Chennai Express (2013) - Review

Chennai Express is filmed beautifully at exotic virgin locations not seen before in any Hindi film.One of the grandest scene is where the Chennai Express stops and the lead pair get off.A narrow stretch of train-bridge on one side of which  are two cascading water-falls merging into one and on other side is a deep valley down which this waterfall goes surrounded by lush green vegetation.And one of the scene shows train passing through an absolutely charming sweeping landscape which reminds me of the starting scene in this [Walt] Disney [Pictures] logo (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMyHnZ4lV54 .This movie is a visual splendor which is so visible in  "Kashmir Mein Tu Kanyakumari " where a group of Kathakali dancers in most colorful attire join them.This film was shot in Munnar which is a beautiful hill station on the Western Ghats, a range of mountains situated in the Idukki district of the Indian state of Kerala.Scenes were canned at Devikulam Lake, Meesapulimala, Wagavara and Kannimala.Few scenes were shot in North Goa and Dudhsagar Falls (literally Sea of Milk ),a tiered waterfall located on the Mandovi River in the Indian state of Goa on Goa's border with Karnataka state.

"Bann ke titli dil uda" is a nice romantic song that comes at the most apt moment and its the song you hum when you leave theater or on way to your home.Deepika Padukone wears Kanjeevaram saree in this movie and looks great.Shahrukh Khan kept his promise and Deepika Padukone's name comes before him in film's rolling titles.

{Making a pitch for women power, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan wants filmmakers to scroll name of actresses first in the credit roll on big screens and feels that they are yet to get their due.

"I would like to request to all that the name of heroines should appear first while giving credits. We would start this with Chennai Express. Deepika's name comes first. She is quite excited about it," SRK told reporters here last night.

"I would request others also to do it. I know this will not make a huge difference but may be a change in mindset will happen... I am looking to make a point," he said.}http://movies.ndtv.com/bollywood/name-of-heroines-should-appear-first-on-film-credit-rolls-says-srk-339412

 Nikitin Dheer plays Tangabali and Sathyaraj who was one of the leading heroes of Tamil cinema plays Deepika Padukone's father.Manorma plays Deepika's aunt and she holds the record for being the most prolific actress and also playing the most leading roles. She acted in her 1000th film by 1985 and has done about 1200 films by 2003.An item in the "Ripley's Believe It or Not" newspaper feature has her picture and the accompanying statement: "'Aachi' Manorama, a veteran of India's Tamil film industry, has appeared in more than 1,500 movies and 1,000 stage performances!".

Kamini Kaushal the winner of Best Actress Filmfare award for Bimal Roy's Biraj Bahu (1954) plays Grandmother of Shahrukh Khan.Dilip Kumar in his biography revealed that Kaushal was the first woman he fell in love with. Dilip and Kamini made a popular pairing in the late 1940s appearing in the films 'Shaheed' (1948), 'Nadiya Ke Paar' (1949), 'Shabnam' (1949) and 'Arzoo' (1950).She was still fit and swimming merrily even in her 80 th year,as fit as a fiddle when I last read about her in a Times of India article few years back.

Music by Vishal–Shekhar is good enough giving at least three great songs."One Two Three Four" is a dance song filmed on Priyamani who won Silver Lotus Award at 2007 National Film Awards.

Priyamani won the Best Actress award for her performance in Ameer Sultan's blockbuster Paruthi Veeran(2007), a film on the caste and social chaos. This film was also featured at the Berlin Film Festival recently and won the special jury's award in Asian Panorama.

Rohit Shetty directs this movie well,the director renowned for his Golmaal series movies does a good job here giving us a nice entertaining movie on the festival of Eid.

The strangest thing about the camera-work is that it starts under the actor's feet.Its bizarre because how can you see the Actor or the actor's shoes from down-under an opaque ground.Its a first and an over-the-top sequence just for fun and entertainment.

This film does not show any of the community in bad light or try to ridicule a south Indian as it was assumed initially by a lot of people as Deepika was required to do a south accent. I agree its not completely authentic but the dialogues are so good that the different accents is just to portray the cultural difference.The dialect may become a tad-bit difficult to gauge easily since there is a lot of use of Tamil in the film, you would still know what is going on. Deepika as Meena is fabulous. She seems to have worked quite hard on her Tamil-infused Hindi for the film and she doesn't disappoint.Watch out for the crazy references in songs and scenes to Shah Rukh's previous films.

It's a breath of fresh air to see Deepika donning only traditional attires – mostly Dhaavani's and Kanjivaram sarees matched with beautifully-designed gold jewelry. At the beginning of Shahrukh's Chennai Express journey there is a scene related to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge's train sequence , it's the funniest scene of the movie

Its a great movie for the weekend.