The movie offered complete entertainment to someone watching it with the right
expectation.
It also has a strong social message that is as relevant as all his 5 earlier works.
In this sense, boys comes out Thumbs Up!...
Infact, equal, if not more, than any of his previous outings...
It is very relevant to the current happenings in India, with a whole young generation trying to ape the west (Thanks to the influence of the TV channels and mags) and having to deal with the previous two generations...
The movie starts out by the showing a typical day in the boys' life...
The boys' (Munna, Juju, kumar, bob galu (aka babu kalyanam!) and krishna) only aim in life is to win the attention of girls. The first hour of the movie shows the efforts that the boys
take to impress girls in general , and the hero munna's efforts to win her
love.
The scenes are well conceived, and you would appreciate the genuis of shankar if you had
watched some movies which had a similar storyline. eg. Please watch a movie called 'Gummalam', which starts out on a similar note. I couldn't sit through that movie for more than 1/2 hour.
In stark contrast, Shankar moves the film scene by scene, with the same deftness that he showed in his
'Indian' or 'Gentleman'...
Some of the scenes, like the boys bringing a prostitute home are a bit too much for the current state in Tamil cinema.
Shankar should have avoided showing the grunting noises that munna and the girl make, to get his friends to believe that something exciting is happening inside the room. This would be a bit too much of a culture shock for the Indian
audience, and the tamil audience in particular.
Also, I hope that the youngsters don't take a wrong message from all the eve teasing scenes in the movie and rationalize it as a 'common occurrence in society'.
The scene at the bar, where Vivek gets introduced, is well conceived and Shankar has proved his mettle at merging
humor and serious stuff... Vivek had experienced a love failure and subsequently has been unable to satisy his career goals too.
It is very clear from this point, that Shankar wants to portray the effect that love has had, and is having, on the youth today.
Shankar has given clear examples of characters of people who have
succeeded in love but had to sacrifice their career goals.
given up their love to succeed in their career goals.
lost in love, and consequently lost their career paths too...
This, I guess is a more socially relevant theme for today's society, where 90% of the youth are after the fad
of 'falling in love', and where romantic movies hog more than half of the movie market.
His earlier social movies focussed on corruption and weeding out the inbuilt inefficiencies in the Indian system.
The topic he has handled in this movie is equally important for the society as well!
The message he has given to the youth through this movie is that we can create a new category, apart from the other 3 I have listed above.
- succeeded in love AND succeeded in their career/life!
The boys win the friendship of heroine after they bash up a guy who tries to pursue her.
The hero (after some daring antics) wins harini's heart and they get married through Vivek's help.
The parents oppose as usual.
The scene where all the parents of the boys and girls assemble in a room and discuss the matters is interestingly
designed.
Shankar brings out the relative merits and demerits of falling in love at a young age.,,
Vivek's comments about how the magazines and the TV channels are full of sexual stuff today, is very relevant.
I bet that any youngster is exposed more to sex through the TV channels than the movies.
The boys are thrown out of their houses and are forced to earn for themselves.
Senthil gives a strong message very candidly, saying that what he is giving Kumar is not food, but Information - Information is wealth!
The boys start off by composing an Ayyappan bhakthi cassette.
The tune is wonderful and the voices blend really well together.
Following this, the scenes where the boys compose for the naxalite group is taken very beautifully...
The short song is rendered very beautifully. The boys get arrested due to their alleged connection with the group and undergo deep suffering in jail.
Shankar has taken care to show the gradual rise of the boys to fame... taking the wrong step once, learning from their mistakes, persevering to reach success at the end...
Success does not come as rosily as portrayed in many other movies of this type...
a normal script would have shown the boys succeeding in creating a hit album easily, without any hiccups... BUT, shankar has his roots firmly rooted in reality...
The jail scenes are shown very realistically. Though some of us would consider some of these scenes to be quite gross, or in the face, it must be mentioned that we have to start accepting reality onscreen. It's a good sign for indian cinema in general.
The way he has shown the rise to fame of the Boys and the associated dialogues, especially those of vivek when he inspires the dejected boys to identify their hidden talents and never give up, is well done!
The overall picturization is of Shankar standards, even exceeding the standards set by his earlier movies.
i guess it takes a second viewing to appreciate the effort shankar has put in to make sure every
frame of the movie blends itself into the overall scheme...
Get the DVD when it's out. Till then you can catch the internet versions.
To all the critics who are lambasting this movie for its 'vulgar' content, I add the following points:
Either you grew up in a really conservative environment without any exposure to the kind of things shown in this film, and narrow minded enough to believe that anything other than what you do normally is wrong. You need an awakening experience and boys is a step in that direction.
Or you don't know how to see the good things that shankar is trying to tell in this movie and your narrow mind only focussed on the 'perverted' aspects!
For those who are saying that there is no 'storyline' in this movie, I ask:
'What exactly is meant by storyline?'
Do you think that only movies like mudhalvan or Indian, that are universally recogonised had a storyline?
What about the movie 'Azaghi' that had a one line story about a man reminescing about his childhood lover and trying to be honest to his wife too'.
Don't you think that it is the screenplay that made all the difference in that movie?
Similarly, Boys is all about screenplay. Shankar has sold convincing situations to us in a way that does not get too serious nor is too flimsy as candy floss romance.
Do watch movies like 'Alli thandha vaanam' (prabhu deva), diwan (sarath kumar),
bala (shaam) to know what bad screenplay and uninteresting plot development is!
The main background score is great, too... you can listen to it after the movie ends and while they show the credits...
Author's notes;
If you're still here reading this, good... then this piece is for you.
Have you wondered that only in Indian movies there is a disparity between what is happening in the country and what is being shown on the screen?
We produce the most movies in a year than any country, but do we have the liberty to make films about every topic?
Half the topics available to film makers are 'taboo'ed out'...
No wonder they end up churning the same dough again and again and the public also gets bored with this.
I do agree however that the rating system has to improve to accomodate better classifications.
Just an 'A' certificate would not do.
We need a classification system that would allow movies to be also classified by genre.
