Review of Minnale

Introduction

While being a rather cliché film with the usual conventions seen in a romantic love triangle, the approach the director has chosen is quite new and impressive. Despite some weak inconsistencies in the screenplay, like the violence Rajesh friends displays against Rajiv which could have been avoided, the film still remains mesmerizing in delivering an entertaining film which will mostly please the youth market which it is aimed at.

The debutante work of the director is very slick and shows signs of becoming established not just in Tamil cinema but in Hindi cinema also. The film sports great moments of cinematography hosting the MTV look. Editing is kind of weak in places and results in throwing some scenes off balance. I guess the editor was rushing the work to complete it for the date of its cinema release. Still its a shame that the editing is affected as Suresh Urs is one of India`s leading editors who has done some great work in the past.

Other technical values are decent and the performance given by the main cast is impressive. Actors Madhavan, Abbas, and Reema Sen are never weak and shows signs of maturity from these three new actors. While Reema Sen`s role is limited in scope in the second half, which also lacks voice of the woman`s perspective in dealing with issues linked to the film, she does have screen presence which will appeal to masses. Only the supporting cast of Vivek and co. embroideries some elements of overacting which is one reason why the film fails in some places. Nagesh as the doting grandfather is touching and the rapport with Madhavan is one that is the most realistic portion of the film.

The film music score is very impressive as is the background music score. The work of debutante music director Harris Jeyaraj, who was working as a advert jingles composer and was trained under the talented music director A.R Rahman, has done wonders here. Use of western instruments fusing with eastern music are compelling and melodious. From the Indian R`n`B track `Vaseekaraa` sung with style by Bombay Jayasri, to the romantic and class tune of `Vayenna` all songs acts as the film`s narrative structure and also serves as a great listening motif. With obvious inspiration of Rahman`s music the tracks in the film goes on one step further and creates its own style which is deemed quite new to Indian cinema. The cinematography and choreography of the songs are also well executed, with some pop references to R`n`B music videos seen on MTV.

Even thought the film has a weak ending, some unfunny moments from Vivek, and poor editing, the film manages to sustain a cute and funny romance in the first half, and decent performances from the main cast. Worth a look for the youth which the film is solely aimed at (which is obvious as the start credits endorses Pepsi).

Video

The DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.25:1 which has been cropped from the original aspect ratio of 2.55:1. Yet the cropping is not as affected when viewing as most of the frame is covered on this DVD. But the idea that the wondrous canvas is missing by a slight portion does have an affect on this purist mind. Still the transfer is presented in an anamorphic mode which really does encapsulate the details even further..

The 35mm print negative source used for this DVD appears to be in average condition. The source used was that of the interpositive negative, but the damage shown on the film was quite surprising as the film was recently made and the lack of care taken on negatives in India enraged me even further. Still the film remains quite clean from blemishes with only small white dots appearing randomly during reel changes. While they don`t affect viewing, it is noticeable. It would have been better if the telecinist used the Digital Video Noise Reduction (DVNR) process to remove some of the white dots. But some purist might argue that this could lead to digital filtering problems.

The DVD had small signs of compression artefacts and elements of film grain, also some elements of softness affected seconds of picture information. But all these problems appeared during a few seconds in the whole film and might be missed by some viewers. Overall I was pleased with the encoding which would have been hard for a film of this nature as it was shot on low budget, and had a rough time during post production.

The film did for the majority of time have excellent sharpness details which brought out information in a new light never shown on the big screen. Little things like text on newspapers, books, and signs are quite clear. But this title is not as precise in conveying information as the Dheena (2001) DVD also brought out by Ayngaran International, but don`t let that put you off this title. The DVD is good in its own right and certainly improves on most of the films coming from Hindi cinema onto DVD. The disc does have light moments of moiré effects and shimmering but doesn`t impact as much on picture quality, and is passable.

The colour fidelity is very well handed and shows the effort of trying to capture the director`s original vision, which must have been quite hard. The film was originally shot with much distortion to the colour to either highlight or glamorous romance with brighter colours. This is captured on this DVD perfectly without any distortion and retains the vibrancy and boldness of the frame (as seen in the screen shots captured).

Definition of the black details and contrast levels are average but some extra work could have been done here to make sure the whole scene can be seen without any hinders to the eye. Still a good effort as most details can be seen, its just a question of defining them even further to make the DVD extra special.

Audio

The 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is to sum up in one word - `Brilliant`. A great soundtrack brimming out in all channels creating the 360 degree soundfield which easily immerses you in the whole experience of watching this film. Dialogues are crisp and clear, and the sound effects envelops you even further. Never has the film sounded so good. If any complaint is to be made then it would be on the four sound drop outs heard which only occur during the reel changes. Interestingly the same problems was also detected when viewing the film on cinema.

Features

The menus are very thematic in design and establishes that this product is a special one from Ayngaran International. All are graphically designed and are very easy to use. Same can be said of the box design although a synopsis on the back would have been useful to those who don`t know nothing about the film.

The English subtitles are once again the downside to an Ayngaran DVD. They really need to improve on the timing and grammar used. Also some more chapter marks would have helped as the film was quite long and the twenty five chapter marks provided didn`t seem enough for easy navigation to access your favourite scene.

Conclusion

Even though the DVD has its little downsides its also has its positive aspects which clearly outweighs any other negative aspects and makes purchase of the DVD well worth it.