Only recently I have learned that it is usually not safe to voice your own opinion of a movie when it is overwhelmingly disliked and ridiculed by an audience. Since our audience can tolerate to a great extent extremely poor movies without making noise in the theatres( how do you explain the movies of dr.vijay) , if they are totally pissed off with a movie, then it must mean that the movie is an extremely good one.
Mayakkam enna belongs to the latter category. However for physical safety reasons, I kept my views when asked as “oh it is a boring movie”
After watching 7th sense, I felt that it was mindless of me to go and watch a movie in theater anymore . the whole movie was an exercise in revulsion . till then I had not approved of kamal hassan’s weak attempt at intellectual antics, but after that movie, I decided the entire family is not to be trusted. Their capacity to let down an expectant audience seems to be a genetically inherited trait that it seems only the bodhi dharma technique will cure that family and bless tamil cinema.
To my surprise, it seems the tamil audience bought the movie without much thinking, apparently they have forgiven a lot of movies on their way to blockbustership. They have created super stars and little super stars for a lot of wrong reasons and it is understandable they have begun to wait for the maitreya , sorry, oops , bodhi dharma ….
To my surprise, it seems the tamil audience bought the movie without much thinking, apparently they have forgiven a lot of movies on their way to blockbustership. They have created super stars and little super stars for a lot of wrong reasons and it is understandable they have begun to wait for the maitreya , sorry, oops , bodhi dharma ….
Jokes apart, my cousin’s marriage served as an occasion to reconsider my decision to boycott movies in theatres. Mayakkam enna was a fresh breath of air… a fragrant change in a whirlwind of obscenities. It was a statement of courage and reaffirmation of conviction in one’s own vision of cinema. It is not without its own faults but it has to be pointed out that it is a significant step away from the garbage brand that directors like murugadoss and gautam menon seem to be fostering in the name of a new wave in tamil cinema .hence its weaknesses has to be understood in that perspective rather than than a strict admonition of its mistakes.
Mayakkam enna can be classified in the genre of the underdog genius movie – an unrecognized talent - a prodigy gone wrong and redeemed by ‘love’- most notable example being the beautiful mind by ron howard .
It is the life of two extraordinary people whose defiant attitudes and reckless vibrancy sets them apart from the lesser mortals they are obliged to live with. At the first look it may seem like the movie is about karthick swaminathan who struggles to gain recognition in the merciless world of wildlife photography but a much deeper look reveals that it is as much about , (if not more) his counterpart yamini who is relentless in her beliefs about what entails her life’s mission. In fact, the film can only be understood in terms of her character, as the whole movie is roughly divided into two halves – before and after their marriage and the seemingly contrasting approaches of yamini towards life before and after marriage .
She is the modern girl who is willing to date a guy(sundar) who pesters her to be his girlfriend ..she does so because she is confident about herself and knows her limits .at the same time, her independent disposition allows her to be open about her attraction towards his friend , karthick. She is not the timid sort who accepts the so called mis fortunes of womanhood that other silverscreen ideal women do not miss a chance to preach about.
After the marriage, she does not give up after her husband goes near -insane because she knows what does it take in the modern world to follow one’s dreams.. following one’s heart in this consumeristic , globalised world is to be not available as a commodity in the market and hence not exactly profitable in money terms.. it makes one go mad but the madness is the path to liberation in a creative life and sidestepping that process only breeds mediocrity .it needs a loving heart to empathise the torture such a mind has to undergo before it comes out with the phoenixoid creativity ..yamini is one such woman who knows the eccentricity of a genius as well as the paltry opportunism of his friends who seek her as an object of lust(the scene in the car) . she is a woman of the world, who can choose to do what she believes is right, even to the extent of not talking with her husband because his act of violence aborts their child. The movie ultimately moulds a new woman , who knows where both her foci and loci lie. Do u even want to compare her with the daughter of siddha vaidhyar who stands as the champion of recombinant tamil identity , miss subha srinivaasan…( all she does is a few hip twists in a half dozen songs while mouthing loaded dialogues in a funnily new slang of horrible tamil)
After the marriage, she does not give up after her husband goes near -insane because she knows what does it take in the modern world to follow one’s dreams.. following one’s heart in this consumeristic , globalised world is to be not available as a commodity in the market and hence not exactly profitable in money terms.. it makes one go mad but the madness is the path to liberation in a creative life and sidestepping that process only breeds mediocrity .it needs a loving heart to empathise the torture such a mind has to undergo before it comes out with the phoenixoid creativity ..yamini is one such woman who knows the eccentricity of a genius as well as the paltry opportunism of his friends who seek her as an object of lust(the scene in the car) . she is a woman of the world, who can choose to do what she believes is right, even to the extent of not talking with her husband because his act of violence aborts their child. The movie ultimately moulds a new woman , who knows where both her foci and loci lie. Do u even want to compare her with the daughter of siddha vaidhyar who stands as the champion of recombinant tamil identity , miss subha srinivaasan…( all she does is a few hip twists in a half dozen songs while mouthing loaded dialogues in a funnily new slang of horrible tamil)
. selva raghavan constructs the character of karthick swaminathan in dhanush quite flawlessly and I think it is parallel to the effort one saw in the protagonist of kaadhal konden, albeit with a lot more elan. Dhanush proves again that perhaps he is the only consistent young actor worth the name in tamil cinema industry .one can easily contrast his extraordinarily ordinary face and its raw expressions with the paucity of the more handsome and much acclaimed (though without justice) surya who looks humbled by any scene demanding challenging acting.. I do not remember any other actor who can do with so many close up shots . in a countless number of scenes , dhanush proves his mettle..take for example the frustration with which he confronts the plagiarist madhesh krishnaswamy after his photograph is published in national geographic, or the silent zen like meditated state he goes to, as he watches a leaf descend while stalking the cormorant, or the recklessness with which he breaks the head of his best friend’s bride with a bottle .Kudos, flawless performance.
The film also talks about hitherto untalked or less talked areas. The confusing web of relationships that exist in the life of the earning cyber youngsters, the discriminations that exist in elite fields such as photography, the debate on whether creativity is gifted or acquired , the practicality with which illicit relationships are approached by modern youth, plagiarism .. all these are quite new to tamil cinema except as a casual references till now.
There are a lot of glitches on the technical side , though..the graphics are unconvincing..the final sequence when he becomes the best photographer and receives an award looks like an attempt to bring forth the feel of A BEAUTIFUL MIND..sorry, selva, it looked too artificial for a movie like this..
Perhaps selva raghavan’s biggest problem is himself.he has truly the marks of a great director, what he needs is the confidence to completely explore his cinematic language and that can only come with the recognition that is his due..
It is the most encouraging sign of a new tamil cinema I have seen this year.. welcome back , selva… after the debacle of aayirathil oruvan
