POLLADHAVAN -review
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Narration: A message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program.
I see movies like “thirupachi” “thimiru” “madurai” etc and wonder … did the director even have a story to tell … if not what did he tell the producer?
Lets club such movies in a separate genre “koothu”! “THE KOOTHU MOVIES”
But I love this language and still follow all the movies that get released … may it be the amazing “paruthiveeran” or the honest “mozhi” or even the filthy “palani” … I always keep track of the Friday births, to gauge the quality of cinema in my foster land. And in one such attempt I hit upon Vetrimaran’s “Polladhavan” last Diwali.
The promos of that movie appeared cheap. It even gave me a feeling that the movie is more like the “koothu” types! But the frames in the promos were quite interesting. Dhanush looked more complete and intense; Daniel balaji as always looked good. ( I loved this guys work in “vettaiyadu villayadu” ) … So I decided to see the movie!! and i even heard that the movie was loosely inspired from “Bicycle thieves” … so i had to see it !!!
SO-CALLED-REVIEW
Movie starts with the voice over of Prabhu (Dhanush), He is hurt and there seems to be chaos and tension around, lot of blood shed, violence and we just feel that someone is in danger. Wounded Prabhu rests his arms on his beloved bike (pulsar) and recalls what the bike had done to him…5 mins into the movie and I want more…
The story revolves around a clash between a person belonging to mafia (Daniel balaji) and an innocent lower middle class boy (Dhanush). Debutant director Vetrimaran who had assisted Balu Mahendran sir before deserves a pat on his back, for the way he has captured ‘ north Chennai’ ‘the mafia system’ or even the ‘lower middle class’ family drama!! quite realistic for a movie with such a name !!
Amazing performances by most of the actors (Daniel was a tad disappointing for me- His body language & voice modulation was similar to his previous movie), Kishor and Dhanush were quite good.
Well written dialogues. Shooting in real locations helped to get the raw feel. The camera work was decent and the action scenes were gripping… everything was “realistic”… just wished … Vetrimaran had removed the song and used that screen time to show the development of the romance !!
GV is a talented composer … his songs are good and are doing well with the masses but he needs to learn play BGM … see a lot of world movies or so … cause some really amazing scenes were spoilt by the Loud music !!! and ya … tats it … my so-called-review ends here …
hey if “POLLADHAVAN” is inspired from “Bicycle thieves” … so is “lion king ” inspired from “god father”!!!
as Karthick Krishnan ones said to me “Lion king is an animated version of Godfather” 
but Polladhavan is NO bicycle thieves!!!
Now what struck me most about the movie was its style of narration … and how people have accepted the film inspite of it not being in the usual “start- middle- end” format. Of what I know Tamizh audience hate to be made to think when they are in a cinema hall… when Alaipayuthey (hindi – vivek oberoi and rani starrer “Saathiya”) was released ppl loved the movie but found the narration style confusing!!! (I don’t know what was confusing in that)
“Ayutha ezhuthu” (hindi – Yuva) was totally neglected, few of my friends even abused Mani sir for trying to be innovative in narration style! “periya arrivu kolundhu” (big brainy smart ass)
Thank god for the star status of “kamal hasan” or even “Virumandi” would have tanked big time, it did a decent business (just average) ! “autograph” which released 2 weeks after “Virumandi” did amazing business.
So going by the trend of tamizh films, we can say that complicated or for that matter a so-called “new type” narration would always make the producer tensed!!!
So how did Vetrimaran manage this?
Is the Narration in “Polladhavan” really unique?
How did he seamlessly blend that narration style that few people dint even realize that it was different?
NARRATION STYLE
Now I want to discuss with all pfcites the “narration” style of this movie … found It interesting .. so read on !!! and lets discuss…
AMERICAN BEAUTY/ FOREST GUMP
“The lead character or the protagonist narrates the entire story”
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE / MILLION DOLLAR BABY/ TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD
“Supporting character or a character other than the lead narrates the story”
ROSHOMON / VIRUMANDI
When I heard abt the narration style of “roshomon” I cudnt believe it !!
how could they think of something like that then? I wondered !!
and I was impressed when kamal hasan adopted the similar style for his film “virumandi” …
“Story told from different POVs giving a unique perception of the same incident from each POV!!”
AMEROS PERROS/ YUVA
“Different stories of a common “time span” with one common incident or a common connecting factor”
POLLADHAVAN
This movie follows a non linear narration which starts with the narration of Dhanush (protagonist) and as we are introduced to the antagonist (Daniel balaji) the POV switches over from the protagonist to antagonist. Each narrating their side of the story-alternatively.
I could argue that I spotted a similar narration style in Nolan’s “THE PRESTIGE” … where both the magicians narrate the others diary.
What does such a narration do ? I believe It gives the writer the freedom to describe both the worlds and develop the characters as opposite poles within the first 20 mins. Then we are all set to see the clash between the characters!!! It also helps to establish the histories of the characters so well … we even understand the way they perceive things around them!
POLLADHAVAN gives thrills without suspence … everything is revealed to the viewer… the ISSTYLE of keeping the characters in the dark is used in parts !!!
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