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Taramani (2017)
Taramani - gooey!
Director Ram prefaces Taramani as a knot of unconnected events and so may be meaningless. (மொட்டைத் தலைக்கும் முழங்காலுக்கும் முடிச்சு). The film gets into extremes of almost everything. It portrays the relationship of a street dweller with an upper middle class single mother. It tries to portrays the lights of feminism amidst societal norms. Money gets drawn parallel to honesty. Opportunism is brought in against sincerity. Globalisation versus anti-globalization and self sufficiency. It is a kind of overkill and problem gets widened just because everything is a conflict. Everything gets pardoned and forgiven and you are at peace.
A popular phrase in literary appreciation is "Let the story travel by itself. Let the characters speak!". The problem with Ram's films is; he will be seen throughout the film. It's not just traces, sometimes he gets over the top. In Taramani, he himself acknowledges that and passes on comments and directs the audience (he compares this with Facebook\twitter status messages). If the director of a film in its course comments at the response of audience like "If you haven't questioned globalization, don't question this character!", it is indeed an insult to the audience. If an insult is Ram's primary intention, it is fine. If he aims at questioning the (globalization) ideology of viewers, then he should revisit his theories of a creative art. The experience of Taramani gets established in the preface itself. We will have to experience a satsang or gospel (or a bit of both since the protagonist is an Anglo Indian) except for the fact that you are force fed with life lessons than religious lessons.
A feminist should live on her own. A cliché from Balachander days is also taken over in Taramani. Feminism has been treated differently in the past two decades. We have seen Kalyana Agathigal, Magalir mattum, Marupadiyum, 16 vayathinile etc. There is a subtle difference between feminism and misandry. Unfortunately all the feminist films try to portray hatred for men rather than feminism. If you are a woman and earn 80K/month; man is dependent on you and on a tussle if you can throw him out of the house (saying I am feeding you), what is the kind of feminism you are trying to disclose? You just go on and prove that the control or fight over couples should be mostly on financial front. There is an interesting character in Taramani; a cop's wife. She gets ill treated by her husband. She tries to get over the trauma via books. She reads "Asuran" which is all about injustice to a totem. So, even literally, you are not getting over the hatred.
The urban globalized world is in a transformation. You get confused with a lot of principles. The protagonist's friend goes to a pub, dances with other men when her husband watches her dancing. The friend says, you just have to throw biscuits at these dogs at the right time. There is a higher class lady, who wants to sleep with a stranger, loses her wedding ring. She sleeps with the police commissioner for getting the ring back! It's all Ram Ram!! No character gets committed to a relationship. In the idea of breaking the stereotypes, all the goodness in the conventional wisdom gets totally erased. In that sense, it is a regressive movie to the larger extent.
Taramani is verbally angry at urbanization and birds losing their habitat. Taramani tries to bring out negative shades of urban lives and their insecurities. Taramani disguises itself as a feminist art. Those said and done, dialogues stand out and are emotional. Andrea's best performance till date. Barnabas and his forgiveness add the grace and ray of hope. Though it may seem as a film for matured audience, Taramani just tries to tie a knot between extremes of unconnected entities; which for all its practical difficulties is very rare. Taramani is just a gooey film with a confused core!
Vikram Vedha (2017)
Good vs Bad! Jesus vs Satan!
There is a theological belief that says Jesus was not of flesh. Gnosticism tries to substantiate that belief and says; since Jesus was not of flesh, he didn't die in the cross. It was indeed Simon of the cyrene who got crucified for Jesus. I am not an advocate of any of these beliefs but what is enthralling is all these stories gives you questions which shakes you. If you are questioned "If Gandhi's father was Gandhi? Or Is Godse's son a Godse?", then you are in the never ending tale of Good vs Bad or God vs Devil. This goes on from Generation to generation. From childhood, we might have heard a lot of stories on moral values and principles. One of the intriguing things in listening all those stories is; how to attain the wisdom to decide between good vs bad. Some of the stories end with a verdict so you need not really bother about the process of deciding the evil. The ambulimama stories of Vikramadhithan-Vedaal never end with a verdict. They always question you. So, the process of judging\comprehending\concluding is left to you. Vikram-vedha gives you the same experience in big screen; of questioning yourself with few tales and lot of questions. Most importantly, you enjoy it a lot like all the granny stories. The canvas is big and you could see lot of colors. The story tellers or the grannies are enamoring and very wise to make you think. Vikram-vedha has the x-factor in it because the art of story-telling is at its finesse. Surprisingly, it is both deductive and detective. If it is an investigative story where you are searching something , it is not the object that gets found or the result you achieve it is all about the ride. It is the hermeneutics that gives you the satisfaction. There are stories that cancel themselves. A good example would be Yuvan's "Naankavuthu Kanavu" (Fourth dream) in Tamil. One common thing about such stories is that they switch back and forth between time. They create a world in your mind and bring you back to your senses. They question you how that world was. Then they will tell you another tale and then ask questions. Sometimes it will be tales within tales. The idea is just to engross you and present you the alternate realism. Then they will connect the dots within all these tales slowly revealing the canvass. The devil will be in the details. Exactly, what Vikram-Vedha does to you.
Madhavan plays the role of Vikram. The straight as an arrow, who considers himself having the wisdom of seeing right and wrong. Its zero or one for him and so he is in peace. Enters, Vijay Sethupathi, Vedha@Vedaal, who questions Vikram's wisdom. Vikram slowly realizes that its not always black or white and truth gets hidden somewhere in between. Vijay Sethupathi scores easily. Madhavan is good but somehow reminds me of a grown-up Anbarasu of Anbe Sivam times. He is spontaneous, charming, good and straight. In many aspects, we as audience are in the world of Vikram. We associate ourselves to his character. Vedha gets him into a ride. Vedha knows the truth. He asks you tough questions. Slowly, you acknowledge that Vedha has a superior intellect. You stick out to him. You listen to him. He mocks you, burdens you sitting at your back. He bedevils you with ease and poise. Vijay Sethupathy scores easily because of his usual cool, calm way of living the character. Vijay Sethupathy easily strikes a chord because he had arrived and mastered the art of matching the traits of a character with dialogue delivery, looks and walk. Simple copybook approach. In the world of tamil cinema, where the likes of Kamalahasan doing a lot at the age of 60+ to live a character, Vijay Sethpuathy does it with real ease. May be the ease is what stands apart!
Metaphors and images from folklore and mythologies are spread over the film including the title. There is this character called Simon, who just lives as gnostics' belief. He has a son named Alex. He was made to carry the cross. He is confused, he can't bear it and he can't refuse it. He just falls back to the lord. A bullet abandoned by Vikram's father, gets the much need chain sprocket from Vedha just like the clues. Vedha has a brother whom Vedha protects a lot and thus loses him. He is the crux of the story and nicknamed as pulli. A money minded kid Chandra grows up exactly as she was earlier. Vikram's wife is another tool in the tale. She plays an advocate. Advocate and cop inside same house creates lot of dilemmas in the personal and professional front.
Dialogues are crisp and sharp. There are notoriously comical dialogues in Orampo. Pushkar and Gayathri the director couple are really good at dialogues. My urge to watch the film is mainly due to the dialogues of Orampo. A cop with pride says that his to be brother-in-law is an engineer. Vikram responds "What is the pride being an engineer?". His wife confronts him that "in lawyer's world cops are wrong!". Vedha says we have to cease the opportunity. For him, a cop gets a name by being a cop, but he has to do something to be a hero. He says its nauseating to have blood stains and so buys pistols. His policy is not to worry about losing an egg but to make an omelet out of it. The punch soundtrack is too good. Music at times is very loud. Screenplay stands apart and the neatly woven details gives you the embroidered image in the climax. Vikram-vedha a must watch!
Thondimuthalum Dhriksakshiyum (2017)
Exhibits of a ride
TD (Thondimuthal Drikshakshiyum) is a second film of director Dileesh Pothan and his second assembly with Fahadh. TD is way ahead of Maheshinte Prathikaram (MP), (theirs first) in substance, making and in the performance of the actors. Maheshinte prathikaram with all its difference in film making can still be written off as a masala flick with a great screenplay and making. MP has a real good hero, falling for a girl, good at work, happy with his average lifestyle, getting disturbed and retaliating as masalaic as it can get. TD plays with situations and thus has a very enchanting travel. The wall that separates the good and bad and how tall it gets built by situations, is dealt with finer details.
The screen space is shared between Suraj and Fahadh. Suraj plays a subdued role of behaving an average guy. A regular good youngster role but Suraj's looks doesn't support him. The feminine part of the story has lot to offer and has been handled very well by debutant Nimisha. Nimisha has lot of emotions to convey; fighting against her family, falling for the Suraj, disgust, confusion and pity over the thief. She scores well. Then, there are a bunch of supporting actors playing the role of cops and surprisingly I find all of them are good. Each contributed with different shades of characters. All of them show nuances in the way they portrayed the characters. A cop without uniform always speaks about the negatives of handling the case in certain way. He doesn't run and behaves as a smart guy who sees himself as an intelligent cop and ahead of the rest. A cop who is lean obeys the order perfectly and doesn't have a direction on his own. The Inspector always questions the wrong guy first with a sharp question and sounds intimidating. The cop Chandran plays the role of situationist, always adjusting to the way the situations take him. His' is probably the most vulnerable of all the characters and the thief picks him for a ride. Overall, the characters were well written and the dialogues are crisper enough so as to establish their respective personalities.
Fahadh plays the thief and does a splendid job. He is very clever and very determined. You will be bustled into a state of surprise if what he utters is true or not. Doing so, he carries the whole burden of moving all the characters to the crossroad of right vs wrong. He doesn't trust anybody and shows that in his answers to the cops' questions. He understands Kannada, knows how the system works, cleverly rigs out on the cops. Where he scores above all is the way he expresses himself. His eyes speak a lot. When he gets caught in the bus, he expresses surprise as though the thief is indeed not him. He confuses Nimisha by questioning her if she really saw him. He expresses the cool demeanor when the truth gets found out. When beaten to a pulp, he shows his grit and when he goes down unconscious he drops as a dead meat. Its high time he gets a go in the awards category.
The story revolves around situations thus rides you in a journey. You could easily get a sense of your wisdom getting questioned with each and every situation unfolding. If you are good at role playing, you will be in a real roller-coaster ride. You can experience the swing for and against the cops and similarly on the thief. The film has all these woven amidst regular milieu, witty happenings and in an average town life. TD is brilliant because it rides us through one of those million stories that happen around us daily and shows it just. Kudos to the team and Dileesh for such an experience.