Spoilers ahead…
In Naan Than Bala, Vivek plays the eponymous character, a priest who lives in an agraharam in Kumbakonam. He refuses to move elsewhere as his aged parents live with him. When a priest in the US invites him over – the donations are in dollars – Bala refuses. He says that our parents took care of us when we were children, and now, when they are like children, we must take care of them. He isn’t averse to a glass of water from the house of a lower-caste acquaintance. We’re all god’s people, he says, as the film cuts to an Ambedkar picture on the wall. And in Kanchipuram, we meet his future love interest, Vaishali (Swetha), whose orthodox father says he doesn’t mind her working because men and women are equal, and only by hard work can one understand the value of money. Staple these scenes together and you have a Moral Science textbook for the Fifth Standard. The filmmaking is all broad strokes. Subtlety is as hard to find in these environs as mutton cutlet.
But slowly, something strange happens. Bala is labeled by one character as a mahaan, by another as thayir saadham. He is all this and more – self-righteous, painfully principled, and ridiculously learned, capable of whipping out a line of scripture for every occasion. But he’s also a good friend to Poochi (Venkatraj), a killer, and he speaks a casual mixture of Tamil and English – he’s not one of those caricatures we see in the movies, whose every utterance is deep-fried in Brahminical dialect. And when it’s time to make a forceful point – for instance, when he’s cornered by Vaishali and her family and issued an ultimatum – he makes it silently. (I expected him to preach.) It’s a testament to Vivek’s sincerity and how this part is written that we come to care about this man who’s an anachronism in most ways.
The film itself is something of an anachronism. It’s a morality play that harks back to our myths – to people like Karna who stood by a friend even though he knew the man was pure evil. If a man who does bad things shows you only his good side, then does he become a good man? This question – along with those about nyaya, dharma – comes up as Bala befriends Poochi, and this befriending itself is presented like an act of God. Bala needs funds to save his father, but no one in his community will help him. So he goes to the temple and beseeches God for help. Poochi, who happens to be there, gives him the money. And then we realize that the name isn’t accidental. God works in mysterious ways, sometimes through an… insect.
This insect, meanwhile, is about to be exterminated by members of the family of one of his targets. And he faces a different dilemma, centered on his lord and master, who adopted him when he was ten and treats him like a son. What does he owe this man, who, instead, of giving him a book, taught him how to wield a knife? (As this man’s ambitious, money-grubbing wife, Sujatha is excellent. Lady Macbeth would want to friend her on Facebook.) And will Poochi’s friendship with Bala, who’s his opposite in every imaginable way, change him?
With all this, Naan Than Bala should have been shattering drama. That it isn’t is a function of the usual problems of our cinema – sketchy performances in the supporting parts, flavourless romance (though it’s a nice touch that Vaishali’s family is Saurashtrian), comedy that constantly undermines the film’s seriousness, lazy contrivances (like how Poochi is so conveniently found by his enemies), mood-killing songs (even if they are unusual numbers, one about food and one about jewels) and an over-the-top ending. The bigger issue is that we don’t quite see how someone like Poochi would welcome someone like Bala into his life. His donation of money at the temple was an impulsive act, but surely a calculating killer cannot wear his heart on his sleeve all the time. Still, you must hand it to the director Kannan for going where Tamil cinema rarely goes. In a culture where the hero is God, he’s gone and made a movie with a man of God as the hero.
KEY:
* Naan Thaan Bala = I am Bala
* agraharam = see here
* Ambedkar = see here
* mutton cutlet = see here
* mahaan = great man
* thayir saadham = curd rice; derogatory term for an exceedingly conservative person
* Brahminical dialect = see here
* poochi = insect
* nyaya, dharma = see here, here
* hero is God = see here
An edited version of this piece can be found here. Copyright ©2014 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Abhirup
June 14, 2014
By sheer coincidence, I am reading this review after watching ‘Thalapathy’, one of the few Mani Ratnam films I hadn’t seen before, and which is also about a friendship along the Karna-Duryodhan lines. I loved ‘Thalapathy’, so am taking this opportunity to ask, are there more buddy films like this in Tamil? I would really appreciate a few recommendations. Thanks.
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lowlylaureate
June 15, 2014
A for attempt a? Heh
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K.V.K. Sundar
June 16, 2014
Good review Mr Rangan…immediately on reading the review I booked tickets and saw the movie yesterday. The movie did not disappoint me…much better than many Vijay Surya commercial eyesores. Luckily it has good music also.
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Sutheesh Kumar
June 18, 2014
Well, they should have titled the movie Naan Thaan Kadavul.
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brangan
June 18, 2014
Abhirup: There are a lot of buddy movie in Tamil, but the good ones are few (especially if you want them subtitled)…
lowlylaureate: More like a B-minus.
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Abhirup
June 18, 2014
Can you name the good ones, please? Then I can try to get hold of subtitled versions.
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ram murali
June 19, 2014
anjaathey and pattiyal were interesting…
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venkatesh
June 19, 2014
Ram Murali: Pattiyal was superb , doesn’t get the love/respect it deserves. Sad to see Bharath do crap movies after that.
BR: The keys took me to Vietnam Veedu , while the acting is definitely dated , you can see the craft behind it. What an absolute marvel of an actor.
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Srini
June 20, 2014
Subramaniyapuram is also a good buddy movie i guess
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brangan
June 20, 2014
Also “Anjaathey”… one of the best IMO.
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Abhirup
June 21, 2014
Thanks, everybody.
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Sanjay Shankar (@sanjayshankar)
June 28, 2014
Brangan: I looked at the keys and before clicking on the ‘Brahminical dialect’, I wanted to take a guess that it would lead to a Sivaji clip from VV and wasn’t disappointed. 🙂 For some reason, for many people that is the first movie that comes to mind after all these years for overdoing the accent that only very movies have ever gotten right.
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