It took me some time but I am glad that I watched this film. This is the stuff to be cherished in a DVD collection.

It has ORGANIC, INDIGENOUS & VISCERAL written all over it. Much has been said about the film. The film deserves more resounding applause because of the courage and non-attempt to be perfect.

I would like to add that it worked for me perfectly at the Eclipse scene. It is at that point that it becomes a classic. Just one scene. May be it is a combination of the brewing undercurrent of the basic human emotions that rise like a high tide, or it’s the underplay of mercy, in the film maker’s POV, something that refuses to sympathesize with all the visibly disturbing scenes of atrocity. The success of the film, and like no other in its genre (Powerful scenes, edited like a man, can be put into the league of New World, The Thin Red Line, Platoon, and Apocalypse Now.), lies in its successful transition from Macro to Micro, from dealing with a holistic view of a civilization as it goes through its rise and fall to the small but harrowing tribulations a deserted family goes through. It is through Jaguar Paw’s perspective that the film achieves it wonderfully respectable stature. If not the best, it IS one of the best films to have been made in recent times of ‘cinema without balls’.

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 !!!

I don’t recollect other movies with similar narration style … if so PFCites lets discuss!! and if something is wrong with my observation of the movie … lets discuss that too !!!

Anjathey(No fear) almost immediately.

Imagine this. This is the first sequence in the movie.

Blue sky - As we see from ground. The camera is on the ground facing the blue sky.
The camera moves right. Slowly a person standing comes into the frame.
The camera inches further and we see 2 more people standing.
Then, the camera moves back,left. After a few secs, a person is taking “push-ups” in an iron-bar. We realize that this place is a playground. The Scene then unfolds.
Why is the Director doing all this in the first sequence itself when he could have used a normal camera angle?.He just gives us a hint in the first frame itself that “You cant just doze off in my movie and know the full story…stay awake and watch it”….Literally HE SAID THAT TO ME in my mind!!!

The message is bold and clear to the audience. This movie is not the one you can watch it leisurely.During the movie, you cannot talk to your friend sitting next to you-pass a comment- ask for popcorn-nibble with your mobile. The Director and the whole crew have spent their minds and energies in making this movie and they want us to show respect to their effort.

The story of Anjathey is complex to narrate. I have often heard in actor’s interviews that they were completely mesmerized by the narration. I saw those movies and all I found was a love story opposed by both the protagonist’s parents. This movie is real complex.There are a lot of events to narrate. Some may simply put it as a Friendship story. It isn’t. It is not even just a thriller. It is not a love story for sure. It is not a story about the life of a police officer. It is not about how fate takes you through life. This story is not about a single thing. It is a complex, intricately woven story.

The film has an excellent story line. Friendship, police life, pedophile, kidnapping incidents, thriller, love..they all are interlaced in a single story with effortless ease . The director must have watched more than a 1000 good World cinema till now. Mysskin surely does love movies!

The haunting music...The music has gone along with the movie. This music goes with the story getting revealed on the screen. The biggest success for background score in a movie is you should not hear it ALONE!…The back ground score should not be different from WHAT YOU FEEL…That is exactly what has Mysskin and Sundar C.Babu (Music Dir) have managed to do. The film has just 3 songs. Out of which 1 is a love song, picturized in an interesting fashion and the rest are “Gaana” songs which suits the atmosphere in the movie. I loved “Thakida thakida”…

The haunting locations. Even before the scene has started, the locations give you a chill down the spine. Hats off to the Production manager, Director and …and…I don’t know who all are involved in this department. The locations in the climax sequences, the hideouts of Daya and Logu, homes of the male leads. All have been selected to perfection.

The extras. Being a filmi crowd you all, you would know that biggest success of any movie is How-you-manage-extras. Take Paruthiveeran(Tamil), Lagaan, Polladhavan(Tamil), Dog Day Afternoon and all your favorite films. All of them had extras do their best. Even in his previous film - Chithiram Pesuthadi, Mysskin’s assistant directors have done a good job in getting the work done from the extras. This film is no exception. When you rewind the movie in your mind, I wont be surprised if you try to give names to the characters like “Patti”, “Sappai’s son”etc.,.

The actors. Prasanna as Daya, Narain as Sathya, Ajmal(debut) as Kruba, Pandyarajan(yesteryear comedy actor-director) as Logu have done neat roles. Special mention must be made to Prasanna and Ajmal. It would not be exaggerating to say that all these people have performed the roles of their lives. This film would be ON THE TOP OF THEIR RESUME.

Even when we remove all these positive factors, I could still say that this movie is one-helluva-movie.

The reason?

Director - Mysskin. He was literally playing with audience’s mind.

Can u believe that he didn’t show the face of a person in the whole movie?…Why did he do so?…Because, he says again “Unaku thevaiye illa(You dont need that)….what is important is what he does…and not how he looks…”…My goodness..Mysskin was playing with our mind…

In one important sequence, the camera is at the ankle level and he doesn’t show anything other than that. What he effectively does is, he makes us to imagine the scene. Only hints! You Comprehend the picture!
In one of the sequences where Daya is supposed to rape a girl…He doesn’t show anything…He just shows us the circumstances…how the girl looks..what the girl is wearing…how does daya react…That’s it. Rest, CUT TO the next scene. He doesn’t show anything. He just lets our imagination run wild. If he shows anything, we would have thought…Oh this is it??.. But, by not showing anything,what he makes is, “More perverted you think, more perverted the villain is”. This technique by Mysskin does wonders to a story like this.

Even though this film is too good, this surely has drawbacks. The role of Keerthi (investigative officer) was funny, when it was intended to be intelligent. The starting sequences to establish Sathya and Kiruba’s character were long. If he had asked me, I would have established it in 10 mins(3 sequences). It took him 20-25 mins(5 sequences) to establish both the characters. The end sequences in search of Daya and Mottai was good,but not intelligent.
Rest, this movie is one of the best I have watched in my life. I am talking about World cinema here.

One thing which runs a chill down my spine is there are a lot of good movies coming around in Tamil. I mean real good movies. So, by the time I make good movies , it wont be that good I think . Frankly speaking, I am damn jealous of all those good directors. Time is not far away, when every 3rd movie in Tamil will be world class.

Anjathey ——- No Fear!!!

Movie - Anjathey
Cast - Prasanna, Narain, Ajmal, Pandyarajan, Ponvannan, Vijayalakshmi, M.S.Bhaskar etc.,
Editor - Sadagoban Ramesh
Music - Sundar.C.Babu
Camera- Mahesh Muthuswamy
Producer - Hitesh Jabak
Written and Directed by - Mysskin