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Tamil
Movie Review : Pudupettai |
| Selva-Dhanush-Yuvan
combo rocks! |
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Cast:
Dhanush, Sneha, Soniya Agarwal
Music Director: Yuvan Shankarraja
Director:Selvaragavan
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The
‘pettai rowdy’ theme –the gangster
film trend that probably started with Surya’s
‘Aaru’ this season- reaches to a completely
new level not quite seen before in Tamil silver
screen for some time, in Selvaraghavan’s
stylishly mounted ‘Pudupettai’
Industry watchers have anxiously been looking
forward to ‘Pudupettai’ on two counts;
one, a concern: Dhanush, now the son-in-law of
the super star, badly needed a hit after a couple
of awful movies and forgettable performances,
and two, an intriguing question: whether Selvaraghavan,
who gave three successive hits in ‘Thullavado
Ilamai’, ‘Kadhal Kondein’ and
‘7 G Rainbow colony’ can pull off
a hit this time too? |
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Rowdy’s
rites of passage
Like all ‘pettai’ rowdies, ‘Kokki’
Kumar’s career in gangsterism starts off
with a traumatic incident- involving his father,
a petty henchman- at home and culminates in himself
becoming a hitman of a local chief, indulging
in bootlegging and drug peddling. The skinny lad
evokes derision among his mates, but that he could
summon up all his pent up rage when cornered like
a rat stuns his rivals and the quick, transformation
from a callow, lily-livered youth to a two-timing
ruthless killer and ultimately to a politician
is neatly told.
Soon, Krishnaveni, (Sneha) a sex-worker of the
area, enters his life and then his rise in the
lawless world is meteoric and he sows the seeds
of destruction when he starts lusting for Selvi
(Sonia Agarwal), his loyal guard, Mani’s
sister
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‘Kokki’
Kumar makes far too many enemies in his pursuit
of power and pelf and does nemesis catch up with
him? To reveal more would amount to giving away
a spoiler! |
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Selva
chronicles the story than narrates
One valid criticism of the movie is that
in trying to be chronicler of the rise and
further rise of a small time criminal, the
director has done away with all sentiment
which is so crucial to the success of the
movie. While narrating the story of a wimpish
lad from a small time gangster to a full
time rowdy and to a politician, Selva just
seems to document the story without attempting
to moralise even a wee bit. Never once he
tries to justify the hero’s actions
and he refrains from giving his hero a few
likeable virtues. |
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In
the end, you are just a witness to a criminal’s
rise to the hall of shame and you feel little
empathy for him. As result, the viewer gets the
feeling of having watched several hi-powered episodes
at one go than a full-length feature film with
a structured beginning, middle and an end.
Also one feels that Selva probably got carried
away with his subject that he did not feel like
ending a movie at any point. The story never shows
signs of hurtling towards the climax and in fact,
there is not one climactic moment in the film
-the story just meanders towards the end while
the audience waits for the anti-hero to meet with
his nemesis which never happens. Whether this
would be considered a drawback or a new style
of film-making entirely depends on the tastes
of the audience.
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Dhanush
back with a bang!
Dhanush, practically in every frame of the
movie, eyes smoldering with fury and anger,
has done an excellent job in the author-backed
role. His dialogue delivery hasn’t
changed much and at times, gives the impression
of being loud but it gels with the loutishly
criminal character that he portrays. Another
top class performance is from Sneha who
adds serenity to the proceedings with a
dignified presence. The sore point, some
may feel, would be the presence of Sonia
Agarwal, who seems to have been cast as
the unwillingly annexed bride, more due
to nepotistic reasons than to pure merit.
Selva’s style of narration, alternately
dark and bright, the way he eases into the
story of the dark, underbelly of the metro
with a lot of fast cuts, the way he has
handled the fight sequences with a lot of
panache, the dark humor he injects even
in the most chilling of scenes, the performances
he extracts from all the artistes all speak
highly of his growing maturity as a director.
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The
background score is, to use a milder word, awesome,
though Yuvan’s fans would be disappointed
with a few songs chopped at the editing table.
A major negative of the movie, that earned it
a UA rating, is the excess of violence - there
is so blood and gore right throughout the movie.
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Technically
brilliant, but is the audience up to it?
In ‘Pudupettai’, Selva - one
of the younger crop of the newer generation
of directors- enters an unexplored genre
– for him - of gangster movies. This
is a vast canvas he deftly paints with broad,
violent and incisive strokes, wisely eschewing
the sentimental and effeminate touches that
lesser directors succumb to while handling
such themes. ‘Pudupettai’ is
a film that should make people sit up and
take notice of him and his craft more seriously.
Viewers with conservative tastes might not
like the unconventional climactic sequences
but, this is a technically brilliant movie
with not a single dull moment. Dhanush’s
‘Kokki’ Kumar is not ‘Batsha’
or ‘Nayakan’ because you’re
not supposed to like him.
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rather
Selva, does not want you to show sympathy for
him! If you remember that minor piece of detail,
may be you’ll enjoy the latest exotic offering
from the combination of Selva-Dhanush-Yuvan!
Trivia:
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The movie is 2 hours, 55 minutes long. Due to
this, the movie does look like a mega-serial at
times.
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Dhanush in a white silk shirt and Sonia Agarwal
in a bright orange dress came to Albert Theatre
and waved to the delirious fans from the balcony.
There was a lot of applause for quite a few scenes.
A few fans felt that they would like to see the
movie the second time so that the story could
sink in better.
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The
entry song ‘Enga area ulley varathey’
has been picturised with a lot of pizzaz and may
be it’s the sets, or the new 35 mm technology,
one feels the song is bound to be a super hit.
But, Selva has to cop the criticism that the line
‘padicha naye inga varathey’ does
tend to glorify lumpen elements.
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This
must be one of most violent movies in the annals
of Tamil cinema. One loses count of the number
of heads chopped by the time the interval happens.
Have the Chennai’s underworld not heard
of guns and pistols?
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| Pudupettai
Gallery >> |
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| Pudupettai
Music Review>> |
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