An Owl's 2 hoots

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Irritating dialogs/sequences in movies

The title says it all.

Perhaps a word or a phrase would have been sufficient, but the writer (dialogs) sometimes goes overboard and over-emphasizes things and makes a mess out of it. It could also be a situation where the actor needs to reply sarcastically, but then the writer has doubts if the sarcasm would go unnoticed and it spirals down to nothing. Or it could be that the whole sequence with the dialog is downright ugly.

An example would be the preceding paragraph where I try to over-explain what I wrote in the very first sentence!

Note: These are only opinions, and refers to parts of movies only (mostly).

1. Anniyan:
"Nee oru nasa, clarke's table, logarithm..."
- Sujatha's way of reminding us that he is an lear-ned ayyangaarvaaL from Srirangam.

2. Aaitha ezhuthu:
First things first. People happily refer to this as aayudha ezhuthu. @!*&&^

"Raatchasaa.. chandaala.. "
- Dilli's wife (I don't know the name) chiding Madhavan's character when he kicks Meera Jasmine out. Now, which cheri/kuppam female talks like this?

I am not done with AE yet!

"Testosterone, Estrogen..."
- My blood boils whenever I see this scene! Again, lear-ned ayyangaarvaL at his best.

"Pittsburgh Venkataachalapathi koil poi motta podanum..."
- Although this dialog induces vomit naturally, credit has to be given since, that is what we expect the yuppy to say

AE in many ways is Madhavan's best movie till date. Although the movie is strewn with irritating dialogs (mostly concerning Surya and Siddharth), one particular dialog by Madhavan is gold:

"padikardha uttu yeaandaaaa arsiyalukku varreengo!"

3. Padayappa:
"Nee style-a aaappdi oru salute adippiye! enga.. adi!"
- Possibly the only time Sivaji under-sold himself on screen. Even a hard core fan of thalaivar like me, hated that scene/dialog.

4. Vetayaadu viLayaadu:
"In India, we call it Raghavan instinct"
- uvve!!

5. A-aah:
There is this one sequence when a girl comes crying to S.J. Suryah since some high profile guy tried to molest her (which is quite obvious). I am not exactly sure if I am repeating verbatim, but it goes something like this:

girl: (sobbing) "avan yenna....."
suryah: "you mean.... (nods suggestively and quasi-sympathetically here) "
girl: "mmm"
suryah: "oh god/shit/whatever"
us poor audience: we get it, you pervert!!

6. Bombay:
Perhaps the second half is interesting in parts, but the first part where the hindu guy (thankfully, not a brahmin, but a saiva piLLai, nonetheless) falls in love with a muslim girl, is a gift for a bulimic patient. Almost all dialogs and sequences between these two are unbelievably horrible and artificial. The only saving grace is the song-dance element. Perhaps Manirathnam wanted to cut to the chase and take it over to Bombay as quickly as possible.

It certainly does look like I have something against Sujatha and Manirathnam. But I love the dialogs in Nayagan, Kannathil Muththamittaal, Boys (yes!) and Mudhalvan. It sometimes gets irritating when the writer assumes intellect and also think that the audience needs things to be told in an explicit manner. Stop assaulting our senses!

One of the actors of yesteryears - Major Sundarrajan had the habit of saying a dialog in english and follow it up for good measure in tamil too, just in case we didn't get it. Come to think of it, that was actually better than "Pittsburgh venkataachalapathi".

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8 Comments:

  • I take it u don't watch Gaptan Movies!!! If u do I am sure the list wud be longer..

    I also take it your golt wife is not making u watch the goltest golt movies.. Boy O Boy!!!

    By Blogger i think therefore i am, at April 19, 2007 6:40 PM  

  • LOL on Cogito's comment..

    Sujatha's movies invariably have atleast one reference to US/us. I remember even Meera Jasmine's dialogs were anything but what a slum girl would utter..

    Raghavan Instinct-- supposed to be one of the two jokes Kamal says in the movie (the other being hardware-software).

    By Blogger Raju, at April 20, 2007 3:12 PM  

  • AE - one more gem-
    Not exactly sure but there is a scene in the lock up where surya/ajay devgan proves that the universe is not finite/infinite -

    i still remember cringing in the theater

    By Blogger ///slash\\\, at April 24, 2007 3:34 AM  

  • Cogito: Gabten movies - dialogs are sooo long and winding that even villains in the movie give up violence and renounce!!

    --..--..--

    Raju: thank god, meera jasmine did not mouth bharathiyaar poems!

    unga thalaivara neenga uttu kudukka maateenga! ;-)

    --..--..--

    Slash: LOL! jail ku poittu, yedho derive panraaru.. veththu peela!

    By Blogger tt_giant, at April 24, 2007 9:08 AM  

  • this dialogue is the best:
    yele..yeru otna dhaane chaappadu..nee chaptu venaa yeru ottu..enna munja paathu nikkare.. :D

    By Blogger BoldTaurean, at April 26, 2007 9:31 PM  

  • Boldtaurean: LOL!!! my fav in that sequence is:

    Kayni enbaar thanni enbaar; naani nirpaar naasamaai povaar, pattangi uLLapadi.. idhu kaakkai chiththar sonnadhu!

    By Blogger tt_giant, at April 27, 2007 9:16 AM  

  • sooper scene..thale..i doesn't bore u at all.. :)

    By Blogger BoldTaurean, at April 27, 2007 9:33 AM  

  • for those who get to set foot in college only on the strength of reservation, it is natural to feel animosity towards meritoriously 'learned' people. Schmuck

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at January 03, 2008 6:52 PM  

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