The movie wastes no time in introducing the
hero of this film, played by Rajini (going to be a regular in RetroReview, I
guess). It’s motorbike racing. Assembled are bikes that looked like they came
straight from All-In-All-Azhaguraja (AIAA) workshop.
Rajini arrives in one wearing what looks
like a swimming cap. Or was it his helmet. Then the race begins. The announcer
narrates the entire proceeding as if he was telling the Mahabaratha story over
the radio.
It would hardly be justifying calling it a
race. It was more like a stroll in the park. The racers looks more like
rallying for some cause, maybe for better quality bikes.
Rajini himself has to go through some
turbulence like the bike not starting (where’s AIAA when you need him). But the
filmmaker, sensing that we would dismiss the race as non-race, had the racing bikers
to overtake bullock carts. Those speed demons!
Anyway, Rajini wins of course, and receives
the price from the films heroine, Jyothi an actress who’s achne spots are more
than the number of films she did.
Okay, here’s the thing I disliked about
this film. The bike racing and the bike riding was what between a good film
that this is and a great film which it could have been. I mean, it could have
been okay if the bike was Harley Davidson or the chopper thingy Raghuvaran was
bumming about with in Siva. The AIAA bike already looked too old and clumsy
when the film first came out.
Back to the movie.
There’s a bit of formula that you know.
Girl dislikes boy, boy teachers her lesson, girl likes boy, boy likes girl, and
the girl’s mother gets henchmen to beat the living daylights out of the boy’s
uncle.
Yeah, played by Tenggai Sreenivasan, he’s
the girl’s family driver, and he overhears the part where the girl and her
friends discuss how disgustingly black Rajini was (at the beginning, later she
embraces black, literally). Angered, he stopped the car he was ferrying them
with, gets out, scolds them, and throws in the key, the cap, uniform and…
…thank god he doesn’t remove his pants. If
there are still many guys out there in their thirties or forties, still scarred
by something that happened in their childhood/youth, to the point that they
became homophobic, I got two words: Topless Tenggai (TT).
Anyway, thanks to TT, a sight that also
would horrify any decent acne -scarred girls, TT was punished with whipping to the point
that he still got almost topless again due to torn shirt. Hah! You know what
happens next, Rajini, after finding out, tears into the rich lady’s bungalow in
the AIAA bike, and gives the henchmen who whipped TT, his share of lashing (Rajini
usually don’t lash whip, he goes apeshit insane with it).
So, the girl’s mother, played by veteran “please
hate me” mother/mother-in-law, Sukumari, harbours hatred towards him. You know,
he’s dark-skinned, low-wage earning, AAIA bike riding bloke who has more hair
than the all of the Three Stooges combined*.
Aside: Sukumari was shown as evil by the filmmaker by focussing on her
fierce looking face, then on the stuffed tiger head in the background, back to
her, back to tiger, back to her, back to tiger, back to her, back to….arrrr, I
got it Mr. Director, she’s evil! End of
aside.
In the meantime, romance developed between
Rajini and “scarface” Jyothi. They greet each other with yellow flag, and yell
off a mountain to echo “I love you”, kinda 80s version of text messaging and
Facebook wall status. And off we go to a beautiful song, “Vellai Pura Ondru”.
Then, the song finishes and usually it’s
Rajini back whopping some bad guys’ ass. Nooo…he was still romancing her.
Involuntarily I yelled, “hey, the duet finished already-lah”. And voluntarily,
with some domestic violence included, my wife yelled, “Let them-lah. What’s
your bloody problem?” To those who are new to this blog, my wife is a hardcore
fanatic terrorist fan of Rajini and refers to him as “appa” (dad).
And the romance goes on and on and on and
on…and I bet the bad guys and henchmen were frustrated and retreated to the
nearest tea stall.
Of course the mother being evil, this time
she stands next to a full taxidermy tiger, gets to know about this
relationship. To summarise the plot at this point, she opposes, then she
relents and of course you know she’ll be up to something. You know this not
because we have a bit of thinking capability. No, it’s because she was looking
fierce besides a stuffed Tiger. Thanks director.
Blah, blah, blah, Rajini gets tied up
literally in a chair, and elsewhere Jyothi was getting married. And this henchman,
who was supposed to guard the tied up Rajini, wanted something to read. I mean,
what else can there be in that room? Bagavad Geetha? Wall Street journal. No,
Rajini’s diary of course. He reads it, becomes saddened by Rajini’s plight, and
actually releases him.
Imagine if all the heroes carry diaries
with them. In fact, Vijayakanth’s films would be quarter its length.
Scene: some
goddown, Captain Vijayakanth confronts a Pakistani terrorist
Vijayakanth: Before we indulge in overlong
fights, and do unrealistic stunts. Would you like to read my diary?
Pakistani Terrorist: Sure dude. Wait let me
hang this AK47. (reads the diary and
tears flows free from his eyes) Oh my god, what have I done. Can I be an Indian
citizen? Pretty please?
Anyway, Rajini’s too late (it’s that bloody
AAIA bike, I tell you. He would have reached faster with a mountain bike) and
some junior artist ties Thali around Jyothi’s neck. Too late, dude. As per the
norm since the Nageswararao days, he hits the bottle which immediately provides
enough testosterone to give him beard overnight.
Cut to present day. He is sulking, and he
apparently has a kid, a girl, and wife. And some dude played by Delhi Ganesh
fixing things in the house. By chance, Jyothi would be in the same town as he
is, working as a teacher. He’s married, she’s married. But he still yearns for
her, and what happens?
Well, readers, this is the part where this
review will get boring. Not that the scenes are terrible, I have quoted the
terrible ones. This is the part where the movie gets awesome. This is the part
where you Rajini fans can thump your chest and be proud to call yourselves his
fan.
He is simply fantastic. There are long,
quiet scenes later in the movie that would have made a hack actor awkward. But
Rajini pulls it off professionally; the subtle change of expressions has to be
seen to be believed. Especially when both Rajini and Jyothi meet again after
the AAIA bike denied Rajini of last minute ass kicking and eloping.
And the ones that catch me off-guard each
time I revisit the film is the romance. You would never have seen or would
probably never see Rajini this romantic. Wife suggested that he probably did
homework by hanging out long hours with Kamal. And the strength of this
performance that convinces us on how he could not let her go even after she was
married. The last half an hour will really tug your heart, thanks to his and
her performance. Yes, all my insults apart, she’s a pretty good actress. Too
bad she didn’t have the look to last longer in the industry.
Add that to some nice songs, the sad
version of the duet mentioned, Ada Vare Vaa, where Rajini and the girl demonstrates
various yoga moves in fast forward, and the beautiful, Vaa Vaa Vasanthame, this
is a highly revisitable movie. And close your kids eyes when TT scenes occur.
*currently he has as much as only one of
them.
 |
| Rajini, Jyothi and one of the many useless vehicles in Pudhu Kavithai. |
No comments:
Post a Comment