A thousand elephants
The phrase thousand elephants has a lot of significance in Thamizh literature. The medieval classic ‘Kalingathup parani’ was written over a war in which a chola king’s army killed more than thousand elephants of an enemy in a war. In fact the grammar says that ‘parani’ (collection of songs on a king’s victory in war) should be written only if the king’s army slays more than thousand elephants. 7th century poet saint Aandal dreams of getting married to Lord Mahavishnu who comes commanding a group of thousand elephants. Gowtham Menon has tried to portray a hero who is as commanding as the literary figures alluded here. He also tries to say the same of the hero’s dad. I agree with the former – but I dont concur when he tries to stretch the same and make the dad a hero too. Lets see why.
Before I begin, I must congratulate the producer of the movie and the distributors fo having agreed to make and release such a personal journey of a film as ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ which is about a malayalee in chennai. Now the last time we saw a complete thamizh movie with a malayalee as the central protagonist was in Bhagyaraj’s ‘Andha aezhu naatkal’ (which was later remade in hindi as woh saat din). Bits and pieces of non-thamizh speaking protagonists in thamizh movies always have been to tickle the funny bone or some stereotype of a tea stall owner. I can recollect a malayalee landlord in Maniratnam’s ‘Alai Paayudhe’. Though Gowtham Menon had written up a semi autobiographical ‘malayalee going native in thamizh nadu’, it is rare for producers and distributors not to bring up this point at some time for a commercial release. To Gowham’s credit(or discredit) there was not a single malayalam line worth remembering rendered by the lead characters. It is a good beginning in regional mainstream cinema to go cosmopolitan and I will consider it a small beginning to complement numerous malayalam gems with a lot of thamizh speaking characters (CBI diary kurippu’s Sethuraman Iyer and Sivaji Ganesan in ‘Oru yaathra mozhi’) immediately come to my mind.
With that bit of congratulatory note to the commercial crew, I must say a ‘wow’ for Surya who has pushed the envelope (his own and in a good way that of his peers too) for good acting once more with his ‘Surya’ in the movie. The portrayal has all the elements that mark good acting. While all threads are going gaga over bashing his Ghajini performance in comparison with Amir Khan’s portrayal, he has moved on and moved on in a big big way. He looks absolutely believable as a school kid (I hope some one doesnt start comparing Surya and Amir in Joh Jeeta wohi sikander), a Mech Engineering student, an upshot entrepreneur or a drug addict or a NSG commando. He fits the part to the T or probably he made himself a T to fit the character. It was a very jealous moment for me watching the super abs he has put on and I felt my mojo up in the end of the movie to make a foolish attempt in the gym to ‘catch up’. Having said that, the same surya as a father was underplaying allright, but he underplayed it to such an extent that he did not make the character’s presence felt. I dont know if it was his failing or some conscious ‘directing’ on the part of the director. The Krishnan character never expressed himself enough to either make me feel sad at his death or his financial problems somewhere vaguely hinted in between or in his inability to tell his grandson a story. This is the biggest drawback of this sprawling and beautifully constructed movie. While the son shines like the sun, the father is as hidden as the stars in the daytime sky.
Gowtham menon’s technical crew must be a sought after one after this movie. Rathnavelu the camera man has already bagged the shankar-rajini-aish project endhiran and that is righly so. He has lit up the interiors of anna nagar house or the famous ‘anna nagar tower’ in a very affectionate fashion, he brings up Balu Mahendra’s chennai imagery to my mind. When he goes into the beauty displaying mode in California or Kashmir, it is pleasing to the eye. He has reflected the moods of the protagonist in a subtle and delicate fashion – something to be expected from a Director of Photography of two Bala films (Sethu and nandha). The Music director Harris Jayaraj expectedly tunes in wonderful songs that Gowtham perhaps for the last time since the beginning of their eventful and cherishable combination. To Gowtham’s credit he has inserted the songs in the right intervals and in the proper manner so as to not interrupt the flow of events. In short I can rest by saying that technically this is one of the superior movies of recent times in Thamizh film industry. Gowtham’s care for details shows in the first two songs – both set in times gone by, one set in the late sixties and the other one in the late 80s (what a delight in recollecting the Apoorva Sagodharargal and Satya magic and watch out for Surya doing a Kamal with a pencil line moustache!!) Surya’s singing abilities also have been shown in a cool way – Gowtham Menon shows off his Ilaiyaraaja devotion in no small measure with countless references to the maestro and that is bound to cheer up a raaja fan like me.
The actors have turned in a report sheet with all ‘A’s . For a change the leading ladies in the movie have carried themselves off in a graceful and elegant fashion. Simran being very sincere, Sameera showing that she is no mug when it comes to acting and Ramya too turning in a notable performance. Watch out for Sameera and Surya in their California romance sequences – their walk on knife romance where Gowtham menon questions Thamizh film industry’s notions on chastity, pre marital sex (he did it once in Vettayaadu Vilayaadu). What about Surya as Krishnan? the father figure ? I somehow felt that there was a conscious decision of not having enough close ups for the father character and somehow the portrayal – though sincere – felt distant.
For a biopic that does not reach beyond the thirties of the protagonist the film is a tad too long – yet there is an aloofness. Make no mistake – the incidents portrayed in the movie for a greater part are very real. So what I am cribbing about? Picture this, you go about collecting interesting incidents in your college mates’ life and strew them together in one character’s life history – what would you get? you would get a Vaaranam Aayiram -where characters do and say real life things, yet their nature, character is never established properly. Who are Surya’s friends? what are they? They come and go in couple of scenes and you never witness one ‘moment’ between them and Surya – They come and go as if they were there to only observe and listen to what Surya had to do and say. A classic biopic reference would be ‘Nayagan’ where Selvam played by Janagaraj and Iyer played by Delhi Ganesh had deeply established characters that supported the weight of the central character Velu . It is here that Surya’s dad too is rather passive (even when the son is slipping into depths of addiction) and all his sacrifices are mentioned as a dialogue somewhere – but not shown to create any sort of sympathy or affection – surely one song or one fight sequence could have been sacrificed to create some screen moments for the dad as well.
After beating about the bush – I have to rest by saying that it is one of the finest movies of the year, yet falls short due to some reasons what I felt could have made it a bold classic ode to an upper middle class family which is usually perceived to be ‘A’ center peter group by thamizh film circuits and hence vastly ignored. A deeper brush on some characters would have made the movie all the more endearing. As far as general gripes of ‘too much english’ goes, well I have seen boys, girls and old men from that strata use english as comfortably as ‘thamizh’ or malayalam. So it did not stand out against ‘type’ and I am OK with that.
PS: Is this the first Thamizh movie since Sivaji’s Ratha Thilagam that showed service in defence in a rather cool and important way? Probably Gowtham can do a ‘Nair Saab’ next?
Tags: Gowtham Menon, Harris Jayaraj, Oscar V.Ravichandran, Rathnavelu, Simran, surya, Thamarai
Anurag Kashyap
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Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
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Ramu Ramanathan
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Great review VP, on one of my fav Tam movies this year. Well the flaws you have pointed out are valid, but i still liked it. Reminded me of Scarface, where i was willing to ignore all the flaws, just for sake of Al Pacino’s performance.
But i think Surya has totally matured as an actor. In Vaaranam Ayiram, his performance was the culmination of a long line, Kaakha Kaakha, Pithamagan, Nandha, Ghajini, Perazhagan. It was brilliant the way he effortlessly transitions from one character to another, and in some scenes like the drug addiction ones, he was unrecognizable at some places. I did like Surya before, but with this movie, i have become his full fledged fan.
Sameera looks good without any awful makeup or atrocious costumes. What a relief seeing her so graceful, after the terrible Race.
Incidentally i just put up a post on Surya, and is schedule to be comming after 2 hrs.
Jaiganesh- that was a very good review.You have touched upon the nuances which a lot many have either ignored or failed to say.What’s important is the minor detailing that Gautam went into in the movie.Its a story of a mallu family settled in Chennai.Its a family which is cosmopolitan- you have the protagonist singing in hindi & tamil in a family party.The father does enjoy his drink & his family knows it.Pre-marital sex has been acknowledged & handled maturely ( Surya-Sameera ,Surya-Divya/Ramya).I can just go & on- the list is fairly long.All in all a good movie- not a great film though.
I think tamil films have to slowly wake up to the cosmopolitan nature of society now.How long will you insist that the protagonist has to remain a tamilian?Jai you’ve rightly pointed out the difference between Malayalam & Tamizh films in this respect.Let me also tell you one more thing.In malayalam cinema the character would speak the language relevant to his profile.i.e for example if the villain is shown as a north Indian, he would speak hindi & not make a mockery by speaking in malayalam.In tamil that is not carried out the same way except in certain films.
I was extremely irritated with a recent movie called Arasangam ( Vijaykanth) where the protagonist speaks to all & sundry in tamizh even in places like Assam & Canada.To think people in Assam & Canada speak tamizh is not funny at all.A good example of ensuring the correct of language was in Gautam’s Vettaiyadu Vilayadu- with respect to the scenes shot in the U.S.I wish more & more people follow the example set by Gautam.
Gautam, Bala, Cheran are the few Tam directors who take care of detailing. In fact if u take Mani Ratnam, in Mounaraagam and Roja, he makes the North Indian characters speak in Hindi.
VP: Thanks for keeping up the promise, the wait has been worth it! In my opinion, the movie is not about the father-son relationship at all. Unfortunately it was positioned so and therefore it leads to all the questions that you have asked. Are we asking the same questions about the mother?
Had the film been positioned as a boy coming of age film, we would have seen the film differently. Secondly, I dont feel the need of Surya playing a double role, it wasn’t required. The father role required the stature of someone like the late Raghuvaran, who could have held these silences better.
Anand-The father’s role wasnt meant to be done by Surya in the first place.Surya is supposed to have fallen in love with the story & character and requested Gautam to let him do both the roles.
Another way of looking at the movie- would it have received so much of attention if someone else had done Krishanan’s role?
Ratnakar-Mani Rathnam is definitely in a different league.Apart from your Mouna Ragam example & V.P’s Alaipayudhey example, let me give you another example.In Roja Arvind Swamy is surprised to see Pankaj Kapoor speaking to him in tamil & when questioned, he reveals that he had done his graduation in agriculture from the Agricultural University in Coimbatore & thus picked up his tamil from there.Now thats a brilliant bit of detailing.
Of course among the recent crop of directors people like Cheran,Bala & Ameer are all good when it comes to detailing.The best example of it is the Cheran-Gopika sequence in Autograph.It showed Kerala of the 80’s in a brilliantly accurate fashion & had people speaking malayalam.I expect people like Venkat Prabhu & Sasikumar also be good @ detailing going by their style of filmmaking.
Sethu:”The father’s role wasnt meant to be done by Surya in the first place.Surya is supposed to have fallen in love with the story & character and requested Gautam to let him do both the roles.” – Thats an interesting tibit!
“would it have received so much of attention if someone else had done Krishanan’s role?” – In my opinion,people coming out would have been more satisfied with the film.(Provided it was not positioned as father-son relationship story).
I want to watch Vaaranam Aayiram really badly….any idea if the film’s had a theatrical release in Mumbai??
@ Doc Ock
Yes the movie did have a theatrical release in Mumbai.It had released in Aurora & a few multiplexes too.Not sure if its still playing anywhere now.
The point of recollection being a major mission, with father dead, the stakes in the son’s rescue mission are increased – but the action scenes following do not heighten the tension – this could have been taken care by the director.
However the whole ‘cool army’ thingy was a good promo for Indian Army. With the impressionable Thamizh Nadu youth, atleast 0.1% of the audience would have filled up application forms.
Yo! The opening of the post made me think it was about a literary work. Someone get me a subtitled print of this film. Saala now iTalkies also closed down.
VPJ – The beginning was awesome!
Ravptor- you know telugu right?In that case you can watch the dubbed telugu version- Surya S/O Krishnan.The dubbing is fairly good- its not something done just for the heck of it.
Thanks Sethu – Did not know that. I shall hunt.
BTW, thanks for the last line. I used to have some pretty bad experiences before while watching tamil dubs ;-)
Well yes in most cases the tamil to telugu & telugu to tamil dubbing is atrocious.Just as tamil/telugu to Hindi dubbing is.So once in a while when a movie like Ghajini or Vaaranam Aayiram comes out with more than decent dubbing done, its a Godsend
hello ganesh:
I haven’t seen the movie but I like the way you have reviewed it without any pretenses. I doubt if Gautham Menon who have done his Kalingathu Parani study to come-up with the title for the movie :-)