Thoonganagaram is a test of endurance

If you, like me are an inveterate cinema-goer, you’ve probably seen more than your fair share of lousy flicks and have, over time, built a certain immunity that allows you to stoically sit through any magnitude of cinematic disasters. But every once in a while (not very frequently, hopefully) comes a truly torturous movie that stretches you to the limit of your endurance. It then takes extreme effort to sit through the proceedings without leaving mid way. Often, you rely on other ways to amuse yourself, like eavesdropping on the argumentative couple seated ahead of you or following the rhythmic pattern of snores emanating from the elderly gentleman seated beside you. At the end of it all though, you wonder how the makers of the film managed to sit through their own creation (presuming at all that they did).  

If today I am able to proudly record that I was able to sit through all of Thoonganagaram, it is thanks in no small measure to an extremely entertaining bunch of co-cinema watchers and some truly wonderful pop corn served at Satyam theatre. Alas, If only the director and the editor of the movie had been similarly blessed, they too could have seen the entire movie and realized beforehand , the magnitude of what they were about to inflict on their audience.

The Plot:

Set in Madurai (pictured with its famous landmarks like the Gopurams of the Meenakshi temple, the busy bus terminus and the Azhagar festival), Thoonganagaram (the city that never sleeps) tells the story of four lower middle class youth whose friendship is cemented at the local bar. One of the four (our principal hero), is reunited with his childhood sweetheart somewhere in the first half of the proceedings. This is shown through some standard flash back routines involving pesky school children, ill tempered adults and regulation skip and hop childhood games. Also introduced are the rich and powerful villain and his scheming, ruthless brother. Their entry is marked by predictable sequences involving intimidation and murder of upstanding citizens. Random sub plots involving tacky attempts at humor follow, before the screenplay finally moves ahead and the paths of the hero and the villains cross. After testing your considerable patience in the second half, the hero and villains decide to quit playing hide and seek and a bloody denouement follows.

My Take:

What can you say about a movie which in the name of humor has sequences involving a grown man farting into another man’s face? Where the comedy track consists of old women, betel leaves and spit fights. Tasteless humor apart, Thoonganagaram is also let down by a below average screenplay which is disjointed, predictable and incredulous. If in the first half it looks like it is meandering from one random single act to another, in the second it turns entirely predictable and fails to hold your interest. The saving grace (if there were one) in the movie is in the performance of the cast who for most part, look and play their roles well

The Verdict:

Don’t watch Thoonganagaram. Visit your dentist instead. It is at least more value for the same amount of pain.

Yuddham Sei – A Review

I have always been of the view that suspense thriller as a genre remains woefully under explored in Tamil cinema. While Kollywood abounds with stories about cops and crime, you rarely come across a movie that delves with any degree of intelligence into the mechanics of a criminal investigation. Investigations in Tamil cinema, for most part, involve a cop, a suspect bound to a chair, a lathi and a dark room. Throw in a few corny dialogues (usually about the said suspect’s morals or patriotism) follow it up with some old fashioned torture and the mystery usually reveals itself. It is therefore not an exaggeration to state that one would be hard pressed to name 5 decent “whodunit” crime stories in Tamil without shamelessly resorting to some googling.

Given this dismal state of affairs, you can hardly fault one for being excited when a film maker of Mysskin’s caliber decides to make a mystery thriller cop story. Yuddham Sei, for most part anyway, lives up to the billing of its maker. It is fast paced, it keeps you on your toes with its parallel narratives, and even as you guess the denouement somewhere towards the middle of the proceedings, it gives you the satisfaction of being smart enough to do so.

The Plot:

Chennai city is rocked by a series of sensational crimes where the victims’ hands are chopped off with an electric saw and left off neatly wrapped up to be found in highly public places. With intense pressure mounting on the commissioner, the case is handed off to the CB CID where it is assigned to JK (played by Cheran) a brooding, upright veteran who after much persuasion takes on the job. As JK and his team (consisting of an old faithful and two green horns freshly assigned to the department) proceed with their investigations, they uncover a sleazy, deeply disturbing design that turns highly personal for some of them.

My Take:

Yuddham Sei has a complex plot involving multiple characters and several parallel, seemingly unrelated narratives told in non linear style. In fact the first few minutes leave you bewildered and scrambling to keep track of names, places and incidents that follow one another at a brisk pace. In time however, you start to see the inter linkages and the plot unravels itself. It is therefore to the makers’ credit that he manages to convey the story with clarity while completely eschewing any digressions (that one typically sees justified in the name of commerce).

The script is propped up by some excellent acting all around. While Cheran turns in a restrained performance as the principal protagonist, Jayaprakash as Dr. Judas, the battle weary forensic pathologist is the pick of the lot. There are several scenes in Yuddham Sei that remind you of Anjaathey, Mysskin’s hard hitting tale of a friendship gone sour (sample the scene where JK is attacked by hit men armed with knives). The dark, grim sequences in the mortuary, the chase sequences with the camera focusing on the feet of the actors and finally the item number involving a girl in the yellow sari are all features that have come to be recognized as part of Mysskin’s signature style.

The Verdict:

Yuddham Sei provides a deeply disturbing account of the base nature of the powerful and the chilling impact it leaves on the innocent. The movie stays in the mind long after you have left the hall.