Tag: Indian (Tamil) Cinema

Earlier I watched the Hindi version of this film. But one has to watch the Tamil version to understand the beauty of this film. The film starring Kamal Hassan as Sakthivelu Naiker is loosely based on the life of famed gangster ‘Varadarajan Mudaliar.’  The film starts with a scene where a union leader’s son Sakthivel was captured by the police in order to find him.  They play a trick on him by making them believe that they are on his side. The police kill his father.  Sakthivel stabs the inspector and runs to Mumbai. In Mumbai, he was raised by a smuggler named Hussain, who treated him like a son. Later Hussain was arrested by police where the inspector ended up killing him.  Knowing the truth he kills the inspector but being a kind-hearted soul he takes care of the inspector’s son. Instantly becoming the hero protector of his poor Mumbai neighborhood, he becomes known as Velu Nayakan.  Hassan portrays the roughness, emotions, power and all those things needed in his character of Sakthivel.  Apart from the marvelous performance of Kamal Hassan, other supporting cast did a commendable job. The complex relationships between the various characters are brilliantly depicted like the relationship between Velu and his daughter or the relation between Tinnu Anand and Velu.
The most noteworthy subplot is that of the bond shared between Velu and his daughter. Cinematographer P C Sriram rightly captures the gritty tone of this film, the way it was intended to be by Mani Ratnam. Art director Thota Tharani has done a wonderful job of creating the slums of Mumbai which looks straight out of life.

Thalapathi is a 1991 Indian Tamil-language crime-drama film written and directed by Mani Ratnam and produced by G. Venkateswaran. The film is an adapted version of the mighty king and warrior Karna from the great indian epic Mahabharata.  Surya (Rajinikanth) born as an illegitimate child is abandoned by his mom (Srividya) and left on a basket in a goods train. He is then raised by lower caste people living by a river side. He grows up to become a loyal friend and right hand for gangster Devaraj (Mammootty).  Deva is a kind of Robin Hood figure, whom the slum dwellers admire, as he takes care of their needs in a way neither the officials nor the government officers do. Surya is in love with a Brahmin girl, Shubalakshmi ( Shobana), who also loves him in return, but does not like his violent ways. In the mean while, Surya’s real mother Kalyani( Sri Vidya) is now married to a Government officer, and her son Arjun( Arvind Swamy), is in the Civil Services. Kalyani herself is a doctor and soon Arjun is posted to Chennai as collector. In the meantime, a gang war breaks out between Deva and Kalivardhan( Amrish Puri), another gangster, and Deva’s arch rival. The attacks come to the notice of Arjun, who vows to take action against Deva. 

The strong point in Thalapathy was the relationship between Deva and Surya, which was based on the Duryodhan-Karna friendship. The scenes between both of them are brilliantly shot. The first scene where Deva and Surya confront each other on the bridge, in a rainy night, is brilliantly captured.  Another great scene is when Deva points to the wounds he received, while beaten up in the police station, and asks Surya to take revenge.
Rajinikanth as Surya is one of the best character oriented roles donned by the superstar in last two decades or so. His effortless style and rough looks sums up a role tailor made for him.  Mammoty as Deva has given weight to the role and reacted well to the dialogue delivery. His calm and composed presence as a leader worked well. Shobana as Surya’s love interest did a good job. The likes of Jaishankar, Srividya, Arvind Saamy, Amrish Puri and other stars justified their roles though had limited screen space. The screenplay is woven tightly and disclosed with an exemplary narration made surrounding the protagonist. Maverick cinematographer Santhosh Sivan also delivers behind the lens for his first film with Mani Ratnam.  His opulence and aerial shots are well etched and the experimental lightings give the feel of nostalgia.

Iruvar is based on the life of MGR and it focuses on the friendship between MGR (played by Mohanlal) and Karunanidhi (played by Prakash Raj) also. Marudur Gopalamenon Ramachandran, betterknown as MGR greatly influenced the Tamil Film Industry in 1960s and 1970s when he became a popular hero and TN politics in 1980s when he became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.  Anandan(Mohanlal) is an ambitious young actor who wants to make it big in the film industry. He had to face a lot of failures and insults though before getting the much needed breakthrough. He happens to meet Selvam (Prakash Raj) who is a writer. It so happens that Selvam is the dialogue writer for the film in which Anandan is the hero. They become close friends.  Anandan is introduced to Selvam’s political party which is led by Velu Annachi (Nassar). He grows to the party’s ideology as time passes by.  Anandan then marries a village belle Pushpavalli (Aishwarya Rai) while Selvam marries another village girl, Marathagam (Revathy) under the supervision of the party leader. Anandan is a simplistic man who just wants a good paying job so that he can look after his mother, while Selvam is more idealistic and wants to use his words to change the world.

Despite their unpromising beginnings, Anandan rapidly falls in love with Pushpa’s lively innocence and charm, although he leaves her with his mother when he goes back to work. Selvam on the other hand pontificates speeches about equality in marriage on his wedding night while Maragatham is more traditional and superstitious which doesn’t go well for their future together. As their careers progress, Anandan becomes a star, able to draw crowds although he doesn’t appreciate his popularity until it is forcibly shown to him by Selvam . This is demonstrated in an excellent scene where Selvam takes Anandan up onto the roof to show him the hundreds of people waiting for a chance to catch a glimpse of the film star.  Anandan also joins  Selvam’s  political party, although he is looked on with suspicion by the other party members who feel that Anandan is using the party to further his film career, while Anandan feels that his film fame is being exploited by the party to pull crowds. The relationship between these two contrasting protagonists is so unique, so complicated that it defies conventional definition. Poles apart with respect to ideologies, they go beyond that to work together professionally and also become close friends. They view each other with suspicion even when they are partners and then became overt enemies in politics. But throughout their lives, they never lose admiration and respect for each other. The film captures all the dimensions of this complex relationship beautifully.

Mohanlal has a difficult role as he plays a man still revered by millions. Considering that his character arc makes it clear who he is playing, he doesn’t have to overplay it and employs MGR’s well-known movements – the lift of the hand, the unique skipping run, the shake of the head – only in the song sequences. The rest of the time, he delivers a lesson on how much can be conveyed with downplayed ‘acting’. Whether as the frustrated actor or as the star loved by the people or the politician battling his best friend, he combines his eyes, expressions and body language to play the complicated personality in pitch-perfect fashion.  Prakashraj’s character doesn’t have quite as many nuances but he fits the role perfectly, from the firebrand young politician to the more matured statesman. Aishwarya, in her debut, overdoes the coy, timid bit in her first role (just as she did a few years later in Jeans). She is more at home as the bold, self-assured actress though. Revathi (as Prakashraj’s first wife), Tabu (as Prakashraj’s second wife) and Gauthami (as Mohanlal’s second wife) are underused. The music and songs by A.R. Rahman are of a high quality and vary in style to illustrate the different cinematic eras encompassed by the film, although the time frame is never explicitly stated. These range from the jazzy and more upbeat songs pictured on Kalpana to the more traditional and classically driven song Narumugayie.  At a time when theatres boasted of their colossal cinemascope screens, Ratnam shot his film in a classical 4:3 aspect ratio. Iruvar may not be perfect or even Manirathnam’s finest film but as a chronicle of one of the most important and influential periods in TamilNadu politics, its place in Tamil cinema history is assured.