Spoilers ahead…
SJ Surya’s Isai begins with a curious disclaimer, that what we’re about to see is fiction. Wait. Isn’t that obvious? After all, this isn’t a biopic. But slowly, we begin to see why this bit of bordering-on-legalese was necessary. The film tells the story of a famous film-music composer named “Isai Vendhan” Vetrichelvan (Sathyaraj, having fun hamming it up in his trademark style). In his heyday, his music alone guaranteed 25-week runs for films. His notation book has his image on every page. He has a reputation for hubris — in a scene that plays wickedly to the gallery, he literally spits out a tune. Remind you of anyone? And he is pitted against a composer named AK Shiva (those initials… again, remind you of someone?), who’s called “Isai Kadal” (wink, nudge) and who was once part of Vetrichelvan’s orchestra. Shiva composes on the keyboard, in contrast to Vetrichelvan, whose music is created live. And get this. Shiva’s debut as an independent music director was in a film directed by… I forget the screen name now, but the character is played by Azhagam Perumal, who formerly assisted… Mani Ratnam. Phew. Without that disclaimer, Surya would have been toast.
So we sit back and await the story – the fictional story — of, as a voiceover puts it, “what jealousy can do to a genius.” But instead, a large swath of the first half covers an excruciating romantic track between Shiva and Jennifer (Sulagna Panigrahi). This being an SJ Surya movie, you brace yourself for the inevitable carnality (if you want to be kind) or sleaze (if you don’t) — the director doesn’t disappoint. Sulagna brings to mind the heroines of a certain era who were chosen not because they had beautiful eyes or a bewitching smile but because of the quiver-quotient of their navel when confronted by a close-up. In one of the couple’s early scenes, Shiva wraps his hand around Jennifer’s waist and wiggles his fingers as if playing the keyboard. In response, she closes her eyes and reaches the higher octaves, if you catch my drift. Then he commands her to place her hand on her chest and asks, “Ulla enna irukku?” When she flounders for an answer, he supplies one: “Idhayam.” If you insist. And if you like this sort of thing, you’ll love the plot point in which he’s bitten by a snake in a forest and she stumbles into him (she’s a local) and begins to administer medicine by straddling his legs and pouring the potion into his mouth. To counter the bitter taste, she soaks her fingers in honey and he sucks on them and… You don’t have to look any further if you wondered what it’d be like if a horny, hyper-imaginative teenage boy wrote a Penthouse letter.
Luckily, around interval point, the story veers back to the central conflict. Shiva begins seeing things and thinks he’s going mad — and you know Vetrichelvan has a hand in this. The hows and the whys would have been far more interesting had the film been shorter (it runs over three hours). We get long scenes with lots of redundant dialogue, all intended to showcase Surya’s prowess as a performer. (Let’s just say Kamal Haasan needn’t lose any sleep.) The characters, the contrivances needed more work. A scene in which Shiva confides in Vetrichelvan is most unconvincing. And they seem to be the only music directors around. For a film set against the backdrop of a vibrantly active industry, the staging is oddly insular. (And a film about musicians could have used better music.) And yet, I found Isai a better watch than the recent big-ticket movies we’ve been subjected to. It has to do with the plot, which gradually becomes so preposterous that the sheer whatever-next factor pulls you through. After a point, the film lurches madly between psycho-thriller, Victorian melodrama (think Gaslight), horror-movie staples, and — I kid you not — a meta musing on the director’s long absence from the screen and his return to it. Whatever else, you have to hand him points for audacity. By the end, I was chuckling.
KEY:
- Vendhan = king = Raja
- Sathyaraj style = see here
- Kadal = sea = name of the film, a notorious bomb whose music was composed by… er, you know…
- navel, quiver-quotient = see here (don’t miss the one with the coconut)
- Ulla enna irukku? = what’s inside?
- Idhayam = heart
- Gaslight = 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.
Ranjit Nair
January 30, 2015
LOL….My sympathies for you watching this, but the review is totally worth it!
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venkatesh
January 30, 2015
“quiver-quotient of their navel when confronted by a close-up”
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venkatesh
January 30, 2015
BR : You sir are connoisseur , i just saw the key … that is seriously fantastic
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brangan
January 30, 2015
venkatesh: Connoisseur laam ille pa. Just went to YouTube and typed in a search and this came up… along with a lot more 🙂
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Iswarya
January 31, 2015
Most entertaining review, probably more fun than the film itself. But, a tiny nitpicking: your last but one sentence carries a ‘between’ followed by some four options. Was that an oversight, or has the usage become acceptable?
(Feel rather dumb doing this time and again. Professional hazard. 😦 What to do? Especially when I’ve been advertising your blog as model writing to my students!)
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Anu Warrier
January 31, 2015
all intended to showcase Surya’s prowess as a performer. (Let’s just say Kamal Haasan needn’t lose any sleep.)
Gulp! 🙂
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Sid (@Tweet2Sid)
January 31, 2015
Is her name displayed as Sulagna Panigrahi in title credits?
SJ Suryah seems to have re-christened her name as Saavithri as he says here:
http://cinema.vikatan.com/articles/news/28/8494
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Santosh Kumar T K
January 31, 2015
BR, I see what you did when you started off with “borderline-legalese” but to be fair — of late — almost all movies come with that. Don’t they? Even when it is very very evident that the narratives unfold in fictional/alternative/cartoonish universes. Because someone somewhere gets offended easily (sometimes for groups), this bit of legalese absolves the makers of any shit later on? So this has nothing to do with the real references alluded to in this particular movie?
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Santosh Kumar T K
January 31, 2015
please post this
Speaking of which, BR, this is something I have wanted to ask you for a while now.
Whose word/belief takes precedence? The maker’s (face value) when he says “the following is a work of fiction” when making, say, an Iruvar ? Or that of the audiences that walk in fully aware of the real life TN heavyweights apparently depiction in it?
I know it’s subjective, but would love to know what you think of it.
Also, regarding “realistic,” I’d like to know what filmmakers and writers start off with. “this will be a realistic movie
a) we acknowledge it and the viewers also acknowledge it
b) only we, the viewers may/may not
c) unintentional
d) any other”
i am also interested in a few examples (i will compare notes) of movies that apparently fall under
a) realistic in thought and realistic in execution
b) realistic in thought but not realistic in execution
c) not realistic in thought but realistic in execution
d) neither
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brangan
January 31, 2015
Iswarya: Please. No need for apologies. I actually appreciate someone looking over my shoulder. As I’ve said, these pieces are written under a tight deadline and are hardly examples of “model writing,” especially for students!!!
When I write these reviews, the main things I look at is (1) whether I put down all the points I have in mind about the movie, and (2) whether I put it down with a semblance of style/wit/flamboyance.
In other words, the piece SHOULD be informative. The piece SHOULD NOT be boring. These are the only two things I care about on Friday evenings.
The niceties — grammar, punctuation, etc. — I leave to the subbing desk, at least at this point, till I return to this piece and re-read it and fix the things that are a problem.
You are actually saving me work. So please tell me where I am slipping up 🙂
So if you were to rewrite that sentence, how would you do it?
Santosh Kumar T K:Oh, I see why he did that. But this is not like the usual narratives at the beginning of the film, in text. Here, there’s a lot of talk about success etc., and then there’s a segue to thiss disclaimer. Hence the mention.
Also, wanted to point it out in the review, because the Raja-Rahman narrative was irresistible. To go by SJ Surya’s imagining of this narrative, Raja ends up murdering Mani Ratnam on a rainy night 😀
About your second comment, will reply later. And please remind me if I don’t get back to it soon.
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Jeevannadham
January 31, 2015
Eye catching , mesmerizing Camera apart from that nothing worth to telll
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bart
January 31, 2015
Though was prepared by the heroine’s costumes and the picturisation of “Isai veesi” as a trailer, naming as “Savithri”, SJ Surya’s claims that this panipuri would be her replacement was a bit too far. Now your review makes me wonder if he was really looking at the real one in a different way to what the rest of us looked at…
His supreme confidence on any “material” he produces, is really inspirational, though.. Reminds of the other Surya and “soapu dappa” in “Pitamagan”. Will try to venture this.
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ceaser
January 31, 2015
BR: don’t miss the one with the coconut
You pervert :-), And this is the blog people recommend to their students , help!. btw, no references to Amadeus or its classic hindi counterpart shakalaka boom boom. Brangan who would you say was more interesting -Upen patel or S.J.Surya.?
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ramitbajaj01
January 31, 2015
@Iswarya- Some say between is used for 2 things and among for more than 2. I hope you are not pointing this out. Because this is not the case always. Especially when we have distinguishable items, we can or rather should use between.
Switzerland lies between France, Germany, Austria and Italy.
among is more used for indistinguishable items.
They strolled among the crowds.
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Iswarya
January 31, 2015
OK. You’ve certainly made me feel less guilty. As for the ‘model writing’ part, I should have probably clarified that I used to cite your reviews mostly in my own movie review classes for journalism students and so, they do have an idea of the constraints of time and all that. The idea was to make them see how much quality could be delivered even with all those constraints in place.
And that last line query sort of put me in a spot. My editor always used to give me this mysterious smile whenever I posed the question to her on how she could have possibly rewritten something. We both agreed, of course, that it was always easier to write something entirely your way than rewrite something written by anyone else.
Well, in this case, I guess I’d have chosen to put it as “…lurches madly between X and Y, between P and Q” while making sure that X/Y and P/Q were genuinely self-contained opposites. But, I guess this doesn’t make much sense in your style of writing. Probably why they say “Le style c’est l’homme même.” 🙂
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Iswarya
January 31, 2015
And btw, is that naming scheme also supposed to be a meta wink at the audience, or just a desperate attempt at cashing in on the ‘Khushi’ nostalgia (if such a thing exists)? Shiva-Jennifer, really?!
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ThouShaltNot
January 31, 2015
Navel and surroundings as non-stick skillet? The expression “Saar, engeyO pOiteenga…” comes to mind. That Prabhu Deva guy must be a genius!
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manianmss
January 31, 2015
Audacity..?! really ? Desperation would be an apt description. This fringe movie personality called SJ Surya, scavenges all over and tries to spruce up his fundamentally B-grade movie making skills.
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Arun
January 31, 2015
That climax just rescued the film bigtime. I mean what else can you say except what you said, “come out of the movie chuckling”. People were angry and hooting but by the end, they were just dumbstruck 😀
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Krish
January 31, 2015
Isnt Sulagna Panigrahi the girl from Murder 2 and one half of the conjoined twins from the serial Amber Dhaara? That’s some journey from Amber Dhaara to Isai then..
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Reuben
February 1, 2015
Quiver Quotient? Ha ha ha … Loved the review.
As a side note on disclaimers, Maniratnam was at his playful best in Iruvar. The movie starts with the disclaimer “Idhu Unmai Kadhai Illai”.
If you read with a pause after Unmai then : Idhu Unmai, Kadhai Illai.
Naughty Boy Mani.
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Ram Murali
February 1, 2015
Vetti Ruminations about Isai:
I agree – the movie had its moments but boy did SJS indulge big time or what. Sure, you do have to appreciate how he’s tried a slew of different things to make the 2nd half work but I don’t think he executed it very well at all. The one scene where I thought he acted really well was the miscarriage scene. The lines in that scene were lovely.
I am a huge fan of Sathyaraj. I mean, there was a phase in the late 80s when he did some superb acting in movies like “Vedham Pudhidhu” and “Paalaivana RojakaL.” Of course, Amaidhi Padai is the stuff of legends. Here, he got a very meaty part but I think he should’ve underplayed it a little. Plus, he just didn’t come across convincingly as a musical genius. Too many Sathyarajisms and too little character delineation…but he had the best line of the movie I thought – “Naan Ilakanathukkulliye Irundhen enna pazhasu-nu sollitaange. Avan ilakanatha odachu odachu panitrukaan, avana pudhusu-nu solitaange.” Aptly sums up Isai Vendhar and AK Shiva.
The one scene where I laughed the hardest was the one with Raju Sundaram and his assistant. The way he casually asks, “Editor Antony-ta povom ipo. Avanaachu saaptrupaana?” was hilarious, I thought!
One meta detail that I found absolutely puzzling – when Satyaraj asks Ganja Karupu to sing a song of his, he sings, “Paneeril Nanaindha PookaL” which was composed by Laxmikanth-Pyarelal…odd choice…
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karthikvaidynathan
February 1, 2015
A short review I wrote without watching the film purely based on the review from this site. I would like feedback if possible.
Of all the people who I felt may have had the artistic sensibility to make a genuine and thought provoking movie about the career path and destiny of 2 musical geniuses of Indian film industry SJ Surya wouldn’t even make the list. And yet here he is with his latest இசை(Isai – Music) that charts a fictional path against the backdrop of real life incidents surrounding the career paths of Ilayaraja and AR Rahman.
It is possible that the subject is too contemporary(what with both protagonists still alive and creating) for someone(not SJ Surya) to make a meaningful movie on this subject that has it all – a rags to riches story , a story of enormous success fueled by sheer genius followed by a sudden eclipse commercially by another genius.
This is the stuff a good filmmaker could gorge on like someone who sees home cooked Indian food after being on a business trip to a Scandinavian country for a few months. During Winter.
Mani Ratnam might have been a good candidate for bringing such a movie to life before his sudden drop in creativity in recent times. But I would guess since he has been involved with both geniuses it may not be easy to take an unbiased stance.
A title of his earlier film may suit the subject well for who ever decides to make such a film
IR (uv) AR.
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Rahini David
February 2, 2015
1) Well, even if he chose to chart the careers of IR and ARR, he still could have made a few changes to make it look sufficiently like fiction. It could have been something other than music, like art direction, camera work or even fashion designing. The passion of creation and disappointment of somebody else’s success happens in all fields. He is just making it too close to real people for the sensation-quotient of it all. Is he trying to tell a story or just trying to annoy people for the heck of it?
2) I guess we already discussed movies like this in the first Broad Reflections post. I just standby what I told there.
3) This movie is basically a “if Mani can make Iruvar, then so can I” with absolutely no consideration as to what made Iruvar what it is. I am guessing that people make the same mistake in making their heroine as audacious as Nirosha and hoping that it has the same effect as AgniN. If only people knew that imitation and counterfeiting not the same thing.
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Pranesh
February 3, 2015
I really didn’t understand the need to do this IR-ARR hinting. Whatever the man’s faults might be, I’m sure Ilaiyaraaja doesn’t do murder and the such.
But what I REALLY didn’t understand was a couple of parents in the theater with me. They got their 5-6 year old kids to the movie, knowing it was from SJ Suryah. Then they spent a good chunk of it closing the kids’ eyes.
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brangan
February 3, 2015
Santosh Kumar T K: Well I operate on the principle that what the maker says/claims is less important than what he has ended up making — in the sense that if the maker says the movie is about X and I see the movie as being about Y, then to me the movie is about Y.
So in the case of “Iruvar,” I see it very much as the story of MGR and Karunanidhi. In this particular case, the disclaimer — in my eyes — is purely a bit of legalese.
a) realistic in thought and realistic in execution
eg. “Nayakan” (based on Varadaraja Mudaliar) and “Guru” (based on Ambani); the filmmaking, though stylish, is fairly rooted and “real”.
b) realistic in thought but not realistic in execution
“Hawaizaada” (based on Shivkar Talpade); the filmmaking is deliberately “unreal,” set in a world of fantasy.
c) not realistic in thought but realistic in execution
many farces (“Rettaivaal Kuruvi”, “MMKR”) come under this category; the situations are obviously contrived, but the execution is in a realistic style.
d) neither
the average Bhansali or Shantaram movie.
Ram Murali: I’m guessing that it would have been too obvious if they’d picked a Raja tune. Still, I agree — of all people, why L-P, who were hardly a presence in Tamil cinema? Or was the song a hint at Kovaithambi or something?
BTW, why do you call this a meta detail? This layer in the film is just a hint, a wink. The only meta layer as far as I could see was Surya’s comment on his own career.
Anything meta has to be a bit self-referential (which the Raja-ARR angle isn’t) and also with a bit of abstraction between the pointer and the pointed at. That’s why I say the Raja-ARR track isn’t really meta — it’s just a (very broad) wink.
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Ram Murali
February 3, 2015
Rangan, thanks for the clarification. It was after reading your reviews of Jigarthanda and KTVI that I thought that I understood what would constitute “meta.” Looks like I misinterpreted it…
For instance, you wrote this line in your review of KTVI:
“With Jigarthanda and Kathai Thiraikathai, we seem to be in the midst of a little “meta” festival, with filmmakers outside as well as inside these films offering a running commentary on the state of the industry.”
–> So, I thought that Isai was similar in that it felt like a commentary on twisted geniuses and the more humble ones…but your distinction between meta and a wink makes sense. Thx.
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Vijayakumar
February 4, 2015
Spoilers ahead!
“By the end, I was chuckling.”
Man I was laughing out loud and clapping! I am a little late to catch this movie I guess, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were a lot of lame scenes yes, but there were too many good, well-written and well-staged drama scenes that make up for them. And I thought the climax was a stroke of genius. The way he justifies all the logical flaws in one line! This guy knows what he is writing. He seems to have closed all the loopholes with that one twist.
The next para may be offensive to some, the idea is however not to offend anyone but just to give an opinion.
Regarding the navel scenes, the scenes where he explains how he has to transfer the heart etc, I did find them very silly. You very nicely put it – “You don’t have to look any further if you wondered what it’d be like if a horny, hyper-imaginative teenage boy wrote a Penthouse letter.”
But again that is how SJ Suryah knows love. He is someone who is like the complete opposite of someone like Gautham Menon who even tells in interviews that he will not show the navel of a girl because he thinks it is indecent. I am sure however SJ Suryah thinks this is perfectly decent, that the camera can just focus on heroine’s navel. His idea of lust is the feeling that arises when the hero sees or touches the navel or hip of a girl and he does not mind if the camera lingers a little too long there. To him, there is no love without lust. And he does not want to be subtle about it or realistic about it. He seems to be yearning to tell Tamil audience that kissing a guy or a girl who you love is okay, that it is natural and more importantly that it is something which can be showed on-screen. That it is not something to cringe about. Even though he executes it in a way that can make some people squirm, I can understand where he is coming from. If he was born say somewhere in Europe, his movies would sure contain long stretches of nudity focusing on every part of the body teaching us how to see art in human anatomy. Just because he is born in Tamil Nadu, he seems to be working within the limitations that this culture offers him, or of the traditional dress “saree” offers him. So he has to work with navel, hips and cleavages. In this movie, there are glimpses of his penchant for the human body. In one of the first scenes, he goes out in a car trying to derive music from what he sees on the road. The camera shows for a second an ass of a naked kid. You would think that would be the first and the last of it. But no. He shows at least two more times even closer and even longer shots of the buttocks of the kid. We think he will stop there. But no he has to show the front of the kid and how the hero sees music and art in dick-swinging. No one sees it like this here, but he seems to find art in it and he wants to force us to find art in it. And that is definitely something that makes him unique. I saw the entire first half of the movie as an auteur’s (if that term can be used to describe him) crying out loud to Tamil audience and Censor board and even people in the industry that it is okay to have some lust in a movie, to show some body parts in a movie, to show the kinky sides of people on the big screen.
And these are the reasons why I think there is a lot of difference between a zoom-in on the navel in a SJ Suryah movie compared to one in an item number of a commercial movie. In the latter, they do it for money, to sell more tickets and for various other reasons while SJ Suryah seems to be indulging in what he thinks as art. This movie is honest film-making in my opinion.
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Jayshankar
February 8, 2015
Hello Mr.Br
Phew. Without that disclaimer, Surya would have been toast.
— I read real naughtiness in your above line. I was actually laughing when I read that bit and got a funny stare from people around me.
“You don’t have to look any further if you wondered what it’d be like if a horny, hyper-imaginative teenage boy wrote a Penthouse letter.”
— Yes. SJ Surya as usual but…is it just him…??
I happened to see one particular song from a famous movie by a famous ‘village’ subject specialist director.
The poor heroine is made to get drenched in waterfalls with ‘only’ a very thin white saree to boot.(like Ram teri ganga..) Here the hero ‘collects’ the water flowing through the …
Oh..I cant even write more, lest it be deemed porn.
That particular scene may not have been written about by reviewers / film critics. Even if it was, the number of readers would not have been like what we have now. That one song scene or anything played out on a movie screen first runs in the mind of the director.
It brings in a thought that the director brings to screen the acts which he wants to do, but cannot. He had the ways and means to do what he cannot using the puppets he can control.
So SJS perhaps is not add odd man out…
There is lust in the mind, some are able to show it and some dont. There is violence in the mind, some are able to show it and some dont.
I read somewhere, that you have a violent man inside you, if you even ‘think’ of killing someone. I guess the same applies in many contexts.
Jay
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