Naan Kadavul: Bala is back in style
iView Author: Sethumadhavan (Vijayawada, India)
Email: sethumadhavan.n [at] gmail [dot] com
Naan Kadavul- Bala is back in style
After a wait of around 3 years Bala is back with his 4th movie – Naan Kadavul. Riding on the commercial success and critical acclaim that his earlier movies- Sethu,Nandha & Pithamagan have garnered, Naan Kadavul had raised a lot of expectations from the day the project was announced. The very title- “Naan Kadavul” ( Aham Bramhasmi) which means I am God was very suggestive and took the people by surprise. The project was steeped in controversies be it Ajith walking out of the movie, the spat between Bala and Ajith, Bala’s decision to cast Arya as Rudran the protagonist, the constant change of heroines, shooting schedules getting stretched ,the overall duration that the project underwent or finally getting the film to release.
Well all that is over & the movie is now finally out. That in itself is a big reason for Bala to feel relieved. I am not trying to do a review of the movie per se, but yes I would like to comment on what I’ve felt after watching Naan Kadavul. First of all I am of the opinion that one must as a viewer be able to more or less slot the movie that he/she is watching. It could range from a harmless time pass flick which you can enjoy while watching and maybe even forget it later, a hard core spellbinding movie – whatever be the genre which you keep thinking about even later or a mindless movie – no whatever the names connected with it, you wish you hadn’t seen it.
Naan Kadavul here easily falls in the category of a spellbinding movie- one which keeps you thinking about it for hours even after watching it. It won’t be a lie if I were to tell that I’m still thinking about the movie, having seen it last night. There are so many intricacies in the plot that the more I think about it, the more insights I’m getting in mind. So when a movie makes you keep thinking about it, I believe the director has indeed done a good job. In this case the credit goes in a big way to Bala.
The film starts off impressively enough in Kasi and though the Kasi scenes do not last long, you get to see glimpses of the place that you usually do not get to see. Arya’s character Rudran, is left behind by his father in Kasi 14 years ago due to a doomed prophecy by an astrologer. Now 14 years later the father wants to repent for his mistake and comes to Kasi in search of his son. But his son is now Rudran an ‘Aghori’ ascetic.Though Rudran comes back to his hometown, Malaikoil in Tamilnadu, he is not able to accept the typical domestic life & leaves home to live with other sadhus in a shrine atop a hill. Interspersed with Rudran’s story is that of a beggar’s group which also survives for living on the same shrine.
The group is managed by Murugan who runs it for Thandavan, a cruel exploiter of the beggars and physically challenged people. Enters Hamsavalli ( Pooja) a blind singer into the fold of beggars and Rudran gets involved in this bad world of Thandavan and the beggars unexpectedly. How Rudran goes about fulfilling his mission as an Aghori is what the rest of the movie is all about. The movie is truly multidimensional. On one hand you have Rudran and his ways of living and the spiritual dimension, on the other hand you have a look at how hard life can be for beggars and how they are exploited. And in spite of the theme being so serious Bala has to his credit managed to infuse humour subtly in a lot of places.
Most of the actors are new and have all done a creditable job. If you thought Traffic Signal showed the plight of the beggars realistically, watch Naan Kadavul and you will be blown away. Let me tell you that some of the scenes are quite gory and not easy to watch. But therein is the power of the movie- it hits you hard and the effect remains with you for long. The visuals by Arthur.A.Wilson are of great standard and Jayamohan’s dialogues are of tremendous help to the movie. While I usally have a complaint that most tamil movies are not cosmopolitan, Bala has heard my plea & taken care of it. Characters speak in Hindi, Sanskrit and Malayalam band look genuine.
Ilayaraja has not let us down at all. While the songs are mostly relegated to the background and situational, he scores majorly with the background score. Pooja is sure to get noticed for her work and coming finally to Arya- I think he has really sunk into the character very well. Though he does not have too many dialogues to speak, he has done justice to his role. Having said all this if one was to ask me if this is a perfect movie and would it be tough for Bala to emulate this, I would say a loud no. The movie is definitely good and Bala needs to be credited for making such a bold movie, but there are a few points which I wish Bala had taken care of –
1. Editing by Suresh Urs looks haphazard at times- especially towards the climax.Certain scenes suddenly jump in & there is a lack of continuity.
2. The movie has been given a U/A certificate but in spite of that the movie is too strong for children anyways. I wish Bala opted for an A certificate instead and asked the censors to retain some more portions which would have made the story more meaningful.
3. For all the talk that the movie has generated about Arya’s Rudran and the boldness, Arya does not have all that much screen time in the movie.
But all said and done Bala has stuck to his conviction and the movie is a another landmark for Tamil Cinema.Though I am not sure as to whether the audiences would embrace it in en mass, I know that 2009 has began well for Tamil Cinema with Naan Kadavul.
Tags: Arthur.A.Wilson, Bala, Jayamohan, Naan Kadavul Movie Review
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sethu is back & how! great post!!!
after watchin naan kadavul only wished anurag’s post was is this the golden year for indian cinema? coz after luck by chance and naan kadavul..(dev d is on my to be watched list still:()i truly feel this is the golden year for indian cinema![:)]
Dying to checl this out movie.
Sorry wrote that one in hurry.
Dying to check out this movie.
Abhishek- truly agree with what you’ve said.When Luck by Chance is followed up with Naan Kadavul & Dev D on the same day, what else can one say?
tamilnadu makkal kandippaga parkavendia padam
Mahesh- tamilnadu makkal matrum alla, nalla cinema virumbira makkal ellorum parkavendia padam!!!
After a long..Long Gap a great movie to watch and think.Arya suits the role very much. Pooja is simply Superb !!. As ususal Illayaraja…class in all portion..The villian actor is in his class…Arthur Wilson…wow…wow…one more jewel in the crown. Add one more Sethu…not suitable for children and Kutthu Paaptu Admirers!!
Sethu: I agree. Idhu ellorum parkavendia padam.
Although I wish I had seen it with a better crowd. I saw it in Sydney with a bunch of hooligans (read: IT support staff on secondment) straight from your random Vijay/Dhanush movie. About 40-50 of them shouting, whistling, commenting etc.
Although one incident did crack me up… at the temple scene in the night (in search for ganja), the characters look at Arya and say ‘neenga yaaru saami?’ at which point some ppl shouted ‘Adnan Sami?’
Brilliant movie. Hats off to Bala. Although, I do have one question. *SPOILER* So what does he do with the bodies? Am assuming there is a sub-text which refers to the Aghori community’s alleged cannibalistic practices?
Anand G- Even I would have cracked up if I faced such an incident
Well now that the movie is already 5 days old let me go deep into the SPOILER- originally Bala has filmed Arya to be eating the bodies of the prople that he kills – but that’s not been allowed by the censors I’m told.
Hari- yes you are right about the movie not being suitable to kids & kuthu pattu lovers ( let them go watch villu- powerfullu
)
Have not yet seen the movie, either in Tamil or Telugu dubbed version.
But here is a bit of a surprising news. In Andhra, the movie is doing well, inspite of some really negative reviews. It was released as Nenu Devudini( literal translation of Tamil title). Pundits are attributing this to the Arundhati effect, which also had an Aghora Sadhu angle. Arundhati, to date has been the biggest hit so far of year for Telugu cinema.
Also Koncham Ishtam Koncham Kastham, which was a feel good, family kind of movie, with the young pair of Siddarth and Tamanna has not done too well as expected. Quite interesting here.
Yes Ratnakar – Nenu Devudni is doing fairly good I would say in A.P.Arundhati is a blockbuster & I’ve already sent a write-up to PFC on the same.
if it doesnt get published I’ll post it on my blog later this week.KIKK is in the Bommarilu genre and maybe is not seen as new concept.
Actually in recent times I’ve seen 3 movies with the Aghori sect angle- Raaz-The Mystery Continues,
Arundhati & Naan Kadavul.I guess its helping all these movies
http://www.rediff.com/movies/2009/feb/10rajnikanth-blown-away-by-naan-kadavul.htm
Rajni is mightily impressed by Naan Kadavul, now this cud motivate his fans to see the movie.
I was a bit dissapointed with the movie. Probably i was expecting way too much from the movie with respect to the content and storyline, i was expecting something very abstract and some theory totally unheard of. Add to the censor cuts which made the last half an hours film editing totally disconnected. All said and done the movie stands out for its charecterisation and acting. The biggest backbone being Rajas Songs and BGMS. Even during the days of amit trivedis raja continues to rock for several decades. Raja thaan Kadavul
.
@Ratnakar dude…hw ruuu(added you in facebook) & Sethu….hw r uuu too…
Arya gadu mast chesindu….he has exceeded expectations, and his performance is going quite unnoticed…I think first he blew himself…
Sridhar- I’m fine & yes I agree Arya has done a good job.Thats why I’ve mentioned I wish he had more screen time.Would have been much better watch I must say.
Balaji- I’ve felt the same regarding the censor cuts & the editing going haywire towards the end.
Sridhar- I’m fine & yes I agree Arya has done a good job.Thats why I’ve mentioned I wish he had more screen time.Would have been much better watch I must say.
Balaji- I’ve felt the same regarding the censor cuts & the editing going haywire towards the end.
And yes Ilayaraja rocks no doubt !!!
Sethu its a wonderful writeup on the film & I am still not able to get away from the intriguing song ‘pichaipathiram’….incredible Ilayaraja…
Great Movie,
Sridhar-funniest thing is the ‘pichaipathiram’ song is missing from the telugu version.I dunno why- probably they felt the visuals were quite disturbing.Its a haunting song & the visuals are very stark & dil ko choo leni waali
naan kadavul is shit
@brave heart : Have you even seen the movie ? Looks like you didn’t even watch it.
Just watched it!
And really liked it.
It didn’t have subtitles, I missed the 1st 15mins and the film had cuts galore, but, mere ko bahut acchi laggi man!
I’ve never seen Arya or Pooja before, and now i’m going to look out for whatever else they do.
They were fantastic!
I agree that there should’ve been more of Arya!
Not enough!
Having said that, Bala scores BIG TIME!
It’s a very rural film, yet it just sucks u in, even if u don’t understand Tamil!
Wow!
Damn the censor board!!!
Steve miyan- great that you managed to see it.I guess you missed most part of the scenes in Kasi.
You can check out a movie called Ullam Ketkumae.Its made by one of your favourites
( late Jeeva) & has Arya & Pooja in it along with others like Shyam, Asin & Laila.Its a campus flick & was supposed to be the debut movie of Arya & Asin in tamil but its release got a bit delayed and so Arya’s Arindhum Ariyamalum & Asin’s M.Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi released before it.Also do watch Oram po- it has Arya & Pooja again & is a kind of Chennai’s version of Fast & Furious with autorickshaws instead of cars.
And yes do also watch Pattiyal- its directed by Vishnu Vardhan & is brilliant.Movie has Arya,Bharath,Pooja & Padmapriya.Will give you more names later
I actually have those dvd’s at home already!
But my dvd player commited suicide last night yaar!!
I don’t have ‘Oram Po’, but i’m quite sure i have the others.
Oh, and the cinema have decided to have an ‘additional’ screening of ‘Naan Kadavul’ tommorow night.
It’s a one off.
And yes, i’m going to try and catch the 1st half an hour or so!
I agree with u that it’s hard to forget the film.
But yeah, maybe if the cut scenes were retained, it’d be even better!
Just watched it again!
Glad i took ur advice.
Arya’s really very good in this.
Pooja’s excellent!
Pichaipaathiram is indeed on the Telugu album. It’s called Bikshamdehani. However, if there is a “funny” thing, it is that only two of the songs are in common between Tamil and Telugu, which is Pichaipaathiram and Om Sivo Om. The rest of the songs are different.
I have not seen the film(s)–so they might be missing in the movie. Not sure.
Pavan- I know that the song is there in the album.But Its not there in the movie.