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Gautham Menon takes a break from his similar-themed cop flicks and explores the concept of infidelity and its effects on a loving family in a slickly-made, technically brilliant movie, in which Arvind Krishna’s camerawork, Harris Jeyaraj’s songs and background score compete with Sarathkumar for the tag of hero. I will take an early bet on this movie to be among the best three of 2007.

Venkatesh (Sarathkumar’s first role outside of his naattaamai or labour leader routine), is, in his own words, still crazy about his wife, Kalyani (Andrea). Who won’t be, if she is good-looking and welcomes you home singing “Un Sirippinil“? Their peaceful life suffers a setback when their son is diagnosed with an ailment, and the wife becomes downcast because of this.

Unable to stomach her sudden lack of interest in anything, Venkatesh looks to Geetha (Jyotika), a married woman whom he meets in the train for emotional companionship (that’s menspeak for flirting). Jyotika’s gaudy make-up in these scenes are a real spoiler, so much that when he first asks her what her profession is, you wonder if she’ll say, “… the world’s oldest.” the song “Karu Karu Vizhigalaal” (Oru Mallicharame) just happens. Delightfully placed, it blends with the sequences, and is probably the best picturised of all.

Casual flirting blossoms into friendship, and soon Venky becomes smitten. The scene where he calls her to say, “Enna, innikku train-la meet pannalaye? Are you okay?” draws a lot of “Over-a vazhiyire, thodachukko” type comments from the audience. The friendship slowly turns into a relationship, with Geetha being more than accomodating of Venky’s advances. The beautiful “Unakkul Naane” song, has been shot very poorly. There are a thousand ways of doing it right, and Gautham chooses none of those. Take the delightful solo violin, which is now the ringtone in everyone’s mobile phone. On screen, Jo and Sarath are falling over some human pillars. Awful! A real dampener.

As they proceed to think of making love in a secluded cottage outside the city, a stranger (Milind Soman) barges in, knocks off Venkatesh and sexually assaults Geetha. And takes their numbers, and starts threatening them, and extorts money. Who is he? How does he plan his every move to perfection? Is Venkatesh’s wife in the know? Will Venkatesh budge? The story unfolds with some very nice twists, which form the remainder of the movie.

Probably because PKMC is a remake of the English movie, “Derailed”, it carries a Hollywood effect. Must say, the handling of the story looks pretty advanced for a Tamil movie. Gautham’s screenplay, despite quite a few logical flaws, is taut and well-paced. Quite a few of my friends have told me that the first half was a drag. My opinion is that there could have been no other way. In weaning the screenplay out of usual masala-ic fare (okay, you must excuse Sarath’s machoism in the closing minutes), Gautham wins.

Harris Jeyaraj has sometimes been “accused” of reserving his best for Gautham’s movies. This movie doesn’t serve to correct that reputation. Thankfully, Madhushree’s horrific rendering of “Unakkul Naane” has been omitted. “Kaadhal Konjam”, though not the pick of the album, has been picturised well. My personal favourite is “Karu Karu Vizhigalaal”. The background score lends great weight to the movie.

Arvind Krishna, who deserved a National Award for his poetry with light in Pudhupettai, excels here too. When PC Sriram and Santosh Sivan decide to retire eventually, Arvind will be at hand to pick up the baton.

Of the actors, Milind Soman, despite his limited screen presence is the most convincing. Someone please tell Gautham Menon that he doesn’t always need to lend his voice to his villains. Jyotika’s performance oozes confidence and hence is effortless. Andrea is a good find, and though her expressions are plastic to begin with, she does a great job as the movie unfurls. Sarath’s acting makes you wonder why he doesn’t choose more roles like this one.

Overall, Pachaikili Muthucharam gives you the effect of having watched an English movie. Tamil cinema can definitely do with more such movies. The commoner may not like it, but (and this might sound like “the emperor’s robes”) if you like good cinema, you’re sure to love it.

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Filed under: Movies, Tamil