Alaas… Gautam Menon seems to have taken the shortcut like AG Murugadoss. His latest film ‘Pachai Kili Muthucharam‘ seems to be an(other) adapation of the book “Derailed”. Hollywood has already made this movie with Clive Owen, Jennifer Aniston ‘Derailed (2005)’ and burnt its finger (meaning it was a massive flop).
My initial thought was “What a lousy movie to copy!”. Seems like one of my fav director is running out of new stories. His last movie(VV) was a classy example of ’style over substance’ - fast cuts, wide lens, peppy BGM… all glitter, but if u look closely its all fluff.
When I came across this issue in Teakada, I was really hoping it wasn’t true. After listening to the story narration in this video clip, and seeing the publicity stills, I am 100% sure that it is indeed copied. One look at the villain will tell you Miland Soman is made to look like Vincent Cassel from the original, Jyothika is made to look flashy like Jennifer Aniston - and even the villain’s sidekick is copied. *sigh*
At least, I haven’t yet heard Gautam claim this is his original idea (like Priyadarshan famously claimed during ‘Malamal Weekly’ - an exact replica of ‘Waking Ned Divine’) - but if he does, thats just pathetic. Sudhish said it right: the newcomers either recycle their own ideas or just rent a DVD to copy.
Update: In a recent interview, Gautam has said that he started adapting the book on which ‘Derailed’ was based on, even before the Hollywood version was released. (Link) I guess we could give him the benefit of doubt. Let the movie get released, then we can easily compare shots/moods/auras.
Good…reading.
Hey, thats so cool that you found out that this is a copy
//yesterday i saw a movie called aanai with arjun. and its just another copy of the english movie man on fire by Denzel Washington. its so lol
have a nice day.
you may add me on you msn, we could discuss more
msn id==e-mail id 
hi,
I too thought so first, but it turns out that Goutham based his movie on the BOOK ‘derailed’ and not the english movie. He says so and I take his word for it.
While its reasonable to think he has copied first, I’d thik it’d be fair to take Goutham at his word.
cheers
oops…
i just read the update… thats nulls my prev post :0
anyway, i wonder y u wudnt modify the post itself, as its highly maligning in the initial part, and scatters brains like me may not read te update!
This movie is a chennai version of “Derailed”. The movie
begins slowly,then catches pace and again slows down before
running full steam at the signpost. No doubt Gautam has taken Kollywood(Tamil version of Holloywood) to a different
level. Tamil audience has been so used to see Jothika as a heroine that they may not accept her in a negative role.This film is likely to do well in all ‘A’Centres but may not fare well in ‘B’ and ‘C’ centres. The film literally
comes to stop when Jothika’s character is exposed and ideally it could been exposed at the very end. Definitely the audience will leave the theatres with mixed feelings.
well, point taken - I wrote it while I was so dissappointed with Gautam. Book or movie - it doesn’t matter its still second hand, but if he openly gives credit where credit is due, then I guess its fair. Kudos to him for being open about the source. I have toned down the post today. But still, if only it was an original idea - it would have been great.
Regardless, of originality - we should thank him for taking such a different movie, while the whole tollywood is bend on silly formula movies.