Tamil Movie Review

The Mozart of Madras made Indians around the world proud with his double Oscar win for Slumdog Millionaire. And now, music maestro A.R. Rahman has composed a Tamil song for the Hollywood film Couples Retreat, taking Kollywood, especially Tamil film music, to a global arena.


Couples Retreat has been directed by Peter Billingsley and has Vince Vaughn in the lead. Rahman composed and sang the romantic melody Kuru Kuru Kangaliley Ennai Aval Vendraaley, which features prominently in the album. But how did Tamil music enter the film? The humble Rahman reveals, "Initially, Peter (Billingsley) wanted some African tunes for this particular track and I asked him to try out a Tamil song for a change. He agreed, try out a Tamil song for a change. He agreed, and eventually, when the song was composed, it fit the romantic mood perfectly."

Ranbir Kapoor as Sid (Sidharth Mehra) is really cool; Debutant director Ayan Mukerji's Wake Up Sid is happy, smart and complete with a few Karan Johar's one-tear moments; Ranbir and Konkona Sen Sharma (Aisha Bannerjee) make an unlikely but likeable couple. But that's mainly because you want to like what Sid likes. If he had fallen for that pearly girl, it would have been cool, too. And if he had shacked up with that slutty babe, we won't have cribbed too much.

Wake Up... begins in Sid's colorful world of cartoons, comics, PSP, iPod and drinks and hi-jinks bought on daddy's credit card. He's in final year of college and it's exam time. In a lovely opening scene, Sid's trying to get through a book of financial accounting. But it's dull. So he doodles, clicks pictures of his hip socks and has scary thoughts in the examination hall.

Dad (Anupam Kher) promises Sid a Porsche if he joins his bathroom fittings business for a month. Sid barely lasts a week.

Sid is clueless about life, knows it, and doesn't care. He meets his opposite in Aisha who has just arrived in Mumbai to become a writer. She is sorted, plucky and sits on the cusp of pretentiousness. Aisha gets a job as the editor's assistant at a city magazine, editor being dishy Rahul Khanna.
Sid helps Aisha do up her flat in a bright and quirky Good Earth way and then finds out that while his closest friends, Rishi and Laxmi, have passed, he has flunked. He fights with mom, dad and leaves home. Aisha and Sid start living together, as friends.
He messes up the house, she cleans it. She goes to work, he gets bored, starves. But he's beginning to change. He learns to make eggs, gets a job, bonds with his mom (Supriya Pathak), and presents his first paycheque to his dad.

Aisha, who was sort of seeing her jazz-loving editor, realizes that she loves Sid. But Sid will have to wait for Mumbai's first raindrop to figure.

Wake Up... is a cheery and warm-at-heart coming of age tale of one of Bollywood's most hackneyed protagonists -- bade baap ka bigda beta. Though the story is straight forward and most of its characters are cliches, its lingo is new and its disheveled chic look is fresh. The movie is tightly edited, has some lovely moments, smart dialogues, and a mix of peppy and rainy-day numbers.

It was brave of Ayan Mukerji to cast Konkona opposite Ranbir, cast Konkona opposite Ranbir, that too in this frothy city flick. Though the movie explains that Aisha looks older than Sid because she is, a lesser actress would have wilted. Konkona is good, but happiness doesn't sit easy on her.
She has too many layers. Happy is just a single-note state of being.

And Ranbir's Sid gets there effortlessly, without a single false note. Sid could have been exasperating, but Ranbir's infectious fun makes him so damn adorable that you not only understand his contempt for his dad's showerheads business, but even excuse his embarrassment at his mom's awkward English. I watched Ranbir's Sid with fascination and affection and was dying to run through his cupboard and try on his socks.