WMW - Enakkul Oruvan - review
Psychological thrillers in tamil are hardly a handful. Pizza was the most memorable one in a long long time. Soodhu kavvum and Jigarthanda started as one and went off into a totally different genre altogether. But one healthy aspect to note is, those movies definitely stand out amidst all the rut that is being produced in heaps and bulks. "Enakkul Oruvan" is another glorious exception which deserves a proud place of its own.
Theme and story of the movie have been done to dust in so many reviews that I saw online. How will a person have dreams if he cant even sleep? To solve this issue comes The tablet, Lucia, which is basically a sleeping pill plus it gives hallucinations making dreams so real that you can create your own life in your dreams. Prolonged usage leads to yearning over the near perfect life of our dreams to the unrealized real world lifestyle. Thematically, this is something that everyone wants right? We all have our dreams, from childhood till adult and at times, our subconscious plays a trick or two, where we don't realize its just another dream, till we wake up. What if its something that is not accidental and can be induced through drugs? What happens when you are so impressed with your dream life that, real life sucks and you want to live in your dream? The movie has so many interwoven view points.
The movie star wants to live like a theater usher and there is a brilliant reason for the same. While one role always have to survive in public limelight and glare of flashbulbs, the usher's face is never known even to the person who is shown the seat by him. Since its his dream, except for his character which has a contradiction in its aspiration, rest of the cast have similar wants and wishes, both in their real and reel lives. That was another master stroke in the script. The fact that both are insomniacs are shown in a creative way. While the usher is shown doing multiple jobs like night watchmen to chef in a night stall, movie star is shown casually roaming around the city during night time.
I felt Siddarth's characterization of the movie star, could've caused the movie to flop. While he shines brighter than the torch he carries as the theater usher, he looks uninterested and dull in his other characterization. Almost as if, he is desperately trying to be aloof to bring about difference in both characters. Had he been his normal real self, with amount of histrionics inherent to the usher role, it would have been a crowning glory of a performance. The amount of effort that has gone into the deglam makeup for the usher look shows how good looking Sid is in his real life. The way he talks, his body language are over the top in many scenes, especially the song with the foreign ladies, where he imitates "Perazhagan" surya, as if he carries a hump. Looking dark (I wont use the word ugly) or unfashionable, doesn't mean that the person has a handicap. While the movie star carries way too much attitude, its totally devoid as the usher.
Probably they wanted Samantha's dates for the heroine role and like Sallu bhai of Bollywood, who, whenever any heroine rejects to act with him, hunts for a similar looking one, Deepa Sannidhi is dead ringer for Samantha in many scenes. She doesn't have much to do in her aspiring movie star role and has a good scope to perform as waitress in Pizza shop, which she doesn't do full justice to. Rest of the cast, be it the drug peddler, inspector, "Office" serial MD guy, theater owner every one of them are awesome in their roles. The beauty of the script being such that, every single one of them have dual role - one in real life, which interestingly is shown in color tone and other in reel which is in black and white. There is an intelligent twist in the end which justifies the reason and it twists the story 360 degree round. I relished that portion and the way the twist is depicted. It felt like, right out of a Jeffrey Archer short story, where in the last line of the story, he would turn the entire content upside down. Songs were awesome. "Yendi ippadi enakku" song has been a chartbuster for many months now, due to the delayed release. My other favourite being "Poo avizhum bozhuthu". Lovely lyrics and pleasant tune. There were no comic scenes in this very serious movie.
Gils verdict - must watch for those who enjoy movies with intelligent scripts. I feel you cant watch it on tv or theater. Better buy a DVD and spend some time with the movie :) Avlo vettia iruntha thaan puriyum :)
Theme and story of the movie have been done to dust in so many reviews that I saw online. How will a person have dreams if he cant even sleep? To solve this issue comes The tablet, Lucia, which is basically a sleeping pill plus it gives hallucinations making dreams so real that you can create your own life in your dreams. Prolonged usage leads to yearning over the near perfect life of our dreams to the unrealized real world lifestyle. Thematically, this is something that everyone wants right? We all have our dreams, from childhood till adult and at times, our subconscious plays a trick or two, where we don't realize its just another dream, till we wake up. What if its something that is not accidental and can be induced through drugs? What happens when you are so impressed with your dream life that, real life sucks and you want to live in your dream? The movie has so many interwoven view points.
The movie star wants to live like a theater usher and there is a brilliant reason for the same. While one role always have to survive in public limelight and glare of flashbulbs, the usher's face is never known even to the person who is shown the seat by him. Since its his dream, except for his character which has a contradiction in its aspiration, rest of the cast have similar wants and wishes, both in their real and reel lives. That was another master stroke in the script. The fact that both are insomniacs are shown in a creative way. While the usher is shown doing multiple jobs like night watchmen to chef in a night stall, movie star is shown casually roaming around the city during night time.
I felt Siddarth's characterization of the movie star, could've caused the movie to flop. While he shines brighter than the torch he carries as the theater usher, he looks uninterested and dull in his other characterization. Almost as if, he is desperately trying to be aloof to bring about difference in both characters. Had he been his normal real self, with amount of histrionics inherent to the usher role, it would have been a crowning glory of a performance. The amount of effort that has gone into the deglam makeup for the usher look shows how good looking Sid is in his real life. The way he talks, his body language are over the top in many scenes, especially the song with the foreign ladies, where he imitates "Perazhagan" surya, as if he carries a hump. Looking dark (I wont use the word ugly) or unfashionable, doesn't mean that the person has a handicap. While the movie star carries way too much attitude, its totally devoid as the usher.
Probably they wanted Samantha's dates for the heroine role and like Sallu bhai of Bollywood, who, whenever any heroine rejects to act with him, hunts for a similar looking one, Deepa Sannidhi is dead ringer for Samantha in many scenes. She doesn't have much to do in her aspiring movie star role and has a good scope to perform as waitress in Pizza shop, which she doesn't do full justice to. Rest of the cast, be it the drug peddler, inspector, "Office" serial MD guy, theater owner every one of them are awesome in their roles. The beauty of the script being such that, every single one of them have dual role - one in real life, which interestingly is shown in color tone and other in reel which is in black and white. There is an intelligent twist in the end which justifies the reason and it twists the story 360 degree round. I relished that portion and the way the twist is depicted. It felt like, right out of a Jeffrey Archer short story, where in the last line of the story, he would turn the entire content upside down. Songs were awesome. "Yendi ippadi enakku" song has been a chartbuster for many months now, due to the delayed release. My other favourite being "Poo avizhum bozhuthu". Lovely lyrics and pleasant tune. There were no comic scenes in this very serious movie.
Gils verdict - must watch for those who enjoy movies with intelligent scripts. I feel you cant watch it on tv or theater. Better buy a DVD and spend some time with the movie :) Avlo vettia iruntha thaan puriyum :)
Comments
I still remember the song review you had done about that song in Ai and every time i heard the song I remembered how well you had done the reveiw.
:-) :-) :-)