Coming Soon - Kuruvi

The insipid nature of Tamil cinema so far in 2008 is clear from the fact that we are 5 months into the year but coming up on only the second movie(after Bheema) that I've really looked forward to. The gang that gave us Gilli 4 years ago is back with Kuruvi, which is releasing this weekend. With hits like Yaaradi Nee Mohini and Santosh Subramniyam, Tamil cinema is looking better that it did even a few weeks ago but we've still not had a true-blue blockbuster yet this year and I'm hoping that Kuruvi is the first.

The term 'kuruvi' is used to describe those who make frequent trips between Singapore and Chennai with the express purpose of smuggling goods from Singapore. The film is supposed to be about Vijay getting caught in one such smuggling ring and extricating himself. From the looks of the trailer, it is heavy on action with some romance, comedy and songs thrown in.

After stumbling at the box-office with Azhagiya Thamizh Magan, Vijay will be looking for a hit with Kuruvi to keep up his reputation as Tamil cinema's biggest box-office star after Rajni. He is paired with Trisha again. The pair has had both hits(Gilli, Tiruppaachi) and flops(Aadhi) and will be looking for another hit to maintain the tag of 'lucky pair'. Kuruvi has two stars from Sivaji. While Vivek is the comedian, Suman, who walked in after Prakashraj dropped out due to his busy schedule, plays the villain.

While I do like Vijay, my expectations for his movies are high or low depending on the director he has teams up with. So I looked forward to Pokkiri quite a bit because of Prabhu Deva while I was rather lukewarm about Azhagiya Thamizh Magan. On that scale, my expectations for Kuruvi are sky-high since the film has our best - and my favorite - masala film director at the helm. With Dhill, Dhool and Gilli, Dharani showed us that he had mastered the art of creating fast-paced, well-balanced masala films that had no dull moments. Not surprisingly, all three were huge box-office hits. He then went to Telugu, where he made Bangaram with Pawan Kalyan. That film received scathing reviews and was a flop. Now that he's back in Tamil I am hoping the Telugu film was just a blip on his radar and that he has recovered his touch.

Vidyasagar has always come up with crowd-pleasing, popular soundtracks for Dharani. His soundtracks for Vijay haven't been as successful. Kuruvi's album falls between those two extremes. Mozhu Mozhunnu... is very catchy and the only song that I liked on the first listen. Anuradha Sriram's voice is perfectly suited for the fast number. But a couple of the other songs have grown on me too. Palaanadhu... makes us hum too with its heavy beats and catchy tune. Dandana Darna... is a typical Vijay introduction number. Thaen Thaen... is one of those standard Vidyasagar melodies but is a bit too generic and not as good as some of his other soft numbers. I'm not a big fan of Yogi.B's rap and so Happy New Year... leaves me cold inspite of Sunidhi's powerful voice.

Let's hope Kuruvi flies high at the box-office.