Is Bala “The One” of Tamil Cinema ?
iView Author: Skanda Narayanan (City, Country)
Email: skandarks@gmail.com
Is Bala “The One” of Tamil Cinema ?
Well, not yet. Sethu was a definite case of Bala’s holy arrival. Nandha discovered the actor in Surya, and Pithamagan saw Bala’s proteges (Vikram and Surya) coming together. With Naan Kadavul, Bala takes up the ultimate statement of Vedanta, and makes a commercial movie out of it.
Rudran’s proclamation of “Aham Brahmaasmi” sounded like the director’s himself. In cinematic light, with this movie does Bala prove to be the Brahman, the creator? I don’t think so. As I said earlier, not yet. Naan Kadavul was not as big a disappointment for me, but it cannot be proclaimed as a master piece. For instance, I was very impressed with the characters that I got to see and the choice of actors for those characters. What the director does with these interesting characters is a different story altogether.
Rudran is one of the most fascinating characters I have come across. Arya oozes raw power as Rudran. I read somewhere that the actor was asked to look and walk like an untamed elephant. At least for me, Arya looked much more ferocious. The way he uses his eyes, body language, just amazing! He got so much into me that I was seeing Rundran in my dreams, the night after I watched the movie.
The next best character for me was Thaandavan, the villain. I remember the actor as the one who gets beaten up by Vikram in Pithamagan (the one who gets beaten badly in jail). The beggars are shown to be terrorized by Thaandavan, and the actor does terrify you. Pooja as Amsavalli, Murugan, as the manager (well, that is what he does) of the beggars are also excellent, Kovai Krishnamoorthy as a mostly silent sanyasi is a good choice. He is a noted carnatic music singer, and he has been used effectively. Pooja has dubbed for herself. Hardly any heroine uses her own voice these days. For a non-tamil, Pooja’s effort is commendable. With these and many more finely etched characters, the director goes on to tell a different, and an at times engaging story.
Rudran is an aghori sanyasi, living in Kasi. He is abandoned there as a kid by his father, owing to astrologers’ advice. After 15 years, the father comes in search of his son, finds him and takes him back to a town in Tamilnadu. The town has a malai koil (temple on a hill) outside which there is a team of beggars. They are slaves of a begging racket owned by Thaandavan, managed by Murugan. Amsavalli, a blind singer is found by Murugan as part of another beggar family and brought over to be part of Thaandavan’s team. We get to see the utter misery of their lives, and how they try to deal with it in good spirits. Paralley, we see that Rudran does not fit into his family as he considers himself God. He claims to be the deliverer, one who kills the evil as a punishment, and puts the suffering people out of their misery by giving death as a vardhaan to them. Owing to his aghori practice, he gets out of his house and lives in a cave close to the hill temple.
Enter an agent from kerala who wants to buy some of the slaves of Thaandavan. the ensuing confusion leads Amsavalli to seek asylum in Rudran. How Rudran takes on the evil and deals with Amsavalli forms the rest of the story.
The story has very few interesting events. After the principle characters are established we can see that the director has strained to stretch the story to get the minimum running time. There are some scenes of so called fun among the beggars, a scene with a lot of impersonators singing and dancing in a police station and so on. These scenes add no value to the story. Coming from Ilayaraja, whom I almost worship, the background score is mediocre. The “Om shivom” song is used very well. “Pitchai paathiram” reminds you of “Enge sellum intha paathai” from Sethu in what it shows. The other songs in the album are not used in the movie, which is ok as the story does not seem to need the songs.
There is a moment in the movie Pithamagan, where the Surya character meets the villain and threatens that he will inform the police of the villain’s ganja empire, and burn it down if the villain does not get the Vikram character out on bail. The villain, realizes the potential of such a threat and agrees to get Vikram on bail and at the same time decides to kill Surya. There is hardly any word spoken, but with a few stares and almost non existent but amazing music, the audience gets to understand the tension in that scene, and it was magical. Bala has also amazed me with numerous such scenes in Sethu and Nanda.
From such a director, it is disappointing that we don’t get to see such magic created in this movie. By creating fascinating characters, Bala has come half way. If only he had given them a great field to play, he would be able to proudly proclaim “Aham Brahmaasmi” as a movie maker.
Thanks,
Skanda Narayanan
Tags: Arya, Bala, Naan Kadavul, Nanda, Pithamagan, Pooja, Sethu, surya, vikram
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its a very bad film…we had enough of naan kaduval…plzzzzzzz stop
i thought Pooja was bad. very bad acting.
Nice writeup. I am personally looking forward for more of Bala, the man who had defined progressive Tamil cinema. He is true to the core passionate film maker.
Guys give the FILM a break!! The post is about BALA…I am getting to see the comments becoming more and more ridiculous…I am saying so because people start commenting without even reading the post….They just look at the heading, starting and ending and put forward the views…thats not a right practice…you cannot comment without reading or half-reading the post….
Show your passion in true spirit and vote for the progressive…
The website says 4 comments, but I can’t see any. This is to a test comment.
Sridhar, as you point out the post is about BALA. They say, “An actor is as good as his last release”. I wanted to juxtapose Bala and his last release. If we take this discussion forward and discuss Bala and his work and not see it as a movie review, it will be great.
@Skanda Narayanan – I thought Pooja’s acting was very average. For me, its a failure on Bala’s side.
@brave heart…its not a very bad film. You might not have like it..It is a unique, original and truly different film. Even with all its shortcomings, its better than most of the crap you get to see
@Sridhar..spot on. except that the post is mostly about ‘Naan Kadavul’
@Skanda…your post discusses the plot of ‘Naan Kadavul’ in detail…so people will assume it is about the film…
Murali, I did not dislike Pooja’s performance. If it felt bad, it was because she was not speaking Tamil properly. I was only commending her effort as she dubbed her dialogues on her own.
Ram, as I said I was trying to see Bala through his latest film. For that, I had to dwell on the plot details. I thought about other things, but eventually ended up not including in the review. One of them is the creative process of an artist (or a creator). What inspires someone like Bala to make a film? The completeness of the film should be proportional to the level of inspiration. I guess Bala should have been fascinated by the characters. He makes us understand this through his movie. That he was not as inspired about the plot shows in the movie. Early movies of Shankar like Gentleman and Indian showed his complete conviction about a vigilante reforming the society. His later movies, even when dealing with similar individuals lacks the complete commitment we see in the two movies mentioned. Unless Bala is completely convinced of his movie (characters, plot and everthing else), audience will not find the finished product fulfilling.
my comments are not published. Where are they Mr.Moderator?
Is Bala ‚'„'ºThe One‚'„'¹ of Tamil Cinema ?
May be if you are from tamil nadu and if you have not seen any good movie outside of Tamil..yes may be…
Let him do something apart his ‘psycho’ characters..
if you are not bale to find out great characters than this Bala’s creatures, i will tell you watch movies other than tamil and grow up..yes grow up..
to Ram V
i didnt like it …hence its a bad film to me…i didnt impose it on any one…and i dont need any one to tell me whats good film and bad film:)
Jamsheed,
Your’s is a clear case of commenting for commenting’s sake. I am sure you only read the title of this post, and hardly bothered to read the entire article. Also, this is no way to talk low of Tamil movies. You sound as if one needs to watch other language movies to grow up. It is a show of bachpana and nothing else. I can give you a big list of Tamil movies that would be comparable to any good cinema made across the world. Amongst the Indian language movies that I watch, I can certainly say that Tamil cinema is as good if not superior to other language movies. A movie is either good or bad and I don’t intend to comment on languages, bollywood, hollywood etc. I make the remark about Tamil cinema based on my recent viewing experiences.
Jamshed, or whatever ur name is, you cant put a fucking sentence properly together. You make snide remarks about Tamilians and you have the cheek to ask others to grow up, loser. Honestly its guys like you who r bringing down the standard of comments to Rediff levels.
@Ratnakar : you stole my words
no need to reply to guys like Jamshed. If the author of the article is given the right to remove such stupid comments, we can just do away with these comments and focus on better stuff.
frankly speaking…now a days thee are too many posts written about tamil cinema…just because there are too many tams…guys lets talk abt world cinema and stuff…rather than discussing sub standard films like naan kaduval and etc…other wise lets talk abt themes and educative stuff rather than trivia and wikipedia…except for the posts of kathir…
@brave heart…you are here also..go and read the reply in ‘Mungaru Male’ blog…drink a lota of milk and sleep…
Lets talk about world cinema…you keep on talking about world cinema..we will talk about Indian cinema..as we are sub standard people..only high standard non-Tam guy like you has knowledge of world cinema, wikipedia and trivia…God bless your wretched thoughts
cow…think beyong milk …grow up!
beyond…typo error
@HolyCow and Braveheart..Take your fight elsewhere. Consider this as a last warning to both you before you get banned on PFC. Have a difference of opinion, respect each others opinion.
Well, I did not make this post to start a “I hate you, you hate me” discussion. I believe we are all passionate about cinema. It is not possible for an individual to have watched movies in all Indian languages, leave alone good cinema from every other country that makes movies. If we don’t realize it, we will start confusing what we like with what is good. I am a south indian, I prefer rice over chappati. This does not mean chappati is bad food. Unless we are objective we don’t grow as individuals. The posts I see from the founders of this website clearly shows that they are grown up people. To all those who think only what they know is the best, just because it is “THEY” who know about it, well I pity you (I don’t like using parliamentary words, if not I would have said something else). If you are not interested in taking the point of discussion further, please don’t comment.
Well, I meant unparliamentary words, but the spell check screwed it up
//Have a difference of opinion, respect each others opinion.//…who is tellign..wher are my comments first?..was there a technical snag anytime?
guys…apologies!
great performance, great direction and thought provoking content
the unspoken partnerships between directors and actors somehow always limits it to AB and YC and a few others, SRK KJ and a few… Bala Vikram Bala Surya, but somehow its always been these hand few where director actor were consciously having a great character in hand worked out very well bet ween these folks
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…ill and quarantined, thought of putting up a blog at PFC, but still dont think m good enuf to write posts, neither is the Nyquil of any great help nonetheless still putting my thoughts… for somebody to pick the trails of these thoughts up….. and while Jyoti’s post has picked up the issue, no time better to put these up…
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the most unspoken yet according to me the brilliant combo has been Gautham Menon and Jyothika…. for all those people who ve watched tamil cinema, and have had a chance to see this combo should automatically feel a lil warmth when I am talking about these two… for some reason the combos have always been left to be pondered amongst the leading actor and the male director… Vikram Bala, Surya Bala combo has always been the pick after K Bala and Kamal Hassan, K Bala and Rajinikanth and then Mani Ratnam Arvind Swami Mani Ratnam Madhavan…. bollywood is a different league altogether… there are other combos… but somewhere people have massively missed the Gautham Menon Jyothika combo…
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Jyothika has possibly given a new lease to the new age actresses in every Gautham Menon movie… everytime that these 2 have worked together, even if the actress is there for 40% of screentime compared to the hero, those 40% have had scenes which are worth carrying within… was never a Jyo fan till I saw Kakka Kakka… a film which everybody knows as Surya coming of age (even those who havent seen it) and the crackling chemistry between the 2 main leads… however starting from these 3 movies Jyo established the credibility of the lead actress, in an industry which is hero dominated requires the hero to dance sing and fk around the goons happiness, while the heroine needs to go to college or be scared or just be the hero precious one whom he keeps flirting with touching and hugging to remember her support or poke fun at.. she is also maybe strong at points where she has to go against her parents inital wishes all in all live in some shadow or the other….. gautham and jyo moved it to one long step ahead…
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When we talk of women’s lib and coming of age, while we still find PC and Bips and Kareena playing either glam dolls or fighting the world t prove a point Jyo and GM carved way for simple characters who are truly the definitions of Women’s lib.. the kinds who are not trying to prove a ppoint, or fight the world, but are ones who are in complete control of their lives, actions and decisions…. they dont need to go dance and walk around as bimbettes, neither do they need the equality talks in the ‘bad all men’s world’ …. they are just what they are and they know what they are doing and speak their mind and do what they have to!
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For all the guys like me who are not SRK and AB and KH and Rajinikanth and can never be larger than life… so the question of machismo and raw manliness and the suaveness is all zero … the character that Jyo plays in Kakka Kakka is huge… there are tons of us who maybe like Surya .. not in any means policemen but good at our work, determined and all that but hesitant when it comes to a woman .. not too sure what needs to be next… and what Jyo played here was absolute cracker… brilliant… she knows her mind and exactly what she wants clear, loud and decisive… and at this minute in an encounter specialist movie, she takes away 50% of the limelight all on herself… the character automatically starts commanding footage, focus and respect… its awe taking and from that minute any respect commanding guy like Surya in the movie and the tons of others who would like to believe like him would never take such a person light or taken for granted anymore.. would definitely make sure to go ahead and take the adequate next steps with the lady and at the same time the respect and the awe to the lady remains…
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similarly Pchakili Muthucharam …though Jyo is in a negative role.. though its a copy from derailed, what sets apart is the way Jyo and GM treated the lady’s role even when compared to Jen Aniston… Jyo’s character was all woman yet not feeble… it was all girl/woman, yet not the unnecessary coy or shyness, at the same time time it does not step into the manly demandingness or insistence… neither is it suggestively sensuous nor does it look conniving… she just is in complete command of her actions.. and when again an average person like Sarath Kumar, who is not trying to be a lady wooing or a charming guy but a regular family person, is in dilemna, she knows well what she is doing (m still talking of scenes where her intentions are not unfolded so I didnt know that she had hidden motives… m just talking even if those twists were not there)…. romance, love, sex is neither hailed all the way to the top nor is it looked upon as a sin .. its more of a matter of fact and personal and Jyo carries it amazingly…. while GM carves it beautifully… right from the scene where she starts to talk to him in the train to the phone calls and meeting in restaurants…
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GM carried it even to Vaaranam Aayirum where each woman know their ways but Jyo’s touch was evidently missing…
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in Vettiyadu Vellayatu Jyo did not have much to do in any significant ways but then again her role made sure that the characted of a seasoned police officer neither goes mushy nor goes macho in anywhich ways and wooing a girl remains as normal and a part of life as much as we lead it….
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The highlight of the GM Jyo combo has been that unlike all the male combos we have spoken about, these were simple roles… they werent authorbacked characters that the actors have played… of either a kind of person (blind or college rogue or specialist inspector or a extremely fun loving person or a determined person, inspector whatever…. ) but more or less an average everyday woman, who doesnt have to carry a morose stern face to show determination or an always cheerful face to show happy go lucky happiness spreading woman or deface herself to show seriousness.. these were everyday characters… the woman and men we meet everyday … who even if determined keep it to themselves… will be absolutely normal to you when you meet them… the intelligence shows up only in occasions where they are meant to be shown and not carried around throughout… additionally each of these roles have come out in movies where the concerned person or the monents is not the central character or central scenes… they might be build ups like case of PM, or say just another unfolding scene in the lead protagnist’s life… but what JYO and GM achieved was the grabbing of eyeballs, respect and a complete notice to this character…. which is the actual word of Woman’s Lib… these were everyday characters… who we meet, can be our colleagues, friends, whatever… they dont need to keep dressing in glitz glams… they dont have to talk the high language…neither are they suppressed lots, are the unfortunate ones trying to find their way out…. but when it comes to delivering their action they know their mind….
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Kudos and hats off to the combo of Gautham Menon and Jyothika… a different chapter in indian cinema making….