Just another blog?

(Sorry if you are not a Tamil movie afficionado)

Tell me if you have heard this story before - the protagonist is a loyal right-hand man to a powerful Dada. Tough and extremely good at what he does, but he has a conscience. Hence, has limits to how he operates and things he would not do. At some point, he becomes an inconvenience rather than a help to the Dada who decides to dispose of him. The hero waking up to this fact, not only gets away but also promises to avenge the death of his friends. From then on, it is about how he gets his revenge while still sticking to his principles. Ofcourse you have! This (and a hundred variants) is the standard masala thriller plot and Aaru (means Six, and is the nick-name of the hero) is no different.

But, I enjoyed it - more than I did Ghilli (nick-name of the hero!) and as much as I did Saami (again, nickname of the hero!). The difference is basically in the way the movie is handled and the attention to detail in the script and the plot. It is the first street gang movie with a description of the organisation and operation of these gangs - their day-to-day existence - much like any average industry.

The dialogues show great integrity - they are realistic and still get the traditional impact that will get a theatre-crowd in Madras going. The slum and its people (the spokes in the industry's wheel) has been picturised in a down-to-earth manner. Even better is showing through the movie the balance between the police, gangs, the public and politics. Any effort at rationalising the violence or lawless behaviour is pragmatic and not overly-sentimental.

Even the action scenes are not just run-of-the-mill machete fights, but intelligently designed - particularly surprising was making sure that glass specks stick to Surya's (the hero) hand if he breaks a bottle!


Surya is arguably the best actor in tinseltown today, this movie mixes his earlier characters from 'Mounam Pesiyathe' (Silence Spoke) and 'Pithamagan' (Noble Son). Trisha (lead female) is just a good luck charm like in every other gangster movie. But, her role - as a sim-card saleswoman - is very symbolic of how cell-phones have changed the Indian social landscape, the movie has shown this changed reality (with constant inclusions of police turning their phones to silent during encounters, tracking cell-phone signals, changing sim-cards to avoid detection, etc).

Vadivelu's comedy is typical of the movie - though it is traditional in its attempt to include trivia and public messages in the comedy scenes, a sophistication in the way the same is done is found. Particularly, the symbiosis between the four South Indian cultures and specifically, movie industries (particularly Tamil and Telugu) is discussed with comfort and puts a smile on your faces. The best one was the cost-benefit analysis of a car-burglary that suggests that everyone stands to benefit from it.

The disappointment of course was the music - too standard, and the sequences too similar to Ghilli. Lyrics an improvement though - again typifying the new professional approach to an age-old story. Director Hari might not be as bad as I thought he was.