Managed to catch this movie at MidValley on Saturday 4.30pm show (the only one available). Cost RM22 for both of us. And I got an earful for wasting 2 hours of Then’s time!

The movie is a local fare produced by Crescendo Productions and directed by Dharmavathi. There were only 4 of us in the cinema, but a few others came in halfway through the two hour movie. » Read more: Naana Neeya

The hype and feedback from friends who watched this movie was good. I was given the impression that it was about second marriage and woman’s struggle. But I feel the theme was something else.

I couldn’t catch it at the cinema,so saw it on VCD recently and did not regret it at all, even with the high expectation caused by friends’ comments. The producer being Vasanth, you can expect something different in the movie.

The movie stars Prithviraj (of Mozhi, Kana Kanden, Parijatham fame) as Ravichandran, a software engineer (well, don’t they all are nowadays!), Padmapriya (of Pattiyal, Thavamai Thavamirinthu fame) as Banu, and Nitin Sathya (from Chennai 600028) as Rathnavelu, as the main protagonists. Supporting casts includes Raghav as Padmapriya’s elder brother and Prithviraj’s good friend, and Nasser as a church priest.

The story is quite straight forward. In the beginning, we get to see Rathanvelu (Nitin) accompanying his friend for matchmaking session. However, the friend did not like the prospective bride, and Rathnavelu steps in and proposes to marry her, which of course is Banu (Padmapriya). All was fine and dandy until after few months, the couple have not consummated their marriage and Banu grows impatient with Rathnavelu for his cold behaviour on bed. They go for check-up and finds out that Rathnavelu is impotent, which he claims of not knowing beforehand. Banu is heartbroken. We then see Rathnavelu talking to Nasser about his wedding. Nasser coordinates the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group of which Rathnavelu attends. Rathnavelu tells Nasser that he had told everything to the bride’s family and even says the bride herself is unable to bear children. Nasser believes him and does not suspect anything.

The couple tries adoption, but eventually return the child since Rathnavelu is reminded of his impotency everytime he sees the child. All the time, Rathnavelu suggests divorce, but he knows Banu would not do it. Banu decides to work and find a job at a school where she can be close to kids. But Rathnavelu feels insecure seeing her mingle with others, and hurts her one night after she confront him on his impotency (being told by Nasser over the phone). One thing leads to another, and they file for divorce. Rathnavelu is angered and vows revenge.

Fast forward a bit, and we see Banu moving to town with her brother and meet Ravi who lives in the same building. Her brother has told him about Banu’s plight and Ravi is willing to marry her. He approaches her as “Chandran” over the phone, but Banu is disillusioned by men and rejects his approach. He then makes an appearance in person and introduces himself as Ravi. This Ravi/Chandran comedy goes on for a while until they are finally married. Ravi in person and Chandran on the phone. » Read more: Sattham Podathey

Slick is how I will summarize Bourne Ultimatum. Well executed, continuous flow, non-stop intriguing moments, and a nice tidy clean-up in the end. Well done!

The movie continues from the second movie, in which Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), the rogue CIA agent, looses his girlfriend. The story starts a bit slowly, in Moscow, with Bourne on the run from local cops. After that, things heat up and you get to see the customary chase across Europe and the Atlantic, where things finally end at good old USA.

Bourne is determined to get to the bottom of his identity and punish those who made him who he is now. He gets in touch with a journalist investigating Bourne, but before he can get more details, the journalist gets assassinated. However, Bourne retrieves some documents from the dead journalist’s bag. This happens at the famous Waterloo Station in London. The scene where Bourne guides the journalist was well-taken. Did I say slick earlier?

The assassination is ordered by CIA who using a technology called ECHELON (which is supposed to be a fictional capability of the US government to track and listen to phone class all over the world!) realized that the journalist is getting information from a CIA insider. The CIA unit boss, Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) who in charge of bring down Bourne, is also the officer in charge of Project BlackBriar, the upgrade to Project Threadstone. After the botched assassination, Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), another CIA official, is called up to assist in apprehending Bourne. She was the one who made contact with Bourne and realized that he may not be a rogue agent after all in the second movie.

The chase moves to Tangiers, Morocco as Bourne tries to get in touch with the journalist’s informer. He meets Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), who now works as a CIA liason officer (She was introduced in the first movie). She acted for about 20 minutes only in this movie. Parsons helps Bourne to track the informer, but again Vosen orders the informer to be assassinated before Bourne is able to talk to him. A motorbike and rooftop chase occurs as the assassin goes after Bourne and Parsons. Bourne kills the assassin. Both of them part ways soon after that. Pamela quits the operation team because she is against the way Vosen orders assassinations of fellow agents and public. She tries to warn the CIA head, but to no avail. » Read more: Bourne Ultimatum