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| Pudupettai
– According to trade circles!! |
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If a movie is in the long time making,
increasing the budget and raising
the expectations of all concerned,
then it is bound to bomb at the box
office.
This has been the lesson ‘Pudupettai’
has taught its makers. It overshot
the budget being in production for
more than a year, kept the fans in
delicious anticipation, and left them
disappointed more than ever with the
final product. The movie, despite
a hectic opening, is now fast becoming
an embarrassment for the director
and a disaster for the producers. |
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The
film is technically brilliant, the
background score is terrific and the
acting from all artistes is overall
good. But where have the things gone
wrong?
One major reason for why ‘Pudupettai’
has not been received well could be
attributed to its timing. The film
has arrived right in the midst of
a overheated ‘rowdy’ season.
So many movies, from ‘Aaru’,
‘Pattiyal’, ‘Chitram
Pesuthadi’, ‘Thiruttu
Payale’, etc have all the same
theme of putting the anti-social types
on the spotlight. The viewers can’t
be blamed if they are clearly fatigued
by the glut of such movies. |
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to this is the violence that is depicted in
the movie which surely has not helped its
cause. |
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From
the first few days’ attendance
at the theatres, it looked like most
of Dhanush’s fans belong to
under-20 youth wing of Rajini Fan
Club and the movie, despite its directorial
effort, is not likely to pull in family
audience.
“When so much violence, blood
and gore are there, how can you expect
a family audience for the film?”
asks one distributor. “From
‘Chandramukhi’s phenomenal
performance, it should be clear to
anyone that only family audience movies
become great hits. |
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How can you just bank on a section of audience
for a big project like this?” This has
been the view echoed by many distributors. |
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Another
reason for ‘Pudupettai’
not going down well with the fans
is its treatment. The film makers,
these days, glorify the anti-hero
through out the movie, but at least,
have enough sense to kill him off
in the climax, just to satisfy the
sensibilities of the viewers. In ‘Pudupettai’
– where the protagonist becomes
more and more despicable as the film
progresses - even this concession
is not given!
It is said that Selva, right from
the beginning, has wanted this movie
to be his magnum opus and hence has
not compromised with either the length
of the movie or the budget. |
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| This
has led to the fans complaining that the second
half has been made without any songs and this
makes the movie much longer than it actually
is. |
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Most
of Selva’s earlier movies have
become successes solely because they
reflected the aspirations of the front-benchers
but this movie seem to be even beyond
their wildest dreams. Seeing ‘7
G Rainbow Colony’ you get hope
that you can get a girl even if you
continue to stalk her, but seeing a
wiry ‘Kokki’ Kumar, slashing
everyone’s throats on his way
to becoming a dreaded gangster, is stretching
credulity a bit further even for a die-hard
Dhanush fan. |
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The
industry watchers feel considering the high
productions costs of the movie, even if
it was a hit, the film would have barely
recovered the costs for the producers. But,
the movie not picking up now, would only
mean terrible losses for everyone associated
with the project, feel the trade circles.
Selva, for long considered to be the director
of B-grade flicks by the critics, has proved
to them that he is a serious director who
knows his craft and this only augurs well
for the Tamil film industry and one can
expect better offerings from him to come
in future. But for now, one can only feel
sad that his present fare has fallen flat
at the altar of the mighty box office. |
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