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So much of discussion on no-Smoking on the PFC . I haven’t seen the movie and would love to see it in a theatre, for it reminds me of an erstwhile experience of having watched a movie that merged the real and the surreal together. This was the Thamizh movie, “Kudaikkul Mazhai” directed by R.Parthiban. It released in the year 2004 and I was in Bangalore watching it in a small theatre.

In the promos of the movie and trailers, there was no scene from the movie that was shown. It was just a talk by the director saying that this movie is a commercial poem. I thought, you can never scare the audience better than by saying such nonsense. I thought that this guy simply has gone crazy again(usually he does go crazy and makes nonsense movies while coming up with some absolute gems inbetween).Thamizh press started floating news as to how Parthiban’s new movie wouldn’t be touched by any distributor and he was finding it hard to find cinema halls that would screen his latest “art house flick”, or ‘offbeat subject’ as they would call it.

The film released and one day before the release, Partheban let the cat out of the bag and said that this movie was a result of his intellectual craving that he developed after some spanish and european movies. The movie he was referring to was “Abre los ojos” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abre_los_ojos remade by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky. I had seen Vanilla sky and was extremely curious to see what Parthiban has done to the concept. It is a given in thamizh films that Partheban specialises in capturing the softer side of the usually rough and tough Thamizh male.  So I was enthused to go and see this experiment” in a theatre in Bangalore. The cinema hall was a small one and I was surpried to see that the theatre was 75% full. Most of the audience were men 18 to 40 years old and a discussion with them showed that they cannot be underrated. Most of them were of the opinion that “art house” and “off beat movies” by their proclamation and definition have lesser margin for error whereas a commercial masala has other elements to help viewer gloss over its shortcomings. A sincere attempt at art house/offbeat/intelligent movie is like a dance on the well walls that Kamal did in Sagara sangamam. One slip and you drop dead.

The movie began and to Partheban’s credit he had mixed the real with surreal pretty well and the viewer was given enough clues to understand that the movie is not an attempt to get puzzled, but share the emotional pain that the protagonist suffers when a girl working for a reality spoof show plays a trick on live TV with his soft side that  leaves his emotional balance totally destroyed and landing him into scheitzophrenia. It is not that Scheitzophrenia has not been discussed in thamizh movies before. It is to the credit of Partheban, that we take the journey into the troubled mind of a Scheitzopphrenia patient  and this journey made less scary and more empathetic by intelligent set design, innovative camera movements and effective music (by Karthik Raja). The movie ends with the protagonist saved from a dilapidated houseand getting treated by humane medical staff. There is a brief explanation of Scheitzophrenia by acclaimed psychiatrist Dr.Rudran in the end of the movie.

The movie stands out because though the predominant madness of a mind surrounds us throughout, enough pinhole openings to the real life world were left open by the director to appreciate the disconnect or connection between the real and surreal. Though it might have spoiled the “Oh I get it now” feel, it helped the audience connect and sympathize. I would suggest everyone to grab the DVD and find the hints to these from the movieand appreciate the creativity and the necessity behind them.

I particularly liked the movie because it didnt try to be too smart and retained a simple sensitivity - a poignant plea that human minds are perched on the edge and people without emotional comforts (not the physical comforts) are more likely to fall over if their emotional soft spots are trampled upon. Like glass, human mind is also “Beautiful” and should be handled with care. Did  mention a beautiful mind somewhere. now that is a good next movie to catch up after you finish watching this one from Partheban.

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