Suseenthiran, in his short career, has proved that he does better work on a small scale, with smaller stars (or sometimes without any stars, as in the terrific Aadhalal Kadhal Seiveer, earlier this year), so I must say I approached Pandiya Naadu with some scepticism. The film begins dramatically, with the death of a local gangster, and when the womenfolk gathers to wail, someone suggests that instead of mourning the man’s death, they should be celebrating his life. A gaana song-and-dance ensues – but it doesn’t erupt out of nowhere. It’s been given context, mood (and, as it turns out, the death of this gangster is a crucial plot point, so there’s some narrative thrust behind this number as well). This is what a commercial filmmaker should do – bow before the must-haves and yet not be a slave to these conventions. I began to wonder, then, if Suseenthiran was going to spring a surprise and give us a large-scale movie, a hero-centric movie, which also shows signs of being made by a singular filmmaker.
But this inventiveness isn’t consistently sustained in the pre-interval stretch, which plays out in two fairly conventional tracks. In the first, we see the rise of Ravi (the very well-cast Sharath Lohithaswa, who’s a looming physical presence), the gangster who succeeds the man who just died. In the second, we witness events built around the timid Shiva (Vishal), the second son in a happy joint family. Shiva is not the typical Tamil-film hero. In his introduction scene, he gets slapped, and he stammers when nervous – and he doesn’t even drive a macho bike, just a gender-neutral scooter. What follows is an amusing scene that slyly subverts our notions of the ultra-masculine hero. Back in the folds of his family, Shiva is asked why he didn’t retaliate, and he explains that if he had, then the thug who slapped him would have returned with four more goons, for revenge, and if Shiva beat up these men as well, then the four would turn to forty, and the violence would never end. You have to laugh. In one stroke, Suseenthiran makes us see the madness behind the hero-glorification we take for granted in our one-man-versus-many action sequences. Which middle-class citizen, after all, can hope to match up to professional gangsters?
Even when it comes to love, that other inviolable duty of the hero, we get the scene where Shiva refuses to agree to an alliance just by looking at a photograph of the girl (which, when you think of it, is a kind of “love at first sight” scenario) – he’d rather meet her, get to know her, see if they are compatible. And when he meets one such girl, at a coffee shop, it results in comedy. Suseenthiran tweaks these developments just so – we’re not seeing anything radically different, and yet, there’s enough newness to keep us hooked. But soon after, Malar (Lakshmi Menon) enters the story – she’s the heroine, and of course, she has to make her appearance while shepherding a group of children (she’s a schoolteacher) – and the clichés begin to pile up. There’s the love-at-first-sight song. There are the scenes where Shiva goes up to Malar and tries to make an impression. Suddenly, the film begins to feel contrived, cinematic.
Not for long, luckily. After a story twist that harks back to Suseenthiran’s Naan Mahaan Alla, Shiva is filled with bloodlust. He wants to kill Ravi – and Pandiya Naadu really takes off. (I wish our filmmakers would sometimes sit down and question the need for two-and-a-half hour narratives, when losing thirty minutes can make a pretty-decent movie a truly great one.) Earlier, we saw that Shiva was a very ordinary kind of leading man, and this ordinariness becomes the film’s USP. During his quest, he does nothing extraordinary – just basic things, ordinary things, like following his quarry (on that scooter), tapping a phone, and fighting back with a brick or a bottle or whatever else is at hand. These action sequences aren’t super-choreographed wire-fu items, but just a collection of… ordinary moves. The suspense, too, stems from Shiva’s ordinariness. How, we wonder, will a man so untrained, so raw manage to outwit these savage gangsters, especially Ravi, who’s such a menace? Even at the end, there is no triumphalism – just a small, ordinary smile that things (thankfully) have worked out.
Barring one terrible intrusion – an uncharacteristically lusty overture by Malar, resulting in a mood-killing song situation – the latter portions work beautifully, and they’re imbued with a surprising (at least for this kind of film) dash of existentialism, the acknowledgment that we can make all the plans we want, but life’s always going to throw googlies at us. You could be in the middle of a nerve-racking mission and the family may insist on putting you through an engagement ceremony. You think you’re the only one after the villain who’s put your loved ones through hell, and you find that someone else has similar ideas, which makes your work that much more difficult. You could fall for a girl that a gangster falls for, and the resulting events can cause their own kind of chaos. You can track the villain’s whereabouts and make plans that this is where you’re going to kill him, but you may find that that is not how things will play out – you’re going to have to improvise, on the spot. Suseenthiran stages the genre staples well enough – the fight in a bus station; the suspense around an assassination attempt in a theatre – but what he does around these generic scenarios is this movie’s secret strength. That’s what shows that he’s no… ordinary filmmaker.
An edited version of this piece can be found here.
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oneWithTheH
November 7, 2013
Good piece Rangan.
I was literally re-watching the whole movie as I was reading this. I had the exact same thoughts on the various scenes you chose to talk about.
This is a very good example of a movie with the so called mass elements in the right portion sizes(barring that preposterous woo-ing number) in the hands of a good director, shaping out really well. To nitpick, I thought the Vikranth character could have been fleshed out better. And, the recurring common man theme was best exemplified when Ravi is being avenged for one of the many crimes he had committed and yet he has no clue which one it is nor has he even confronted the avenger before!
My friend after the movie said – “time ponadhe therila” and “vishal padam nu namba mudila” and I agreed to both 🙂
Btw, when was the last time your regular mass tamil hero decided to produce his own movie and play a normal character? I will commend Vishal for that.
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Sabari Sridhar O T
November 7, 2013
I thought Vishal has “ACT”ed well after a long time. Especially in the climax action sequence the manner in which he has shown the fear of death which at the same time makes him retaliate with what ever he chances to get is brilliantly conceived by the director and the action choreographer and excellently performed by Vishal.
Also Bharathi Raja as the protagonist’s father is not a routine “aged father of the hero” role, but had more substance. Sharath Lohithashwa is a worthy addition to Tamil cinema with his menacing eyes and intimidating demeanor like you said.
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Sabari Sridhar O T
November 7, 2013
When the movie enters into the revenge mode I expected the wise and fearful protagonist to bank more on his intelligence and kill the antagonist with the use of his brain more than brawn. Though it is not all muscles with ample use of brain the intelligence in the execution is found wanting especially when the character is etched out as someone who thinks before he acts. Nonetheless the revenge part is portrayed in the most realistic manner possible as how any person who is naive to the ways of violence would do it.
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Pavithran
November 7, 2013
Brangan saab
so i started with this (pandiyanadu) review, went from here to your thangameengal review and then vazhakku en, angadi theru etc etc and in next ten minutes, i had another 20 tabs opened up, all reviews about different films written by you. And am like “how in the fucking world did i miss out on this writer earlier,just how”. i’ve become a regular reader of your blog only recently (after conversations with mani ratnam to be precise) and its been an addictive experience. you’re awesome did. \m/
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MANK
November 7, 2013
Is Susheendran the same guy who made Rajapattai?. If it is the same guy then really does he suffer from anniyan syndrome or what?.He seems to change drastically from film to film.
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Deva
November 8, 2013
Mank: it is the same suseenthiran who made Rajapattai. I would you watch Aadhalal Kadhal Seiveer if you have not. I love his Naan Mahan Alla. He is a real good director in current terms.
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vijay
November 9, 2013
Raajapattai might have been an aberration, or must have suffered from some form of intrusion from Vikram.Even in Naan Mahaan Alla, the villians were terrifyingly ordinary, just going about their lives wrecking other people’s.Hope Suseendran makes more of these. Because we don’t need “art” films as much as we need more “art” or ambition in commercial cinema. As Kamal gave the verdict in a recent TV debate in which he was the naduvar, “Kalai nayam ulla commercial cinema dhaan jeyikkum”(the debate was about what made Kamal who he is, his serious films or his commercial films). Not the All in All azhukkuraaja types. BTW, BR, I suggest you skip Karthi’s latest crapfest if you are concerned about your health.
Karthi’s every movie is worse than the previous one. He is having a Vinod Kambli-like career so far.
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Prasad Muthusamy
November 9, 2013
@ Vijay- More than Vinod Kambli’s it is like M.Night Shyamalan’s career. I believe his graph is plunging at a rate faster than the speed of light.
@ BR- good review. Planning to watch it tonight. I usually read your reviews after I watch the movie. But this one seemed to have raised my curiosity and I must say, thankfully, there weren’t too many spoilers in the review.
Keep going, looking forward to more reviews from the International film festivals.
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dinakaranonline
November 10, 2013
For last few reviews,we were on unison but not this one. First and foremost , How was this movie awarded a U certificate when there is lot of violence through out with blood oozing out of various parts of body hammered by many creative weapons right from aruvaal to kathi to what ever objects found near me ?
If you have followed most of movies with it’s mileu set in Madurai ,they are authentic in their establishing of settings and characters ,they by default are very realistic. So there is no browny points here for director since there is nothing unique abt setting that this films show us .Casting Vishal in this character driving an Activa is raved by many.It may be a big deal for Vishal but i dont think it’s that much of big deal for audience.We have seen so many movies where a meeky hero takes weapon for some reason.
Though movie has few niceties , engaging and thrilling moments ,it was burying itself in cliches,violence and melodrama that we have come to associate with these type of movies. Though am not a native of Madurai , am offended very much by how film makers typecast this part of South Tamil Nadu as a place where there are always morons running around carrying bit knives and aruvaals killing each other. I closed my eyes every time some one is getting stabbed which happened atleast 20 times in movie. Im getting tired of this.
I think Government should stop giving U certificates to movies where in even an aruvaal or kathi is shown going forward. Film makers are now getting more and more creative with how violence can be used in their movies to shock their audience. They have freedom to do it but not with U certified movie right and claim tax free exemption ? I think Madurai needs to be quickly upgraded to gun kalachaaram so that we can move on with story by killing people in a single shot.
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MumbaiRamki
November 10, 2013
BR, i felt the director missed a good 10 mins to establish the emotional connect of the father with his sons . That would have been more emotionally engaging with the climax. Otherwise , this is a safe good movie .
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Honest Raj (formerly 'V'enkatesh)
February 2, 2017
Finally, got to watch this! The action sequence in the climax was a little OTT. Otherwise, the film worked for me. Suseenthiran is probably next only to Mani Ratnam when it comes to staging of action scenes. The scene in which Vishal & co. attempt to assault the Harish Uthaman character was neatly done! Also, liked the Vikranth and Soori characters. The latter, I think, is good only when handled by Suseenthiran.
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