Un Samayal Arayil (2014) User Reviews

Romance has no age bars!

[nanda-ramesh · 8/10 · 23 June 2014]

It is a common maxim that Romance has no age bars, however it is a topic that is rarely dealt with sensitively especially as a central theme by Indian Cinema. The romantic comedy movie Oggarane attempts to do just that around a theme of food. As it is said at the start of the movie, Life is about eating tasty food! Food, I suppose, is a metaphor for love here and that certainly has no age bars!

Prakash Raj as Kalidasa is an Archaeology official who is single and lives with just a long time servant. Sneha as Gowri is a dubbing artist and is also single. Thought both are perfect marriage material in career as well as looks, they have remained unmarried well into their middle ages. A quirky set of circumstances brings them together. Then with an under current of food and recipes, side stories of comedy and romance and even a little bit of suspense regarding adivasis, the audience is entertained with the narration of how their love blossoms and culminates.

What I liked about the movie:

• Great script and it flows very well most of the time. First half was perfect.

• Fantastic casting and acting by all. The younger love pair do seem to labor a bit but manage fairly well.

• Some of the comic circumstances were very good. We liked the potential bride interview visit the best.

What I would have liked different:

• Better pace in the 2nd half as it dragged in some places. There were 2 songs with the younger couple. One could have been cut.

• Adivasi parallel story was not concluded to my satisfaction.

• Story somehow lost the theme of food in the 2nd half.

Good movie with humor and excellent music! :D

[k-sripradha · 8/10 · 18 June 2014]

The movie starts off with an awesome mouth watering video and is a treat for all the foodies. This part of the movie excites the audience grabbing their interest to watch more. The humor keeps the movie alive. Excellent actors seem to have done their job in entertaining us. Though the second half of the movie is quite predictable, it is a sweet treat for all those who love simple and elegant stories. The music definitely needs special praise for those soothing and pleasant tunes. Overall a good movie but do not expect a lot from the story. Good to see Prakash Rai in a positive role for a change. The acting exceeds the expectation .Think less and enjoy the two hours.

Delicious treat!!!

[md-670-516016 · 8/10 · 16 June 2014]

The movie starts off with great tone by inducing hunger to eat(watch) delicious foods shown across Karnataka. It was a well made introduction credits building curiosity in the audiences. The first half of the movie is well paced with catchy dialogues. There is total control by the Director here. But 2nd half is totally taken away by prolonging the climax unnecessarily. Never mind it was great showcase of acting by Prakash Rai. The background score and few songs are pleasant to the story. These type of classic movie catches the audiences if it is well promoted before release, which was done well by the Director. Overall classic movies still live on...

Melodious and Delicious Movie !!

[kpramodrai · 10/10 · 10 July 2014]

Loved the direction, dialogue and acting of Prakash Rai. The new faces too have done their best in acting. The movie is different by presenting about the pleasure of being a foodie. It also says - no age bar for romance and lives out a strong message as "you are what you are and love yourself" ! Prakash Rai should have changed his laughing style to suit for his positive role since it brings his "villian" image out to the audience. It also gives a beautiful touch of Hubli Kannada. Humor keeps following all the way. The first half keeps you glued to the screen. The second half looks bit eased off.

Music by the maestro Ilayaraja is just awesome. The background tracks are crafted very well and beautifully holds its grip, supporting the presentation very well. Ilayaraja's music for Kannada movies always takes its own classic level as usual! It is a pleasure listening to every bit of it. The lyrics are kept simple but beautifully written.

The parallel story of Adivasi seemed to be unnecessarily brought in.

'Beautiful' still doesn't justify this movie

[WhyLieReviews · 9/10 · 28 October 2014]

Beautifully written & taken. Though I haven't watched its original (Malayalam version), its been a long time that Tamil cinema has had a delicacy of this kind. A very light comedy and pleasant romance that makes you want the two people to unite. Prakash Raj may have this repetitive actions, but that's just his style. He's one actor who's surely versatile the way he fits into characters. And he's proved that again. Made me realize i was so wrong in trying to get my head around which Hollywood drama to watch, when there's one right at home. Drama is not everyone's cup of tea, but if you are willing to educate yourself as a viewer it set's you in the right path. If you are up for a romantic-drama-comedy at its lighter best, you don't want to miss this drama.

A dish that's tasty in the beginning but starts to turn bland by the mid way.

[braddugg · 4/10 · 2 July 2014]

A dish that's tasty in the beginning but starts to turn bland by the mid way.

If ever you meet a girl for the first time in your life, can you hug her very fondly publicly? I doubt that and that's what the protagonist Kalidasu (Prakash Raj) does. He plays a 49 year old archaeologist who has been alone for a very long time in life. He has come to terms with loneliness and starts living with it, only on a day, there is tryst and there seems to be an affair that blossoms well. Now this man named Kalidasu, seems mature, humane, sincere and even has that tiny flaws which are common to humans. Yet, there is huge contradiction in the way he perceived love and that was disappointing to me. A man who has been through most part of life, could have behaved in a different way instead of listening to what a youngster tells.

For the sake of building up a story, one can write anything. Now, how interesting will that be depends on many factors. This story was merely cooked up with uncalled for subplots and an age-old main plot. In Telugu itself, we have many reference of such plots like "Rajahamsa" and "Ashta Chamma".

The acting was commendable by the main leads Prakash Raj and Sneha. The other pair have just fit the bill but did not contribute much. I liked Brahmaji and M S Narayana. Others were just okay. I wish the acting could have been much better than what it actually is, at least that would have added depth to the otherwise shallow script.

The title itself I thought was misleading as there is neither and Ulavacharu nor a Biryani. There are delicacies for sure but they are something else but not the ones mentioned in the title. The writing is too weak at places. Example, the whole explanation of recipe of a cook is too long and uninteresting for me. Though the cinematography and production design was considerably okay, the biggest disappointment came in the form of editing. The cuts are either too sharp or too weak. I suppose, a few sub plots could have been easily edited out. The usage of the music is seriously questionable. Ilayaraja gave good music, but I thought that was not effectively used.

Prakash Raj gave a tailor made film typical to multiplex audiences but fails in adding some interesting aspect and instead gives a half baked dish. The intent can be appreciated but the execution is way below par.

A promising trailer need not transpire into a good movie. A rule that's proved with this film again. It's an average 2/5 film that is for audiences who want to taste something different just for the sake of trying.

Take Salt n'peppa, add Ilaiyaraja, along with excellent technical values, to make this an interesting meal (remade)

[sesht · 25 October 2014]

Did not find a page for this when I watched the movie a few months back. By now, this has come and gone, and has not made much money, since the blockbuster-watching crowd has their plates full, and their palate ruined. That's not to say this one's a masterpiece, but it's deffo much better than all the fried food out there in the form of celebrity watch in all those mainstream flicks.

Most detractors would say that the focus should have been on the kitchen, and on the protagonists' love for hole-in-the-wall locations to find their delicacies. And I'd agree, while also hoping that more attention was paid to those places, along with making it a meal of most of the leads' conversations on food, and experimenting with recipes - that was the same thing on my mind when I watched the original with Lal and Shwetha Menon. Sadly, other than Ilaiyaraja's score and an improvement on all the technical values from the original, the threads I wanted expanded have not got their due.

I do have to say that, over the past couple of years, my opinion has changed on that. If a movie is about real people, why not make it about their lives, in which many things keep going on at once, and not just 1 theme (which is what each movie with a lazy screenplay focuses on). Therefore, while I revise my opinion on the original, I also appreciate the remake's guts in sticking to all the side/sub- plots that were risky in the first place, and sticking to them, though none of them have any kind of payoff in the commercial milieu.

This one, boldly (yet disappointingly), treads the same path as the original, keeping its (few) strengths in place, other than Menon herself, and retaining its weakness as well, even in the characterization and performances of the supporting leads. The supporting cast, however, is decent.

Where this one scores over the original, though, is in the technical aspects, most notably (go ahead, guess away) the (Red) cinematography, making all the delicacies come alive, and if the focus was on that over the rest of the movie, all of us in the audience would have been in the throes of multiple foodgasms. However, Prakash Raj goes the PG13 route on that and shifts focus to the protagonists loneliness instead. Ideally, I should've singled out the fantastic foreground score by Ilaiyaraja, but I did notice the quality of the soundtrack deteriorate with each track. However the first two tracks, esp. the one rendered by Kailash Kher during the titles, stand out for their melody, as well as picturization.

The bigger question that this story (none too subtly) asks is if all oldies who're lonely are foodies, just 'cause they're not getting' any. Or is it just one of those things, like, are they lonely because they're foodies, and do not appreciate the other 'finer' things in life?

This movie does not bog one down with all those questions, though, going for the predictable and mundane on those aspects.

All in all, worth watching once at the multiplex, and do not miss the beginning (that title melody and its rendition/picturization is worth the price of admission alone).