The Godfather Part I in Tamil
By Behindwoods Visitor Sivaram
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Even 37 years after its release, ‘The Godfather-I’ stays at the top of most of the ‘Best films’ list. The legend of The Godfather has been recognized by film industries across the globe and ours is no exception. Traces of the film are seen in Tamil films set in the gangster/crime milieu. Our very own Mani Ratnam combined with Kamal Haasan to give an account of Don Vito Corleone (from parts I and II) in Nayagan. Later Kamal, teaming up with Bharathan, bettered that with a smart, intelligent cast adaptation of the film in Dhevar Magan where he just took the main characters of The Godfather and used it in a film with a pucca Tamil flavor. Again, traces of the Godfather resurfaced in Selvaraghavan’s Pudhupettai. There are a few more films that have been inspired by this Copolla classic.

But there has not been an authentic scene by scene remake of the film in Tamil thus far and a conjured existence of such a remake is the premise of this article and the apt casting, in my point of view, will be its essence.

Don Vito Corleone-
The contenders for this role should satisfy a few pre-requisites and only one person can make it satisfying all these rudiments - Kamal Haasan. This wouldn’t be a big surprise. Now what are those pre requisites that Kamal can satisfy and nobody else can? Here they are.

1. Should match the charisma and command in body language that Brando showed.

2. Should possess tremendous screen presence as there are always characters around him.
The Godfather

3. Should have the capability to improvise – Remember the cat that Brando caresses and the rose that he smells in the first scene.

4. Should be able to show a myriad of emotions – pride, arrogance, power, and agony – all at their best.

5. Should be able to show the distinct change in voice modulation, body language as years pass by in the story.

To sum it up all, one must live a Don Corleone, not act. How can I be so sure that Kamal checks all these barebones? My answer for that will be the name of a few characters that he has played in his films. If he can live a Velu Nayakar, a Krishnan, a Saketh Ram, a Nalla Sivam, he can pull this off with élan.

Michael Corleone – The next important character in the film. This character would go on and rule in the next two parts of the Trilogy but I am talking only about the first part and I would choose Ajith for this role. Now this would be a big surprise. That would probably because not many would like to see Ajith in Al Pacino’s shoes. Here is the point with which I would defend such an argument:

Firstly, The Godfather -I made people take notice of Al and it is not his best performance by any means. That blunts out any Al-Ajith comparisons to being senseless. Secondly, consider the scenes where Pacino is the cynosure. There are five such scenes in all.

1. The hospital scene, where he, as a concerned son, transfers father Corleone to another room a la Agni Natchathiram.

2. The scene where he devises, much to the amusement of the other members of the Corleone gang, a trap for Sollozzo, the drug dealer and makes them believe such a plan would work.

3. The scene where he enacts the plan devised and shoots Sollozzo from a point blank range.

4. The ‘passing the baton’ scene with the father Corleone

5. The climax scene where all he tells is an ‘I renounce them’ when his plans to settle all family business is being carried out by his men.

All these scenes don’t involve many dialogues, which tilts the table in Ajith’s favor. But these are scenes in which eyes must be as expressive as they can be and I find that Ajith can do a convincing job in these scenes.

To enact Michael, one must be able to show the transition from being a war hero who wants to distant himself from the family business to becoming a typical Don who takes pride in what he does in the latter half of the film. That is something that the director should be able to take care of, providing the right inputs to Ajith so that he doesn’t miss those subtle variations.

The best director who can do this would probably be one among Mani Ratnam, Bala and Gautham Menon for they have either dealt with films of this kind (Nayagan, Nandha) or have a panache of trying to make films in the Hollywood style (Vettaiyadu Vilayadu).

Now let us take a sneak peek at the supporting cast. Tom Hagen, Sonny, Fredo, Clemenza and Tessio are the other main characters arranged in the order of importance. There will be a toss-up between Nasser and Prakash Raj for the role of Tom Hagen. These two actors can underplay and still command respect on screen which is essential for that character. I would go with Nasser, for, that serves a dual purpose of fitting Prakash Raj into Sonny’s character. Prakash Raj can bring all the attributes of the ill-tempered, thunderous Sonny on screen. Any puny man who looks incapable can be a perfect choice for Fredo.

Now comes the two veterans- Clemenza and Tessio. An automatic choice for Clemenza would be Prabhu, not just for the bodily appearance. Just think of the famous Clemenza verse, “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli”. I am sure Prabhu can come out with such a ruthless dialogue in a simple way. Also the scene where he explains about the gun to Michael might get us back to the training scene in Billa.

Another veteran Sathyaraj can handle the role of Tessio, though it doesn’t provide enough fodder for his capabilities as an actor. It would be great to see him in the role of a betrayer - a good man turned bad after a long time.

Any good cinematographer would be enough, for, this star ensemble is self sufficient to bring the magic on screen and if it is going to be P.C.Sreeram, the quality will be taken to a higher pedestal.

There will be no compromise on the music front though. It has got to be only one man and we can wait for a few years if that is what will take to bring him into this project. The name is Ilayaraja. Only he can produce a background score in the likes of what Nino Rota was able to orchestrate. I would use a Godfather type dialogue (“For justice, we must go to Don Corleone”) to stress upon this:

”For soul stirring, haunting background score, we must go to Ilayaraja”.

A single production house cannot fund this mega budget flick consisting of a lineage of stars. A collaborative effort can pull this off though. Are any producers listening?!

Thanks,
Sivaram.
ucanpostme@gmail.com
 

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