Jun
28
Katradhu Thamizh is one of the best Tamil movies of this decade. Unfortunately, most people get lost in its social commentary and forget that it is, at its heart, a bittersweet romantic tale. This song is my favorite from the movie. Ilaiyaraja’s rendition is awesome; the percussion, especially as the song opens, is a Yuvan trademark.
All of Yuvan Shankar Raja compositions that Ilaiyaraja has sung are excellent. I’m trying to think of one which I don’t particularly like.
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Syju on
Though I want to say – " I agree about it being among the best movies of this decade..".. I stick to:"Nejamaa thaaan solriya ?"
Tamil MA was the movie named at the beginning and we are fortunate to know people both on the crew side and tech side.
One guy called Anand who worked as a Asst Cameraman is our friend and another friend who joined Mr. SR Kathir later is, Mr. Surendhar is my college classmate. They have both working with him since then in super smash hits like Subramaniapuram and very recent, Nadodigal. The entire crew that went in all the 3 movies are said to be the best concurrent team in Tamil Cinema today. Pasanga was too from the same stable, but the crew is relatively from the fringes so as to give Pandiraj greater flexibility in movie making.
They have guys who very well decode the current Marketable themes/trends, best Floor Managers who manages shoe string budgets and the technical fellows who are simply downs to earth and contented people. With fresh faces thrown in, they make Movies which are saleable and profitable, though Tamil MA didn’t make great money and considered a flop for Jeeva.
The above mentioned movies all have strong pre-production teams and ground work. So, when they hit the ground, they are right on the mark from the first day. Tide is with them and Tamil cinema trends are also in their favour.
Overall, strong Project Management skills coupled with technical know how and contented nature of movie making is what their success ingredients.
Please watch, Nadodigal, a genre out of road movies after a reasonable time gap in Tamil.
It was a stupendous movie…and the character of jeeva was so strong and complex;I watchd o the first weekend in santham 330 show..and people were booing each and every dialogue in the film;and it was ironical tat whn the dialog “satyam theatrkkulla ukkantravan and satyam theatrkku velila ukkantrukavan”…evlo padathla intha alavkku dhairyamana dialogues vekkaranga…Its a movie which could have lost its plot twds the end…but was had a great impact on me for its rawness…wish Tamil public encouraged such movies..
Yes, “raw” is the correct word to describe this movie. In fact, Tamil cinema has, over the past few years, grown leaps and bounds because of the proliferation of movies of this nature. I think “Pudhupettai” was the start, and then of course, “Veyyil”, “Paruthi Veeran”, this movie and “Subramaniapuram”. I have not watched “Naan Kadavul”, but I’m sure it is similar.
The only problem is that our audience are so accustomed to perfunctory romances and slapstick, mostly tasteless, comedies that they fail to appreciate the power and depth of these movies. To many, those very attributes are turn-offs.
Kadhal came much ahead of Pudhupettai. So, can we not consider that as the start ?
Basically, like Mr. Madhavan mentioned, these movies could easily loose their plots, because they are screen play dependant. So, making meaningful gripping movies is all due to the efforts of the technicians.
Maybe it’s just me, but I tend to lump Kaadhal with Autograph and such other movies. I somehow cannot think of it as powerful enough, plus the climax seemed kinda botched… “ippadi patta oru manidharai rayil-il paarthen…”
But yes, none of these movies have compromised on the technical aspects. Apart from Pudhupettai, the others are low-budget movies, and you need excellent project management skills to pull it off.
Amazing movie. Ilaiyaraja’s voice is amazing. Remember once in H batch when a lecturer asked, you mentioned Ilaiyaraja as your favorite singer?
Raw is exactly the word I would choose to describe this movie. Unsettling to watch. The same adjective aptly fits all of Bala’s movies, nothing more so than Naan Kadavul.
Gokul: I’m afraid I don’t remember the incident, but I couldn’t have been way off.
Come of think of it, Ilaiyaraja is as close to a complete musician as any we know of. His composing talent is beyond compare. He is known to be an expert at playing many an instrument. And his singing… wow he has sung songs conveying every mood. I would list them down here, but a fresh post is in order.
nice… is this movie set in rajasthan or somthing?? What other such ilayaraja-yuvan combinations are there?? BTW. one suggestion, if you haven’t watched Nan kadavul yet- don’t watch it. I heard it took him 3 years to make this ‘feature film’, which ended up being a mediocre documentary at best.
Dude, you need to graduate from porn. “Naan Kadavul” is a masterpiece.
These scenes are set in Maharashtra. And Ilaiyaraja has sung quite a few songs for his son. “Ariyaadha Vayasu” (Paruthi Veeran), “Engengo” (Nandha) and “Namma Kaattula” (Pattiyal) come to mind readily. I think Ilaiyaraja sung a song in Sarvam as well, a foot-tapping number that I thought I liked when I watched the movie.
he he… onnu Bala, illa porna?? ithellam remba over…
I actually liked all of Bala’s previous movies… but come on! 3 years… and all he has to show for is a community which is suffering and an indifferent protagonist who’s life/actions have no bearing on the events of the movie until the fag end… all characters come from obscurity, and fade away back into obscurity in the end, no definitive plot… all that qualifies for a documentary
It depends..Naan kadavul had posed the toughest task any director in Tamil cinema has had to portray people who live in the extremes of extreme conditions..and to me its the best Bala film and infact the best film in the last 2 years atleast,with the rerecording by ilayaraja qualifying this movie to be one of the all time masterpieces…
Btw yes I had watched the movie 11 times(4 in satyam,1-mayajal,4-udayam,1-in a madurai theatre in 3 weeks,such was its impact on me…and its pitiable that it get the remark tat its a documentary come on!
Madhavan, you’re expecting too much of Arvind. He is just a kid, who is yet to graduate from running-around-the-tree romantic comedies. (And porn, of course.) I guess he would rate Kuselan and Kuruvi as his favorites from 2008. When we call this out, he retreats into his shell — “see, I liked all of Bala’s previous movies, so…”
To quote from Gokul’s review of a few months ago:
Ilaiyaraja’s background score for this movie is from another galaxy. I have watched the movie just once, but when I do so the next time, I will check the credits to see if his name appears as the hero.
The main problem for many in accepting Naan Kadavul as a great movie is that such a view lacks social assent or popular appeal. (For one, it is not a conversation-starter with women.) People fear being tagged “odd” if they indicate preference with the movie. Or it is just that people are insensitive to the characters depicted, because they are removed from the ones we meet in everyday life. (This is not difficult to explain, as we would be just as puzzled watching a movie about Eskimos.) Finally, it is our “adimayin mogam”. If Danny Boyle had directed “Naan Kadavul”, we would queue in front of theatres, and the selfsame people who turned their noses up and said, “Yuck, what a sick documentary!” would be all praise: “Did you see how realistic that was? Wow. I wonder why Indian directors cannot come up with such a magnificent spectacle! Indian cinema is going to dogs, man!”
P.S: By the way, Arvind’s definition of what constitutes a documentary (no definitive plot etc.) is an affront on documentary filmmakers worldwide.
@VK: ippadi ellam oru fellow alumnia vaara koodathu pa!
@VK: the message of my earlier comment was that, just because some director makes something different doesn’t immediately qualify it to be a masterpiece. A corollary, and somewhat intended meaning, is that just because some one doesn’t conform to the populist view (in the film-critic world, that is, which I again doubt), doesn’t have to say anything about that person’s preferences in everything else. I am sensing severe border-line PD from ur rant here
@VK: and even if we assume all that extrapolation of yours was true, its all an evasion. The original disagreement still needs to be dealt with, head on, with an argument. Of course if your premise is that my comment do not deserve a reply…
(sorry for multiple comments… i think im just too used to google chat!)
Arvind, I don’t think your comments deserve a response, because…
It is well nigh impossible to convince someone that a movie is great. I have encountered far too many people who think that “The Godfather” is a trashy movie, so I know the difficulty in making the argument. Or you tell me what I need to tell you to reverse your opinion that Naan Kadavul is a mediocre documentary, and I will attempt to answer your points.
If the movie does not strike a chord in you, I would assume that you are too far removed from the reality that it depicts. That does not mean that I was a physically challenged beggar in some remote temple not so long ago. Frankly though, that is fine. You have likes and dislikes, and you don’t need to change your views to please me. I’m not your girlfriend. To me, personally, Naan Kadavul is an unparalleled achievement in Tamil cinema. It is not a movie that I will watch over and over again, but one that I knew the minute it ended that I could never forget or shake off.
But the reasons you have listed are risible. No definitive plot, characters that rise from and fall into obscurity, a protagonist (?) who has no bearing on the movie. It leads me to assume just one thing about you. You like movies in which heroes make grand entries — 10000 people dancing in lock step etc. — where the hero is in every frame, is all-powerful, all-knowing and reforms society in the span of 150 minutes, while simultaneously wooing the prettiest lass in town, killing 3 million bad guys and escaping the clutches of the law.
ok.
PS: From the last para, i again see a hell lotta extrapolations to the extreme… my comment could just as easily mean that I look for a movie where the characters (at least those who have significant screen presence) are connected through out (or at least at those points of the narrative which have some significant consequence), forming a story, which is the least a director could do while penning down his work.
PS1: and by “God Father”, I hope you do not mean the Ajith-KSR movie
Manichithrathaazhu is widely accepted as an excellent movie. Mohanlal is an important character in the movie, yet he is not central to it. Without him however, the movie loses much. It fails your idea of a route-one movie.
BTW, your attempt at humor is lame.
Nice discussion here…
I watched Naan Kadavul in a not-so-good print. I agree with what VK says in terms of the depiction of social evil and the sensitivities involved. I am always a bigger fan of Ilayaraja’s re-recording than his own songs (just cant forget from the heart-pounding-thuds in the latter half of Sethu). Good movie, greatly appreciate the effort that has gone in from all stakeholders for this. But somehow, I dont feel like watching this movie again. I must appreciate VK’s appreciation of movies of the types of both Parthiban kanavu and Naan kadavul.
@Selva: You’re right. As I have mentioned already, I will not watch the movie over and over, say like a “Sathi Leelavathi”, but it will be impossible to shake off the effect the movie has had on me.
BTW, no one says anything bad about Parthiban Kanavu
. It is as close to an everyman — or, depending on your perspective, nearly man — movie that I can think of. It is definitely in my top 20.
If you want to take a swipe at me, I will give you an opening. I like Sachein
Why will I do that, I also like Sachein.
Et tu, Brute?