Aayirathil oruvan - Creative Writing At Its Innovative Best

Aayirathil Oruvan, one of the most buzzed and expected works from writer-director Selvaraghavan, takes us for a "blind date" adventure along with its crew to a destination which owes its creation and its state of existence to Selva's fantasy. From the promos, my expectations were on the lines of Adventure meets "Period" through the medium of fantasy - I was looking forward to the trio of Karthi/Reema Sen/Andrea setting on an adventurous ride in which they'll stumble upon and/or be part of the times when the land of Tamils were ruled by the dynasty of Cholas and Pandias. Even with this idea, the date was still blind due to the room of uncertainty that the wings of imagination created - that even the idea of time travel was possibly in the scheme of things. Hence, more than anything else, I was excited and upbeat to check out where Selva's imagination had actually got to.

Selva doesn't waste any time and sets the ball rolling right in the opening scene. Seriously, it couldn't have been any better because right there apart from sowing the seed for what is to come later in the movie, it cries out loud for your attention to detail as well. The opening scene also serves the purpose of establishing an ironical situation towards the end of the movie.

The next hour and a half establishes the lead trio of Lavanya(Andrea), Anitha(Reema), Muthu(Karthi) - the military crew led by Ravi (Azhagam Perumal) and the helper crew lead by Muthu - who all team up on a mission to figure out the whereabouts of a senior Indian archaeologist gone missing, who was last involved in a project to track down the location to where the last known heir of Chola had eloped to. The Chola clan have apparently taken with them an idol of great significance to the Pandias and the subsequent search missions by Pandias had sowed enough clues for the Indian archaeologists' to lay their research on. While Muthu is blissfully unaware of all this, we get to know about the mission through the conversation between Anitha and Lavanya, with the opening scene only reaffirming things for us.

So, in essence, the first half of the movie gives us a little sneak peek into what has happened few year hundred years ago and tells us the tale of the adventures that the team encounter during their mission to uncover the intriguing secret of the Cholan clan. The writing has to be appreciated at various levels here - at one level are the adventure stories and at another level is the way in which information about the secret was revealed in bits during various stages of the movie.

For an adventure tale not relying on CG to provide the gimmicks required to sustain its audience, these sort of gradual spillovers of various pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are very much needed to keep the viewer indulged. Wasn't it super cool writing to keep you guessing about the various obstacles that they encounter and reveal that they were indeed a set of preset traps during the fourth trap? To me, the timing was spot on. Just when Anitha, Muthu and more importantly the audience would have thought the obstacles are pretty random, this little secret from the Pandora Box is revealed by Lavanya. Not only does this provide meaning to the hurdles that they had come across, but by writing a few more yet to come obstacles, this also scares them and excites us to look forward to more adventures. The adventure stories were mostly good too, my pick of the lot being the "Paadhalam" trap and its solution. Apart from these traps, the interaction between the trio during their adventure was refreshing as well. All along, the information revealed in the opening shot stays in the back of our minds as well.

Writer Selva has succeeded to a great deal in this aspect as far as the adventure part of the movie is concerned. Now even with such a good platform, was the adventure ride truly adventurous, thrilling and engaging all along? I would say that it worked kind of On and Off to me. If the execution of the weird fish trap was a turn off, the screenplay losing momentum at many places wasn't helping the cause either. While "Adho Andha Paravai" is perfectly understandable and fun, the way "Oh Eesa" took off and the Vampirish picturization only served as an embarrassment. However, the reason for this half as such working for me was due to Karthi's histrionics and the way in which the characters of the lead trio were sketched, which when coupled with the intelligent writing (that I had talked about) provides the movie the much needed foundation for the second half to be built on.

The first few minutes of the second half remove the blindfold that you had been put on all along in the date, addresses all the open riddles and introduces you to a whole new set up in which, ironically, the inhabitants are secluded, blind and unaware of what is happening in the world external to them. There is a lot of irony and brilliant writing in this. For starters, the idea of the "medium" through which the adventure met Period was fantastic, for people were discussing stuff like reincarnation and/or time travel as the medium for the rendezvous. The USP of the movie was the guesswork to figure out what Selva's imagination had actually gotten to and the revelation showcased sheer innovation and creativity in thought. To add to this, now the scenario takes a complete U turn where, suddenly, we and the lead trio become cognizant of the situation at hand while the inhabitants of the secret that we were after all along are unaware to the least bit. Now we are looking at a totally new situation and the movie suddenly works well as two separate movies. "Out of the Box writing at its Brilliant BEST". I'll give it to you right here - Selva, you ROCK!

What follows from now would eventually play a big part in how the movie would work as a whole to you. To me, it provided mixed vibes. One can see that Selva has suddenly shifted to the self indulgence mode in this half and the dialogs took a different dialect form. I had my ears open than ever and would say that deciphering those dialogs "contextually" wasn't an uphill task as it was made out to be. Still, I had eventually missed out on a few, which I think I can largely attribute to them being unclear and me being not used to them. Now, the presence of these dialogs poses a lot of challenge to the director - while their mere presence provides authenticity and makes some viewers indulge more, it also alienates a bunch of other viewers. Selva chose the tougher choice and here we are. The brilliance in writing has definitely spilled a lot to this half as well and you have those special moments. My pick of this half is the idea of the futuristic painting which is supposed to serve as a guideline to identify the prospective messenger. Again, that provided a nice little sub platform to build an interesting subplot on.

The key to success in self indulgent film making lies in the narration, which remains the lifeline to pull the viewer towards the film. The reason for me having mixed vibes about this half is that at various moments in this half, I, eventually, was external to the scheme of things and watched it roll. The film still worked fairly well during these times too yet the much needed flair and the pull-in was missing. I wouldn't agree with people saying that the first half was better. The second half involves unveiling the mystery and works on a more challenging set up too. I feel that Selva has not utilized the huge reach that his wings of fantasy have while writing the scheme of things in the period setup. At various moments in this segment, the narration lacks teeth. You can't attribute this to the lack of good thoughtprocess though as you can see scattered brilliance - apart from the Painting idea, I liked the Gladiator inspired game idea, the virginity test, the conversation between Anitha/Parthiban and the blood from the breast symbolism. We also had more information coming our way as Anitha gives a flash back on who she actually was. This half definitely had its share of brilliance in writing just that the narration of these lacked teeth and could have been better.

Towards the climax, we have this war set up between the clans of the two dynasties. While I acknowledge the great efforts put in here from the director side and the DOP side, the final Gun Vs Shield battle was humiliating and I was squirming in my seats until it was over and done with. One can attribute that to the lack of funds, but whats with the whole idea - what was it all about - I am perplexed! And I truly understand our budget limitations, but while executing such superior writing I only wish that our makers don't remind us of the inferior infrastructure that they work with. I am sure the minds which worked at astonishingly multi layered levels of brilliance can figure out ways to do away with such stuff.

The last few moments in the movie hit high points and pretty much sum up what the movie was all about. The climax is like a PERFECT stone on the crown of the writer. Awesome icing on the Cake. Just like the brilliantly placed opening scene, there can't be a better climax too. There is irony in the way that the clan is pushed back to square one and the pattern establishes itself, yet again. A truly fitting climax, indeed!

Throughout the movie, the director Selvaraghavan complements the writer in him well. The way in which the war sequences were picturized given the CG challenges speak volumes of the effort that has gone in to the making. The hard work of the director, cinematographer and the technical team is visible in every frame and the way in which they have visualized some of the unimaginable shots are truly commendable. The area where the entire team has been let down in the back ground score. While the BGM is appropriate in many places, there are so special scores at all. There are none of those which actually elevated the writer and director. There is a lot of talk doing the rounds that the depiction of Cholas/Pandias is "objectionable". Looking at things from every possible perspective, honestly, this doesn't make any sense to me. Just a little thought about the whole period set up, the secluded civilization, aloofness and the mere observation of the number of years gone by would help understand things a little more clear.

Karthi turns out to be the best performer of the lot while Reema Sen does her part well, only that her lip sync was bad in places.Parthiban and the rest of the cast have done a neat job.

The best part of Aayirathil Oruvan is the idea. I loved the writing more than the execution, for it was creativity at its innovative high. I bow my hat to the Writer on a job executed out of the box. The film looks poised for a sequel and I look forward to better narration next time around. And Selva, please, fire GVP!

http://clapsandboos.com/reviews/4b5e4c1257377d2358000001

Inglourious Basterds - First Reactions

Quentin Tarantino's new brain child, Inglourious Basterds, got to see the US of A today. I got her date today as well. Touted to be a revenge fantasy drama, the film is set in an imaginary alternate universe, where Hitler and his Third Reich are being targeted upon for a massacre by different groups of like minded people, when the Fuhrer & Co. gather for a movie premiere in Paris. More than a review, this is about my first reactions to Inglourious Basterds after watching this movie.

She is true to her genes and we get to see Tarantino written all over her. Every frame in the movie worked for me. He promised us a chance for vengeance and he stayed true to his word. This is where it gets tricky and your take on this is pretty much going to decide if she will work for you. The question really is, 'Was he manipulative by using the hatred prevalent against the Nazis among the majority, in favor of him?'

The Anti Nazi sentiment prevalent among the majority Americans, Britishers, Jews and among a large number of people from across the globe is well known and that will definitely work in favor of this film. So, was the idea just to use this sentiment, make a movie over it and make some quick bucks while you are at it? Hell NO!

I see a whole new dimension to this issue and to visualize that D we need to step into this fantasy world of Tarantino. In this world, films are events and these events are inter related. Often, one film will inspire a bunch. Tarantino goes one level above and 'responds' through Inglourious Basterds to various events that happened over time in this world - Schindler's List, The Pianist, Life is Beautiful and the likes. The world would have seen 100s of such events which talk about the Holocaust. Apart from acknowledgement, honor and pity, these events deserve Vengeance in this world, in terms of a stylish response as in giving them a taste of their own medicine and they have been crying out loud for that. QT heard them. The point is, to appreciate the movie better, we've got to leave our judgmental hats on the Nazi/Jew issue at home and step into the vengeance bandwagon in this fantasy world. If you keep your real world hats on, you will either fall in love or despise her depending on your prejudice. Either way, you'd be too biased and bias affects judgement :) That's precisely what the various personalities in me have concluded upon after enough deliberations.

Tarantino takes us back to the good old days right from the opening credits card. The title card and the cast list roll without much drama and the color tones used are reminiscent of the 'Gone with the Wind' days. How's that for a first impression? The opening frame reads 'Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France' and we get to see the shot of a dairy farm, a pretty unexcited and frustrated average WW II times Frenchman, his not so happy looking daughters. Great color tones back to back and you get to see them aplenty. The Nazis are given one last screen space chance for their exploits and Tarantino decides that they've had enough. The tale is about how the plans of various vested vengeance seeking groups' plans unfold in this fantasy world.

Brad Pitt, Waltz and the rest of the cast have done an excellent job with Waltz being the pick of the lot and rightly honored by Cannes. As one can expect from a QT film, the dialogs are a big asset and keeps you all the more interested. He sets the ball rolling right from the opening interaction between Waltz and the Frenchman. But, more than dialogs, Tarantino has relied heavily on his fantasy script and screenplay in Inglourious Basterds, which has redefined gripping. There are no distractions, no 'could have been better/avoided' moments - absolutely. And yet again, QT excels in the depiction of violence and action sequences.

Honestly, she deserves a more zoomed in, focused and detailed analysis. But, the idea behind this post was to get my first reactions in black and white. I thoroughly enjoyed this fun filled fantasy ride of vengeance. Taraantino has carried this movie on his shoulders all along and this movie is another milestone in mainstream commercial cinema. The announcement to his fellow makers is 'Guys, be it art house or commercial - Innovation is the Key'. The man has delivered, yet again. The Verdict has success written all over it. Hats off!

Demystifying Naan Kadavul

Naan Kadavul, written and directed by Bala, will go down as one of the boldest films made in the Tamil cine industry. It is based on the novel, 'Ezham Ulagam' (Seventh World), written by Tamil writer Jeyamohan. Naan Kadavul is an honest attempt at showcasing 'ezham ulagam' - the 'Dark World' of beggars and aghori sadhus *as is* - a movie in its true ART form - a movie sans melodrama and fairy tales. I happened to watch the movie recently and like most people I felt a sense of incompleteness, which can be attributed to the lack of complete understanding of the film's true intentions. Hence, I set out to explore the rather unknown terrain of Bala's seventh world. Luckily, I stumbled upon on an excellent 'Naan Kadavul for Dummies' type write-up from Jeyamohan, who had apparently directed the article at the half-baked questions raised by pseudo-intellectual critics. It helped me understand a lot of otherwise-unknown (to me) aspects of the movie. The intention of this post is to provide an insight into Naan Kadavul and is part of my journey to understand the film better.

Naan Kadavul is a guided tour of the largely unknown world of aghori sadhus and beggars. From a bird's eye view, the two tales would appear largely disjoint and one might get an impression that there is not much in common between the two groups. But, there is actually a strong connection between beggars and aghori sadhus - only that Bala has played it subtle. Both aghoris and beggars belong to the same fictional seventh world. In a way, aghoris are beggars too, only that they chose their destiny. Bala has scripted a few scenes to convey this - the scene where a police constable mistakes Rudran for a beggar when he gets cocaine crazy. There are also sequences where the 'poli-samiyargal' talk about Rudran in the same breadth as beggars. While beggars are depicted as slave workers, Aghoris consider themselves to be super natural - next only to 'Kal Bhairav'. Naan Kadavul is a tale of two extreme groups belonging to the same dark world. It serves as a meeting point of the contrasting lives of Rudran and Hamsavalli.

Naan Kadavul believes that there is No God in the Seventh World. Bala has emphazized this belief throughout the tour in the form of various scenes and dialogues with a tinge of dark humour. A lot of the explicit content has been censored. Jesus and Buddha were supposed to be present as spectators in the scenes where the beggars get beaten up by Rudran & Co. The Gods of the world were supposed to be present when Hamsavalli begs Rudran for death. The objective was to take a dig at ALL religions. However, the censor board had other thoughts. To stress the point further, the physically disabled beggars were in the costumes of Lord Sivan, Parvathi and Murugan. This is a subtle way of saying that the gods of the world that we are in, are nothing more than handicapped helpless people in the seventh world. This is brilliant character sketching and symbolism from Bala. The beggars who never go inside the temple, however, consider the 'Mangandi Saami', who is a beggar himself, as their God. Another way of saying that if there is any God in the seventh world, he has to be a beggar too. The character of Hamasavali is sketched in a way to convey that in the dark world, even the people who initially believe in god would eventually be forced by their situation to give up their belief. She surrenders to a nun and gets converted to christianity but eventually Thandavan manages to *buy* her. This puts her in a miserable situation and she loses her faith in god and believes that only Rudran can relieve her from this world of misery. She conveys this to Rudran when she gets to meet him and her belief (or the lack of it) is conveyed to us by the dialogue where she accuses that no god cared for her miseries.

Naan Kadavul begins the tour from Kasi and all-about-aghoris is narrated by a sage to Rudran's father. The two main duties of aghoris - to punish the baddies and to give direct salvation to people whose lives are more miserable than death by killing them - are preached to Rudran by his guru. He asks Rudran to go along with hs father and also tells him to come back during the right time. An aghori can attain complete aghori-ness only after he renounces all his inner desires. Hence Bala has scripted the film in a way where Rudran begins to have some subtle feelings for Hamsavalli and goes on to show how Rudran denounces his feelings for her and attains aghori-ness. Rudran's emotions and feelings for Hamsavalli remain very subtle. He realises his feelings for her the first time he meets her in the cave and understands the actual reason for which his Guru has sent him down here. He understands that he needs to renounce his affection for her immediately and goes to the graveyard the same night, where we actually renounce her in a 'Kal -Bhairav' pose. During his stay at his hometown, Rudran accompishes the two main duties for aghoris as well by killing Thandavan (the skin cut in Rudran's forehead is symbolic of Sivaperuman) and by helping Hamsavalli attain direct salvation. Thus, Hamsavalli plays a great part in helping Rudran attain aghori-ness and goes to show the *strong connection* between the otherwise contrasting characters.

Naan Kadavul, for the most part, revolves around the life of beggars - the citizens of the seventh world. One may get a feeling that the film spends way too much time here. But, this is where the film remains honest to its intentions. The dark world is symbolically represented by the underground facility of Thandavan. The first few scenes in their story provide enough detail on their miseries and establishes the various characters. Once we get acquainted with them, we get to see their lighter side as well and enjoy the dark humour. There are a lot of small sub plots scripted as well. The objective behind the detail is to drive the message that the beggars, in spite of not having much control on their life, still manage to lead a happy life . In spite of their own miseries, they care for each other's sufferings and live like a happy family. And Bala wanted to clear the general misconception that the beggars have a soft corner for people who give alms to them. Beyond a point, they are not concerned much about the money and as shown in various sequences, they derive their humor by mocking at the people who visit the temple. The characters dressed like gods, mocking and laughing loud at the people visiting the temple is symbolic to Gods mocking at their superstitious beliefs.

Naan Kadavul is anything but judgmental. It doesn't preach atheism nor does it say that it is better to die than to lead a miserable life. It leaves the judgmental part to its audience. As a movie in its true ART form, Naan Kadavul chooses to show the lives of two contrasting groups of people * as is*, goes one step higher by establishing a strong connection between the groups symbolically and stops there - true to its intent.