It was really one of the most refreshing films that I have seen and a lot of credit goes to Simbudevan for his creative screenplay and exceptional graphics that really hike the bar of tamil cinema.
The concept of the movie is almost the same as “Anbe Sivam” which manifests almost directly in one of Prakash Raj’s dialogues where he tells Rajesh (an atheist) “anbu dhaan kadavul”. However the backdrop of narration to convey the concept is at the other end of the spectrum as compared to “Anbe Sivam”.
This is such a light film on the mind that not a single frame goes without you appreciating it for one nuance or the other.
Thanks to Google Maps and IPL’s usage of the same a lot of films are using a drill down from the galaxy to show the shifting of a location within the story narration (something I observed in Kuruvi as well).
The film opens with the mighty galaxy milky way and drills down to another non-descript milky way ( a god forsaken street in Triplicane that bears the name of Paul Street translated into Paal Veedhi in Tamil).
The movie is majorly set in a Triplicane mansion the inmates of which form the predominant starcast of the movie.
The way each character is introduced is again a sample of genuine creativity where real life photos from different ages of each artiste are shown as a summary before showing how they look in this film along with the character’s name. Infact when it comes to introducing Jyotirmayi’s character, a real life family photo which has her mother as well is shown but the face is edited to that of Kuyili since she is her mother in the film. While it clearly shows as a superimposed image, what comes to the rescue is the usage of the appropriate photo of Kuyili in terms of age since it is an adolescent stage photo of Jyotirmayi.
Such an attention to detail is rare in Indian Cinema and has been introduced and followed only by stalwarts like Kamal, Maniratnam and Shankar. Simbudevan shows a sample to indicate he is in that league.
Santhanam(Rasu) and Ganja Karuppu (Mokkai) are room mates who neither have a job nor the qualifications to get one. Inevitably they are in debt with the mansion and all vendors of essential supplies.
The initial scenes of the movie show how each vendor is warning these two of breaching the credit limit and the sequence reaches a crescendo with the mansion manager (MS Bhaskar) giving an ultimatum to quit the mansion in a single day. The last nail in the coffin being driven by a loathful dialogue from Bhaskar(which is the usual clichéd taunt in all Indian movies) which challenge the chastity of Santhanam’s mother. Santhanam’s crestfallen reaction to that shows how good a potential character artiste he can go on to become.
The last night in the mansion is spent by our protagonist duo in drinking to glory with their inebriated self reaching an extent of prompting them to taunt GOD with the same loathful words of MS Bhaskar.
Lo and Behold….Prakash Raj makes an appearance in earthly costume…..as GOD…..and the movie goes on to a totally different plane from then on.
The scenes which establish Prakash Raj as God and the innocent (or ignorant) line of questioning from Ganja Karuppu to him are simply outstandingly conceived and executed by both actors.
God tries to reason out with Rasu and Mokkai that every individual’s present lot is only due to action or inaction of their own in the past and their future lot is also completely in the actions they take as of today.
With some brilliant creativity and graphics like the one where Rasu and Mokkai are reduced to the size of the tip of a burning matchstick to make them realize how God’s attention to life forms touches as small a thing as a mosquito the narration goes on till interval where God is engaged in a telling conversation that hints at him parting ways with them. This makes Rasu and Mokkai plead with God to stay back for one more night as the next day happens to be Rasu’s birthday.
You actually get the feeling that the story is almost over and keep wondering whether it is a movie without an interval that is going to finish overall in 90 minutes.
A slightly childish (but professionally executed) piece of creativity is the theorization of Godly power being embodied in a digital device that has a golden light emitting facade. In a scene where Prakash Raj explains it as the entire power of the galaxy in his possession through which he gets notified of every single happening in the cosmos….something similar to getting SMS on mobile (as innocently interpreted by Mokkai)….you get the feeling that this movie might get out of control with sensibility.
But then when you finish watching the movie that aspect of creativity is what hits you like a ton of thousand thunderbolts.
Simbudevan, the creative genius that he is, has used that device getting stolen and misused (akin to credit cards getting stolen and misused) by Rasu and Mokkai as the canvas to extend the movie to a full three hours of sensible story telling.
His visualization or concept (as they say in asathapovathu yaaru) is one by which if God were to descend to earth with an externalized concept of godliness which gets stolen by mere mortals:
· How that power is likely to get misused in purile earthly wants by mere mortals; and
· How God, sans the Godly power, can still emit the divinity from within despite living as a mere mortal under the same trying conditions of our protagonist mansion dwellers.
It is Prakash Raj’s execution of God in the form of a mere mortal that takes the cake, baker and the bakery. He has given life to the story narration in the only way he can.
One of the mansion dwellers gets privy to the fact that Prakash Raj is God and also the fact that Rasu and Mokkai have stolen his Godly power. Ilavarasan (The manguni amaichar in 23rd Pulikesi) plays a very good support role in this film.
In one scene where Ilavarasan’s character wonders about the ill-effects of godly power falling into the wrong hands of jobless petty thiefs, the dialogue of Prakash Raj is a very good sample of how creative and telling the whole film’s content is made up of
“If a deer suddenly grows horns all over its body it does not mean that it will get violent and start killing other species. It will only continue to do what it knows like eating grass and running fast from trouble” so much to say that Rasu and Mokkai cannot think out of their capabilities to do any harm to the world.
In another context where Ganja Karuppu asks some leading question in an attempt to understand how God uses the device to control the entire universe or cosmos God shows him a lizard and tells him that “It is impossible to make that lizard understand how the tubelight functions. As far as the lizard is concerned it is a source of light which produce light on and off. Similarly it is not possible for you to understand what all I do to control this cosmos”.
A particular scene which engages God in human capacity and Rajesh (an atheist character) in a discussion about the concept of God is the most intellectual and meaningful dialogue of the whole film and is capable of making even atheists understand what divinity is all about.
Delhi Ganesh as Santhanam’s father plays a brilliant cameo. I simply cannot stop admiring him for the ease with which he slips inside the skin of any character he is asked to play in his long career as a character artiste. His predisposition about Santhanam’s inability to do anything worthwhile makes him wonder and ask his son how he made so much money overnight. When Santhanam abstracts his conduct and tells him that he found a software, Delhi Ganesh’s reply to that is stunning when he asks him back “who lost it?”(This is one of the many pearls that make up the movie’s original comedy track).
Another scene where an astrologer reads the palm of God and makes analytical statements about God’s family (both past and future) in the presence of all the mansion inmates is a laugh riot. The hidden meaning behind Prakash Raj’s mischievous responses and the ignorant but serious reactions of MS Bhaskar that end up reflecting on himself (Since God’s family is nothing but this entire human race) is such a laugh riot that you have to see it to enjoy and cannot be narrated in a piece of writing. This scene really had us in splits.
The film has the usual concept of a villain and one fight sequence where God in the form of a mere mortal is having to handle him with attack as the mode given the fact that it is the ultimate social balance or equilibrium which is more important in some situations compared to even taking the life out of a life form.
The turn of events that lead to Ilavarsan finding the godly device from a garbage can (since he now holds a job in NeelMetal Fanalca) and restoring it to Prakash Raj in the nick of time where he almost gets his head chopped off by the villain are all more of a normal story telling in tamil films that become inevitable to finish the movie.
Towards the end the movie shows how each character in the mansion benefited from its association with God during his human existence in terms of correcting their way of life and going on to become worthwhile individuals in their own spheres.
But just when you think the movie has a fairytale ending, Simbudevan’s ticklish bone takes over when he shows two more youths on the terrace of another godforsaken mansion calling out to God in foul language as a means of venting out the frustration of their lot.
Prakash Raj makes an appearance again but with a twinkle in his eyes as the camera goes down to focus on this kurta pocket where he usually keeps the cosmos device which is full of locks and chains so that it does not get stolen again.
You can rob Simbudevan of some credit by comparing his movie to Bruce Almighty. The only difference I feel is that while the Hollywood flick focuses more on the guy inheriting the godly power this film uses those characters more for a comedy side track and focuses on God who loses that power and how he exists in a human world without the power but retaining his divinity.
As a natural consequence this movie is able to hold its focus on the strong message of the correct mindset to adopt for living and is worth enjoying every frame over and over again with the whole family
