WMW - Theiva Thirumagal

Saw Deiva Thirumagal this sunday with G3. Though the theater was pretty far from my place and not our usual meeting spots, glad that we made it to the show. It was an awesome awesome movie and i felt really happy for making it. Happy...err..sad i should say. Its been a longggg while since i saw such senti movies. Usually i avoid cry-a-thons and senti movies were a strict NO. But i can gladly make an exception for this movie few more times.

Tamil cinema has had its fair share of mother sentiment based movies. But however few they were, the ones dealing with father sentiment have scored really well at the BO. Right from Sivaji (Thangapathakkam) to Raj Kiran and Prakash Raj in too many movies, Daddy sentiment stands a sure shot hit. Vikram joins that elite club with this one.

I was forewarned that it was a serious movie. But few minutes into it, the director fools you into believing that its a comedy one. Needless to say, its an out and out director's special. There are so many places where he deftly scores over his characters - like the scene where Vikram learns how to manage a new born by looking at people around him. He watches a lady prepare a "THOOLI" for rocking her kid to sleep and the next shot you see his baby sleeping in a THOOLI prepared from a full slack shirt. SIMPLY ADORABLE. Vikram sleep walks into the role and is so perfect in his body language and mannerisms that after a while you take him for a really mentally retarded person and forget the star in play. Santhanam and MS Baskar are a hoot right from their entry and scores well on the comic scenes. Amala Paul, has nothing to do but look cute and bate her eyelids. Anushka has a decent role and is almost like the Hero of the movie. But could've been more active. Most of the times she looks like a keyed up doll. I want to kill the person in charge of make up. Such a decent movie and such irritating mistakes. Every single damn shot, every one has a bindi and viboothi streak picture perfect on their forehead. Even erstwhile Doordarshan dramas had better setup. With so many close up shots, it makes irritating and phony to view. Another sothapal is that vizhigalil song. Its another reason why i called Anushka the HERO of the movie. Just like mass heroes having intro kuthu song, this one is dedicated to showcasing her beauty. It needlessly adds to the already three hour long movie. Y GEE Mahendran has no clue as to what he is doing in the movie and so does the viewers. Possibly a parallel track to showcase the pathetic dad-dauughter relation between him and Anushka which fails to take off. Wonder if Karthi Kumar will EVER get out of that No-One-Gives-a-damn-mappillai role. Right from Alaipaayuthay, his predominant role has been a mokkai foreign return mapillai whom no one respects. Ditto here too. Vikram's wife...yaarunnu kadaisi varikum solala. Atleast antha fotola irunthathu yaarunaachum kaatirukalam. But that only increases the curiosity and doesnt disrupt the flow. Vikram has voiced over for few of the songs and it has helped a lot in the picturisation. He gels so well into the song sequences that it doesnt look out of place at all. Now to the real lead of the movie.

The kid. ATTAGAASAM :) She is so cute and adorable and bubbly and smart and beautiful that feels like going inside the screen and pinch her cheeks. The way she talks to Vikram in sign language, the pain in her eyes when her classmate calls her dad mad, the innocence with which she asks Amala Paul are you a student or teacher and calls the correspondent a big dinosaur without knowing its Amala or be it the song where Vikram tells her story. CHANCELA. I loved the dialogs too. Some of the very witty q & a session between the dad and kid reminds me of Chotu and his mom AJCL :) Especially the one where she asks why trees are tall for which Vikram replies the parent trees are tall. She again asks why elephants are fat for which he cheekily replies because they eat a lot :D :D TOO GOOD. There is another scene, where Vikram whistles their "kudumba" tune :) and the kid just mimes her presence back from the window. The entire theater applauded. The kid has been made to act over her age and she has done a fantastic job of it. Though it sounds too artificial a situation and a response, on screen it looks nice. Its all over the top and who cares. Its all about Love and affection between dad and his kid. The court scenes are an absolute sham and just prolongs the movie. But the climax saves it all. When Nasser goes on and on in the background as to why the kid cant stay with her mentally retarded dad, Vikram and the kid, silently talk with each other and THAT one scene can make anyone cry. It was so nice, so poetic that, you can feel the warmth love and affection radiate from the screen and i am sure everyone would be reminded of their own dad or their own kid. The icing on the scene is the judges reaction and Nassers subdued withdrawal and GV Prakash's BGM for that scene. During that scene i felt my glasses go moist and then only realised my tears :) The ending couldnt be more logical. Vikam might possibly line up for another award but to me the heart and soul of the movie is that kid. Change in title from Deiva ThirumagaN to ThirumagaL..fully justified.


Gils verdict: Why use just one special character (*) alone for a movie dealing with characters so special. I wanted to give 5 * for it..instead !@#$%^&*().