Magaamuni

Movie, after a long time indeed. First time for a first day show.

I have rarely watched movies in theatres in places other than Chennai. I can count them easily!

1. Pudhu Vasantham (Urvashi/ Bengaluru)
2. Yejaman (Thangam/ Madurai)
3. Uzhaippaali (? / Hosur)
4. Thirumathi Pazhanichamy (? / Hosur)
5. Minnale (Maris Fort/ Tiruchirappalli)
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (IMAX/ Dearborn, MI)
7. Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (IMAX/ Hyderabad)
8. Some mokka English movie, so much mokka that I could not recollect the name even if I think hard (Forum Mall, Koramangala/ Bengaluru)
9. Arundhathi (Anusham/ Udumalai)

So, it was again the same different feeling of 'watching a movie out of Chennai' when Ram asked me to join for a night show movie in Coimbatore. Sri Murugan theathre in Thudiyalur. I haven't read any reviews about the movie - all I knew was Arya was acting. So there were no expectations. Just a short collection of snippets:

The movie seems to have a lot of punches and taking a dig at one leading party of Tamil Nadu. Yellow shawl, nadu vagidu, incorrect pazhamozhis, pudhiya dravidam - there are a lot of them sprayed in the first half. The director has attempted to cover too many topics in too short a time interval. The story is a heavy one - it will definitely require a lot of elaboration. To be fair, he has attempted to do justice. But, I cannot avoid the feel of disjointed screenplay cropping up. The location setting of Mekkarai near Erode is awesome. It is a welcome departure from the usual beaten-to-death locations of Western Ghats. Happy to see such awesome places in Tamil Nadu ghats itself!

Arya has attempted a lot. The role of a cab driver by day/ adiyaal by night is so much natural that we do not get a feel of an actor 'acting' as that person. He has transformed himself as such a person in that role. Kudos! On the other hand, his second role as a nerd in a village, is not at par with the former. Somehow, it didn't stay in my mind as the former.

From a comedy perspective, two scenes (the only two lighter vein scenes in the movie, on second thoughts) stand out - 1. where the local MLA-aspirant's wife beats the competitor and 2. the U. Paa. scene of the trio near the climax. I can even bet that the dialogue of the policeman, "inimey ellaam nambikkai dhaan, samadhaanam dhaan, love dhaan" is a regulation meme material. Meme creators to note!

That moment of relief, when we know that a cliche scene will not crop up as we get to know that the heroine is aware of Cab driver Arya's adiyaal matters, cannot be expressed in words :) The nearest match was the scene when Hansika character was not killed when she ate poison in Velayudham (refer my earlier post available elsewhere in this blog).

The director would have thought otherwise! Having avoided all popular cliches for such a long time, in fact until the last scene, he ended up having one. My appa used to jokingly refer 'Needhikku-p-pin paasam' movie where the NPP word will be uttered by every character in the movie in the climax scene. Anandha Vikatan, in its review, would have mentioned that the director has ensured that nobody forgets the movie name when they exit the hall. Exact thing happens in this movie. The director reminds us the name as the get up to exit :)

One question before we wrap up! How come Cab driver Arya can travel all the way from Erode to Chennai with such a long gun in hand and so many gun shot wounds in his body, without anyone noticing him - that too when entire TN police is chasing him? Sometimes, it is better to ignore and move on :)

Movie is worth a one-time watch.