
  36. We were the only two people in the whole theater
    good idea for couples.
    like your narration.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I am sure you had a wonderful experience and must be a memorable one. Its really nice that you had fun and enjoyed the movie very much. Its very important and also necessary to do things impulsively sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  38. sounds like you had a lot of fun ;) nice blog :)
    wanna follow each other?? :)

    ReplyDelete
  39. Thanks for your comments Stranger. Cannot imagine an empty theater in Kerala. I am glad you had a great time.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Thanks for your comments SM. I am glad you liked this post.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Thanks for your comments Babli. It feels good when you do things impulsively and it turns out good.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Thanks for your comments Daniella. And, welcome to my blog. I am glad you liked this post.

    I will add your blog to the list of "Blogs I Love To Read".

    Daniella, please visit here as often as you can. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Thanks for your comments Rajlakshmi. Yes, we enjoyed the movie.

    ReplyDelete
  44. SG,
    I am back, I saw the comment you left on my blog. Thanks for that. When work starts, the schedule is very tight,I conduct training for about 6 hrs.and 3 hrs of travelling,so when I reach home, I get totally exhausted.You know , students in southern Tamil Nadu have no exposure and it is really a Herculean task making them come out of their shell. A few more days of work is remaining. But today on account of Babri Masjid- Ram janmabhoomi verdict , most of the institutions have declared a holiday. So I am free today.
    Tomorrow traveling up to Trichur and would visit Guruvayoor too.Want to have the Nirmalaya darshanam.

    Your post on animal videos helped me to start my day with a happy mood.

    Regarding the movie,theaters here are crowded and I can see people queuing up for the tickets and majority of them are students bunking clases:)

    ReplyDelete
  45. Thanks for your comments Chitra. I never realized you are this busy. Having lived here all my life, I never knew how things are back at home.

    I am glad you are going to Guruvayoor.

    Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  46. @ sg ..this sounds very romntic ,but depends on each one's attitude .some people may feel that it's not worth the money paid also ..when thetre's are not full.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Thanks for your comments Raji. You live in the Bay Area. You know very well nobody goes to the day time show on a working day (unless there is an eccentric like me).

    ReplyDelete
  48. Haha, one of my fave movies when I want to unwind! Its goofy and light! And I LOVED Santhanam's "Nee Enna Avalo Periya Appatakkara" scene at the bank function :)

    ReplyDelete