“Thala” Fest

Today I watched Asal. I never imagined I’d watch it. It’s not my kind of movie. But I wanted to have some entertainment today and the only other choices I had were Theeradha Vilayattu Pillai (I almost considered that!! See how jobless I am!) and My Name is Khan (I wasn’t in the mood for a serious movie though).

Ajit has removed the “Ultimate Star” tag from his name… but still Asal is a “thala puranam” all the way. Literally. I think each character would’ve said a dialogue with the word “thala” at least once. The “thala” nbhajan was just too much (Didn’t this para get to you already? :P).When Ajit’s stepbrothers shoot him and he falls into the sea, they want to make sure he’s gone and say “Thala theriyardha? Thala theriyardha?”… spare us this torture, Oh lord!

What’s the movie about? Ajit’s hairy face, Sameera Reddy (I liked her, thankfully), Daddy Ajith’s cement-plastered white hair (It looks like it’s been done with cement, I swear), stylish clothes, fights with an amazing variety of sound effects, the brothers’ beards and yeah, Yuhi Sethu as Don Samsa (he and his sidekicks did a great job! And one of them was really cute & had fantastic comic expressions!). And Ajit looks good when he’s clean shaven and wearing glasses (he’s one of those heroes who looks better when he’s fat).But the movie’s not about acting.

Ajit sends villains and henchmen flying, with different sound effects when each of them lands. Wow! Bhavana gets the best songs and walks away with the hero after a contrived climax (thankfully, only the part where it’s decided who gets Ajith) to define the purpose of her role. Sameera Reddy is dignified and gets to dance to a dumb song with the hero, in which the lyrics and music are hilariously mismatched in some parts (but I loved your red dress, Sameera). Rajeev Krishna, who acts as Ajit’s brother, behaves like a lunatic and gives us some laughs. Prabhu contributes to the comedy with his glasses and beard.

I wanna stop here. I spoke about everything I found funny :-D… rest wasn’t great. Asal is Hollywood meets unbelievable Kollywood fights meets hero worship meets super ishtyle. But if you’re content with that combo and want just entertainment, yeah you can blow money on it :-).