Seedhakhadhi - movie review
It takes guts to have a guest appearance in your milestone movie or should it be called as craziness at its peak? In the entire runtime of 2 hours and 40plus minutes, Vijay Sethupathi, appears for the first 40 minutes and that's it.
Ever since the movie got released, this has been the talking point. How can a man, be so casual about his milestone movie, promoting it as his own, when he hardly has any screen time. Some even felt cheated. But considering the way, he has shaped up his career around solid scripts and not on his own image, the movie is a tribute to his own self.
During some of the promotional events, the director had openly stated that he would've wanted a much more older, well established actor, to play the role, finally donned by VS. The reason was very obvious on screen as it required someone with solid experience and unquestionable credentials to pull it off and the almost the entire running time of the movie, post the demise of the lead character is driven by the "aura", literally and figuratively. Guess "aura" would be the word of the year for tamil cinema - be it several 100 crore magnum opus or very recent VS release. It seems, the ghost story season from previous years have gone technical and have come out in its "aura" avatar.
Storywise, it felt like a spoof on tamil movie industry and movie stars in particular. Much more of a decent attempt than the damp squib of "tamil padam 2". When Ayya, the superstar of the theater, dies on stage due to old age, during one of his live performances, leaving behind an ailing grand kid and poverty for his wife and children, the "aura" of him, gets into fellow drama troupe artists and earns big bucks through them in movie world. Point to be noted is Ayya never wanted to perform on movies but his aura is pretty sensible when it comes to money. There are 2 knock-out scenes in the movie that would make you rotfl. They are quite lengthy shots, but still worth it. The scenes, bring out the difficulty in enacting even simple scenes, which deals with showing emotions on face rather than belting out lengthy dialogues. Logic is something that is never in question in the movie, to such an extent that, the entire public and cine industry accepts that its Ayya's aura that is actually performing and even awards "Best actor" to the aura. Suddenly the aura refuses to perform mid way into the movie and the issues takes legal route!!! What happens at the verdict is anyone's guess.
Vijay Sethupathi, for whatever little time he comes on screen, is hardly recognizable behind such heavy makeup. Chop off his portions, the movie still remains the same as they have no impact in establishing his character. Including the national award winning actress Archana, everyone is clueless why she was picked for that role, which doesn't have any dialogue or even scenes to perform. The real hero of the movie is Mouli, who conveys everything he has to say by just lifting his eyebrows and opening his eyes wide. Anniki adupu oothiya pullanguzhal, inniki gas stove patha vachuruku. Songs - Govind Vasantha. Guess that should be the comment which would suffice going forward. The man is presently the master of his realm and especially the "Ayya" song is both foot tapping and splendidly written, even though it appears for just a few seconds as montage shots. The so-called "villain" of the movie, who actually is framed for "killing the aura" is probably the find of the year. His comic timing is impeccable and the scene where he has to romantically call for his wife will bring the roof down. Infact of all the lot, his was the most sensible of characters. The way he cries out to the judge, how he can be framed for killing some one who is already dead makes one laugh and wonder at the same time on the sense behind the story.
Gils verdict - its definitely worth a watch for a different movie experience. The message is quite simple yet surreal - ars longa vita brevis.
Ever since the movie got released, this has been the talking point. How can a man, be so casual about his milestone movie, promoting it as his own, when he hardly has any screen time. Some even felt cheated. But considering the way, he has shaped up his career around solid scripts and not on his own image, the movie is a tribute to his own self.
During some of the promotional events, the director had openly stated that he would've wanted a much more older, well established actor, to play the role, finally donned by VS. The reason was very obvious on screen as it required someone with solid experience and unquestionable credentials to pull it off and the almost the entire running time of the movie, post the demise of the lead character is driven by the "aura", literally and figuratively. Guess "aura" would be the word of the year for tamil cinema - be it several 100 crore magnum opus or very recent VS release. It seems, the ghost story season from previous years have gone technical and have come out in its "aura" avatar.
Storywise, it felt like a spoof on tamil movie industry and movie stars in particular. Much more of a decent attempt than the damp squib of "tamil padam 2". When Ayya, the superstar of the theater, dies on stage due to old age, during one of his live performances, leaving behind an ailing grand kid and poverty for his wife and children, the "aura" of him, gets into fellow drama troupe artists and earns big bucks through them in movie world. Point to be noted is Ayya never wanted to perform on movies but his aura is pretty sensible when it comes to money. There are 2 knock-out scenes in the movie that would make you rotfl. They are quite lengthy shots, but still worth it. The scenes, bring out the difficulty in enacting even simple scenes, which deals with showing emotions on face rather than belting out lengthy dialogues. Logic is something that is never in question in the movie, to such an extent that, the entire public and cine industry accepts that its Ayya's aura that is actually performing and even awards "Best actor" to the aura. Suddenly the aura refuses to perform mid way into the movie and the issues takes legal route!!! What happens at the verdict is anyone's guess.
Vijay Sethupathi, for whatever little time he comes on screen, is hardly recognizable behind such heavy makeup. Chop off his portions, the movie still remains the same as they have no impact in establishing his character. Including the national award winning actress Archana, everyone is clueless why she was picked for that role, which doesn't have any dialogue or even scenes to perform. The real hero of the movie is Mouli, who conveys everything he has to say by just lifting his eyebrows and opening his eyes wide. Anniki adupu oothiya pullanguzhal, inniki gas stove patha vachuruku. Songs - Govind Vasantha. Guess that should be the comment which would suffice going forward. The man is presently the master of his realm and especially the "Ayya" song is both foot tapping and splendidly written, even though it appears for just a few seconds as montage shots. The so-called "villain" of the movie, who actually is framed for "killing the aura" is probably the find of the year. His comic timing is impeccable and the scene where he has to romantically call for his wife will bring the roof down. Infact of all the lot, his was the most sensible of characters. The way he cries out to the judge, how he can be framed for killing some one who is already dead makes one laugh and wonder at the same time on the sense behind the story.
Gils verdict - its definitely worth a watch for a different movie experience. The message is quite simple yet surreal - ars longa vita brevis.
Comments
Would it be too heretical to ask who is VS and why is this his landmark movie ? :)
Interesting that you continue to go only to movies where there are no heroines :)