Biriyani - Tamil Movie Review - A Half Cooked Venkat Prabhu Diet

Biriyani - Tamil Movie Review

 

 Directed by     Venkat Prabhu

Produced by     K. E. Gnanavel Raja

Written by     Venkat Prabhu

Music by     Yuvan Shankar Raja

Cinematography     Sakthi Saravanan

Editing by     Praveen K. L, B. Srikanth

Studio     Studio Green

Release dates   20 December 2013

Running time     149 minutes

Country     India

Language     Tamil

 Cast

    Karthi as Sugan
    Hansika Motwani as Priyanka Sharma
    Premgi Amaren as Parasuram
    Ramki as Ramakrishnan
    Mandy Takhar as Maya
    Nassar as Varadharajan
    Prem as Vikram
    Jayaprakash as AC Sampath
    Madhumitha
    Nithin Sathya
    Subbu Panchu
    Uma Riyaz Khan
    Sampath Raj as Riwaz Khan
    Shanmugasundaram as Kasi Vishwanathan
    Vijayalakshmi
    Tharika
    Sangeetha Gopal
    Leena Maria Paul
    Badava Gopi

 

 'Biriyani' is the story of buddies Sugan & Prasuram, whose life goes for a toss after a visit to a hotel to have 'Biriyani'. They get trapped in a situation and its a run to to save themselves with a race against time.

Each Venkat Prabhu movie will be waited with beated breaths, same was the case with 'Biriyani'. when the film was pushed from Diwali to accomodate Azhagu Raja many were disappointed. After a long wait, and a long gap since Mankatha, finally the Venkat Prabhu got released.

First things first, Biriyani is Venkat Prabhu's weakest work till date. It is a multi genre film starts as usual Karthi film, family, job, lover, comedy, turns naughtier and then enters thriller mode. The actual story begins only towards the interval, once they enter the 'Biriyani' shop & Mandy Thakar's character enter. Till then nobody had a clue what the hell was going on. Felt like lots of irrelevant, uninteresting scenes sewn together to reach the pre-interval portion. Even the twists and turns in the second half are very much predictable and the movie ends in a lame climax (followed by a twist and then the real climax, which was also ZZzzz). It would be better if you keep your brain locked up in the house before going to watch Biriyani as many scenes don't have any explanations.

 Karthi tried hard to shed the boy next door image/looks to get into the Casanova avatar, and succeeded to a large extent. He was good in the sister kidnap scene, other than that it was blant, nothing special. Premgi Amaren unlike Mankatha got a throughout role and raised few laughs. Actor Riaz Khan's wife Uma who played a conract killer was impressive. Nassar's Premgi act was howlarious. Among the ladies in the film its Mandy Thakkar who gets noticed, who fit he bill perfectly. Hansika's character just comes and goes, nothing special. Rest of the cast were okay, nothing worthy of mentioning.

Its Venkat Prabhu's half cooked recipe (script) that spoiled this 'Biriyani'. As a director he still showed his caliber, but as a writer he failed. Camera work was very good, tried to make it appear rich and peppy. Editing was crisp, prevented fast cuts and no lag helped prevent further embarrassment for makers. 

Songs & BG were the 2 major points of Mankatha( apart from the outstanding act by Thala). Except 'Na naanah' were disappointment when saw in the film, acting like speed breakers. Was disappointed with the way 'Na naah' was shot & choreographed. BG wasn't that exciting either.

So in all 'Biriyani' is a half cooked diet, spoiled by too many cooks (genres)

Rating: A generous 2.5/5

Verdict: Average

Last Word: Statuatory Warning :- "Half  cooked 'food items' are not good for your health !!!! "

PS:  There is a sequence in the film where popular stars from previous VP movies are seen doing a flash mob to Mankatha title song celebrating Thala B'day

Packed Christmas @ Kerala Box Office

 It will be a well packed Christmas this year at Kerala Box Office, Movies from 3 languages will be sharing the 'screens space' next weekend. There will be shortage of screens and audience will be divided and since collection drop drastically once holidays are over its a crucial 10 days for all films & Industry. Mammooty's Silence which was expected to give company released last week & already bit the dust @ Box Office

Dec 19th - First to hit the screens will be Mohanlal's Drishyam. Its also Jeethu Joseph's next after the super hit 'Memories'. Film is said to be a family based thriller. Also *ing Meena, Aasha Sharath, Kalabhavan Shajon etc

 Dec 20th - 7th film of Dileep - Lal Jose jodi. Apart from the beautiful title, in 'Malayalam' the posters, unique casting, promo videos, songs etc have caught on with every body. Scripted by James Albert.

 Dec 20 - Venkat Prabhu's much waited stylish mass masala thriller is finally hitting screens. The film was having some issues with local distributors, hopefully it will release simultaneously here as well. Starring Karthi, Pramgi, Hansika etc

 Dec 20 - Undoubtedly the most awaited film of 2013. 3rd part to the mega successful Dhoom franchise. the presence of Aamir Khan & Katrina Kaif elevates the hype & expectations even more. Hope the film also gets reasonable amount of screens in this mad rush time.

Dec 21 [Expected] - Sathyan Anthikad first time working with Fahadh Faasil & Amala Paul, after a long time working with some body else's script etc are the unique features of OIPK. Should be a slow started and could turn out to be the dark horse. Film is said to be a Rom-Com with politics forming back drop.

Dec 19th - Drishyam

Dec 20th - Ezhu Sundara Rathirkal, Biriyani, Dhoom 3

Dec 21st - Oru Indian Pranaya Kadha

The much delayed Joshiy film Salam Kashmir is also said to be releasing this holidays, even though not yet confirmed.

Malayalam Dub of 'Yevadu' was also set to release, but since the original version has pushed its release date, it will not be coming next week

Besides these, fans will have a treat as Audios of two of the most expected film of 2014 will be getting released the same weekend, Veeram - Dec 20th & Jilla Dec 21st.