POLLADHAVAN a “vetri” in NARRATION!!!
Narration: A message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program.
I see movies like “thirupachi” “thimiru” “madurai” etc and wonder … did the director even have a story to tell … if not what did he tell the producer?
Lets club such movies in a separate genre “koothu”! “THE KOOTHU MOVIES”
But I love this language and still follow all the movies that get released … may it be the amazing “paruthiveeran” or the honest “mozhi” or even the filthy “palani” … I always keep track of the Friday births, to gauge the quality of cinema in my foster land. And in one such attempt I hit upon Vetrimaran’s “Polladhavan” last Diwali.
The promos of that movie appeared cheap. It even gave me a feeling that the movie is more like the “koothu” types! But the frames in the promos were quite interesting. Dhanush looked more complete and intense; Daniel balaji as always looked good. ( I loved this guys work in “vettaiyadu villayadu” ) … So I decided to see the movie!! and i even heard that the movie was loosely inspired from “Bicycle thieves” … so i had to see it !!!
SO-CALLED-REVIEW
Movie starts with the voice over of Prabhu (Dhanush), He is hurt and there seems to be chaos and tension around, lot of blood shed, violence and we just feel that someone is in danger. Wounded Prabhu rests his arms on his beloved bike (pulsar) and recalls what the bike had done to him…5 mins into the movie and I want more…
The story revolves around a clash between a person belonging to mafia (Daniel balaji) and an innocent lower middle class boy (Dhanush). Debutant director Vetrimaran who had assisted Balu Mahendran sir before deserves a pat on his back, for the way he has captured ‘ north Chennai’ ‘the mafia system’ or even the ‘lower middle class’ family drama!! quite realistic for a movie with such a name !!
Amazing performances by most of the actors (Daniel was a tad disappointing for me- His body language & voice modulation was similar to his previous movie), Kishor and Dhanush were quite good.
Well written dialogues. Shooting in real locations helped to get the raw feel. The camera work was decent and the action scenes were gripping… everything was “realistic”… just wished … Vetrimaran had removed the song and used that screen time to show the development of the romance !!
GV is a talented composer … his songs are good and are doing well with the masses but he needs to learn play BGM … see a lot of world movies or so … cause some really amazing scenes were spoilt by the Loud music !!! and ya … tats it … my so-called-review ends here …
hey if “POLLADHAVAN” is inspired from “Bicycle thieves” … so is “lion king ” inspired from “god father”!!!
as Karthick Krishnan ones said to me “Lion king is an animated version of Godfather” 
but Polladhavan is NO bicycle thieves!!!
HMMMMMmmmmm!!!
Now what struck me most about the movie was its style of narration … and how people have accepted the film inspite of it not being in the usual “start- middle- end” format. Of what I know Tamizh audience hate to be made to think when they are in a cinema hall… when Alaipayuthey (hindi – vivek oberoi and rani starrer “Saathiya”) was released ppl loved the movie but found the narration style confusing!!! (I don’t know what was confusing in that)
“Ayutha ezhuthu” (hindi – Yuva) was totally neglected, few of my friends even abused Mani sir for trying to be innovative in narration style! “periya arrivu kolundhu” (big brainy smart ass)
Thank god for the star status of “kamal hasan” or even “Virumandi” would have tanked big time, it did a decent business (just average) ! “autograph” which released 2 weeks after “Virumandi” did amazing business.
So going by the trend of tamizh films, we can say that complicated or for that matter a so-called “new type” narration would always make the producer tensed!!!
So how did Vetrimaran manage this?
Is the Narration in “Polladhavan” really unique?
How did he seamlessly blend that narration style that few people dint even realize that it was different?
NARRATION STYLE
Now I want to discuss with all pfcites the “narration” style of this movie … found It interesting .. so read on !!! and lets discuss…
AMERICAN BEAUTY/ FOREST GUMP
“The lead character or the protagonist narrates the entire story”
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE / MILLION DOLLAR BABY/ TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD
“Supporting character or a character other than the lead narrates the story”
ROSHOMON / VIRUMANDI
When I heard abt the narration style of “roshomon” I cudnt believe it !!
how could they think of something like that then? I wondered !!
and I was impressed when kamal hasan adopted the similar style for his film “virumandi” …
“Story told from different POVs giving a unique perception of the same incident from each POV!!”
AMEROS PERROS/ YUVA
“Different stories of a common “time span” with one common incident or a common connecting factor”
POLLADHAVAN
This movie follows a non linear narration which starts with the narration of Dhanush (protagonist) and as we are introduced to the antagonist (Daniel balaji) the POV switches over from the protagonist to antagonist. Each narrating their side of the story-alternatively.
I could argue that I spotted a similar narration style in Nolan’s “THE PRESTIGE” … where both the magicians narrate the others diary.
What does such a narration do ? I believe It gives the writer the freedom to describe both the worlds and develop the characters as opposite poles within the first 20 mins. Then we are all set to see the clash between the characters!!! It also helps to establish the histories of the characters so well … we even understand the way they perceive things around them!
POLLADHAVAN gives thrills without suspence … everything is revealed to the viewer… the ISSTYLE of keeping the characters in the dark is used in parts !!!
I don’t recollect other movies with similar narration style … if so PFCites lets discuss!! and if something is wrong with my observation of the movie … lets discuss that too !!! 
Uncategorized , Region & Language, Tamil
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Good review…
Polladhavan is just too good.
The Hospital scene where there was no BGM was easily the best scene of the movie.
According to me, more than Dhanush, Kishore was the hero. Being born and brought up in Madras, the slang Kishore speaks is just unbelievable….PURE MADRAS SSHYTLE…
Eagerly waiting for Vetri’s next..
I just sense that Thamizh films have got their “One-of-the best-directors”…
Hope so !!!
But Sivakumar !! just outside the hospital when Danush comes out to meet kishore .. and then Daniel and Dhanush have a clash … GV got excited … he played the music sooo loud there .. i got irritated .. but the scene was shot really well .. u literally feel the tension !!!
have to watch this movie after such a review…i gave it a miss after seeing the trailer …..
paruthiveeran was stunning according to me…. every year tamil cinema comes up with one gem a movie..
now i wanna see this film after reading ur review !!! am still to see prestige :-((
so is
“Lion king an animated version of GODFATHER ” - stated by karthick krishnan
But my version is “IF lion king is inspired from godfather … then Polladhavan is inspired from bicycle thieves”
but i dont think it is !!!
he he he
Hmm…Pardon me…We cant say Pollathavan is inspired from Bicycle Thieves…The Director has of course thought in the lines of “What-if-hero-who-loves his bike-loses-it?… But does that mean getting inspired?? I dont think so.
Medium and Karthik… Have u guys seen “Anjathey”? The Director Mysskin has done a great job. Do watch it.
My review is posted here : http://passionforcinema.com/anjathey-review/
no man … i havent seen ANJATHEY yet !!! will see it soon !!!
is it still running in chennai ??
Absolutely Sivakumar !!!
u r ryt … even i dont think that Pollathavan is inspired from Bicycle thieves !!!
its stupid to say that … cause then all the movies made would be remakes of some other movie !!!
Yes..Anjathey is still running…In fact it is expected to run for 100 days…Word of mouth has helped the movie pretty well…
I am refraining from reading ur review !!!
fear of SPOILERS!!!
will read it after i see it !!!
:-).
@medium
>>”This movie follows a non linear narration which starts with the narration of Dhanush (protagonist) and as we are introduced to the antagonist (Daniel balaji) the POV switches over from the protagonist to antagonist. Each narrating their side of the story-alternatively.
I could argue that I spotted a similar narration style in Nolan
I thot the entire story in city of god was told thro the narration of the photographer !!!
Neway thanks rbehemoth… i guess i have to revisit “cidade de deus”
polladhavan is a good movie, this review is stretching it,tho. it’s a standard post 2000 slickly produced movie with danush ,slick editing/syncsound and decent music. no comarisons to amores perros,prestge etc.
It has its own voice,tho.Thats a good thing.
@cdrakenc
U got me wrong !!!
this post by no means is a review .. its more on the type of NARRATION used in the movie !!!
and obviously there is no comparison with amerros perros or the prestige … i just wanted to discuss the style narration used in the movie!!!
arre, yes yes, the entire story was narrated by photographer but it was more like the ‘God’ narrating and all. In the sense that he was narrating parts of the story in which he wasn’t present and all… But my main point was about how the subject of the story or rather the sub-story (or chapter, if you will, since its adapted from a book) kept shifting… Like how they talk about the history of the ‘drug house’ before narrating/talking about some other topic…
Even i saw it like a long time ago and am talking from memory…
I guess, it would be better to put it this way that Polladhavan has changing povs, while COG has changing subjects…
medium,
if you are pnly talking narrative arc, pollthavan is closer to bycicle thief( and nayagan) than to prestige or loves a bitch.
it is focussed enough for the two povs to be similar . often the mistake an author mmakes while writing a script (usually a ‘thriller’ script , is that he forgets that there is a third pov(apart from the two portayed) his own. sometimes this means that the two POVs end up looking like one person” what if I were the hero/villain…which is the case with pollathavan…
@Sivakumar
I saw “Anjathey” today … hmmm well I thot it was a poor film, with plastic performances and forced sequences !!!
15 yrs after “kuruthi poonal” you are still happy with an attempt like “Anjathey”?
However i loved your writeup .. keep posting !!
With due respect to your opinions, I felt Anjathey was good.
Its a movie after all. The beauty in cinema is that it has both critics and supporters
I hated Harry Potter Series while my sister was buying original copy of all of them. It happens!
Thanks for taking time to watch it!!!(Oh…I’m not the Director of this film. Why am I thanking you?:-?)
Thanks you liked my write-up.
btw, you are from Madras?
Siva after your reco for “Anjathe” i cudnt wait to get to chennai to watch it !!!and i also wanted to read ur article … so “bootleg” ki jai!!! ..i am happy
I live in Mumbai .. but i am comin down to chennai this 22nd!!!
Anjathey has some awesome camera work(mahesh muthuswami) editing(Sadagopan ramesh) and music(sundar c babu).
u guys really liked the music of “ANJATHEY” ?!?!?!?
hmmm tats surprising .. cause i felt like sayin … “now plss stop the music!!!”
The music director was soo excited that he almost played for the entire 3 hrs… for thrillers we need some silent patches !!
or may be i am so mesmerised by the way “NO COUNTRY ..” was done !!!
PS: he has used the same BG from M night shyamalan’s “Signs” !!! in few places …
camera work was decent for sure !!! some really innovative angles … loved the camera work in the opening scene !!
it was an entusiastic..film school type film all round…but I LIKED IT ON BALANCE.