Spoilers ahead…
G.Marimuthu’s Pulivaal – the tiger-by-the-tail title is very apt – has an involving hook. The story pits Karthik (Prasanna), a fat-cat businessman, against Kasi (Vemal), who makes Rs. 4000 a month as a supermarket employee. Karthik loses his iPhone (it has incriminating information) and Kasi pockets it, unthinkingly. A have becomes a have-not, a have-not suddenly has something – and the film takes a step into Patricia Highsmith territory. Kasi discovers that, perhaps for the first time in his life, he’s holding the cards and he’s now in a position to dictate terms to people who won’t give him a second look. Yet, his newfound aggression doesn’t fully displace his innate timidity, honed through years of bowing and scraping. In one scene, he’s giving Karthik the royal runaround, and in the next, he’s terrified of the consequences of what he’s unleashed. And his actions set up a neat reversal of audience sympathies. First, we want to see Karthik brought down from his privileged perch. We want him to crawl. But gradually, we begin to root for him.
At the heart of Pulivaal, adapted from the Malayalam film Chaappa Kurishu, is the grim truth that we cannot control life, and that the things we do can sometimes spiral into disastrous consequences for innocents. (Oviya plays this film’s collateral damage.) But the uninspired narrative doesn’t do this theme justice. The characters – save for Karthik’s father, who provides a surprising grace note – are strictly one-dimensional, the staging is flat, and the events are preposterous. (The bit involving the character played by Swarnamalya is downright childish.) The film’s best stretch is an impressively staged action sequence in a grimy public toilet. Karthik’s rage and Kasi’s fear are amplified in the small space, and, for a few minutes, we see the kind of atmospheric thriller Pulivaal could have been.
One reason our thrillers almost always fall short is that the must-haves of the genre – the gradual escalation of stakes, the nail-biting tension – are inherently incompatible with the must-haves of our movies, like the songs and the stand-alone comedy track. At least the singing-dancing music videos, one of which employs brightly coloured parasols, are restricted to the first half. (The hero sings that he will ignite the heroine’s heart with petrol, and she replies that she’ll cool him with ice cream.) The gags, unfortunately, run throughout. There’s Soori dispensing SMS kadi jokes, and, at the other end of the spectrum, we have what appears to be a stab at biting political humour. Because no Tamil movie, these days, can do without the mandatory TASMAC bar scene, we have Valliappan (Thambi Ramiah), the manager of the supermarket Kasi works in, sitting down for a drink, and overhearing a conversation in the next table. A Kannadiga extends a glass of undiluted liquor to a Tamilian and asks for water, in Kannada. The man is unable to understand the request. Valliappan helpfully says, “Karnataka thanni kekkudhu.” Elsewhere, he carries on telepathic conversations with an employee over the preludes of Ilayaraja’s superhits. The trend of lazily invoking the maestro’s music shows no sign of abating, and one wonders if these filmmakers realise that by reminding us of how sublime art can get, the rest of their film ends up looking all the more impoverished.
KEY:
* kadi jokes = PJs
* Karnataka thanni kekkudhu = Karnataka wants water.
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Rajesh
February 8, 2014
Incredible.
Chaappa Kurishu itself was made from Hangul (hand phone), a Korean movie.
I am still intrigued to see this, as I am wondering how Vimal performs.
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venkatesh
February 8, 2014
***** SPOILERS *****
Chaappa Kurishu did not have any of the liquor scenes, the kadi jokes or even the mandatory “duet” song. The end grimy toilet fight was really well done as well.
***** END SPOILERS *****
@BR
Have you seen the original ? If not, please give it a go.
I am surprised by the number of “different” Malayalam movies that have come in the last 2 years., low-budget, shot digitally on actual locations, tightly scripted, urban landscapes and most of all just background music without any running around trees. Some of these movies are “inspired” from other sources but are still well done.
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venkatesh
February 8, 2014
@Rajesh:
Have you seen “Handphone”, I have. Its quite different and other than the central conceit of the phone moving from one to the other – the rest is not the same.
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MANK
February 8, 2014
@Rajesh
Now come of it man,Give the latest malayalam films a break.Its one thing to nostalgically reminisce about the late great 80’s and say current films dont match up to them, but for how long.Also much of the great films by padmarajan, bharathan etc were also inspired from foreign films, mainly by the works of Fellini,Antonioni and Tarkovsky, whom bharathan has directly referenced in prayanam,vaisali etc.So just dont scream blue murder everytime somebody mentions that this or that film is a copy of some foreign movie. As venkatesh, says just the basic concept of chappa kurisu is taken from handphone. Thats pretty much the case with the latest drishyam as well.The malayalam version is very well done, the lead actors were terrific , very well shot and definitely doesnt include the various compromises as it seems have been made in tamil version.I dont deny that there are black sheep , who indulges in pure pretentiousness as i wrote about in an post in a earlier thread , but still in the last couple of years, malayalam cinema has shown progress.So lets give them the due where they deserve.
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MANK
February 8, 2014
@Brangan, i do second venkatesh, pls watch the original if you havent, its real neat movie.
And @Venkatesh,Yes the digital technology has been a great boon to mal films, its helped to bring down the cost of making movies and consequently there has been an explosion of talent . All those people who have been denied the opportunities for making a movie for a long time(which was the sole monopoly of a select few for long) are really cutting loose now.Sure there are some truly junk stuff coming out as well, but the good stuff coming out more than compensates for it. Hope u never get to see the bad staff , as some of them are really bad.Btw have you seen drishyam as yet , do tell what you thought of it, Its going to be remade in tamil soon with Kamal haasan.
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venkatesh
February 9, 2014
@MANK
I do not live in India so can only watch them when they are released on DVD or if its a big film it gets released here. Drishyam unfortunately has not been released here yet. I have heard good things about it (without knowing about the story, the way i like it).
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MANK
February 9, 2014
@Venklatesh:without knowing about the story, the way i like it
Well then, lets keep it that way.
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brangan
February 11, 2014
venkatesh: Did the Mal version have a scene that involved cow dung?
MANK: Sure there are some truly junk stuff coming out as well
That’s true in every industry. But the high of seeing a good moment in a film erases all these memories. People sometimes see a review of a bad film and ask me “how can you sit through such crap?” But you never know. There may be an actor worth watching, a shot that’s done well…
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MANK
February 11, 2014
@Brangan:There may be an actor worth watching, a shot that’s done well…
Yup damn right. I was watching roop ki rani choron ka raja recently on some channel, oh what a horrible slug of a movie, but paresh rawal who has just 4 scenes in it and man what great scenes.he made it worthwhile. As for shots well done ,there was that train heist sequence.
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venkatesh
February 11, 2014
@BR:
Nope. why ?
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sara
February 17, 2014
@MANK, @venkatesh, you’re right. This movie is as faithful to the original Korean movie as Ghajini is to Memento – take the central plot, rob it of its substance by dumbing it down several notches, and add mediocrity in its place. The evocative title “Pulivaal” suggests an escalation of stakes that you can’t extricate yourself from. This is the best part of the Korean movie IMHO. Pulivaal instead seems content amateurishly wallowing in the central conceit. And what’s with the abrupt ending? Everything is resolved in the last 2 minutes and everyone goes home happy.
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