Spoilers ahead…
Sometimes, five minutes is all it takes to assure you that you’re in the hands of a genuine filmmaker. Anucharan, who makes his directorial debut with Kirumi, is one. In those five minutes he establishes everything – tone, texture (you can feel the milieu like fabric), and the fact that this is an anti hero film. Not an antihero film – heaven knows we get enough of those – but an anti ‘hero film,’ a film that goes against the grain of the traditional heroics of Tamil cinema. For a change, there’s no hero – only a protagonist (Kathir, played by Kathir). And there’s none of the hero’s usual accoutrements. No falling-in-love business, for one – Kathir is already married. (Reshmi Menon plays the wife, Anitha.) When was the last time a story about a young man resisted the temptation to showcase a series of romantic scenes (and duets)?
The joke about Kathir – someone so microscopically insignificant, he could be the kirumi of the title – is that he’s not content to be a protagonist. He wants to be a hero. The songs we hear in the bar he frequents are hilariously portentous. Manidhan enbavan dheivamaagalaam… Adho andha paravai pola vaazha vendum… Man can become God… I want to soar like that bird… These could be Kathir’s anthems. The film is about Kathir’s attempts to become a big shot. With the help of his neighbour Prabhakar (Charlie), who’s an informer for the police, Kathir insinuates himself into the good graces of a cop named Soundarapandian (David). At first, he’s just doing things like locking the wheels of a car while the owner chats away obliviously on his phone. Then he moves on to bigger things. He begins to soar. One night, Soundarapandian offers him a drink. A slow smile lights up Kathir’s face.
Part of the power of Kirumi lies in its unerring eye for casting – not a single actor feels wrong. Kathir is Kathir. You see him, and you see the number of young men searching for a short cut to reach the stars in their eyes. David tweaks the typical tough-guy cop we see in our films – he adds dashes of humanism. (The scene where Soundarapandian insists on attending the birthday party of Kathir’s young daughter is a beauty.) As a cop who’s Soundarapandian’s rival, Marimuthu is dependably excellent – I don’t think he’s ever given a bad performance. Just watch him in the scene where he sits across Soundarapandian, his back to us, barely glancing at Kathir who walks in. To him, Kathir is a germ-like speck, so not worth turning around for. And Charlie is supremely moving as an older brother/father figure rolled into one. It’s an out-of-the-box dramatic turn. Other directors, hopefully, are taking note.
The other reason the film works so well is its feel – the low-key nature of the story fused with the low-key swagger of the telling. There’s attitude from start to finish – in K’s groovy score, in Arul Vincent’s underworld-hued cinematography, and especially in Anucharan’s editing. Kirumi moves like a dream. Recall our typical action sequences – those turgid affairs where one punch sends someone sailing through space – and look at the one here, with Kathir being chased through alleyways… then just as you think he’s safe… bam!… there’s more. But despite these thrills, Kirumi is really a character study. It’s not just about Kathir trying to outrun the goons after his life. (If you get too close to cops, you’re bound to tick off a few criminals.) It’s also about Kathir eyeing the pretty girl beckoning to him from a balcony. It’s also about Kathir’s affection for Prabhakar’s wife (a very effective Tamilselvi). You find these shades in other films too, but there’s something about the tossed-off, no-fuss nature of these relationships. Kathir’s world isn’t put together before our eyes. It’s as if it existed before we walked into the theatre, so there’s no need to hype it up with character introduction scenes in quotation marks.
Nothing, in fact, is hyped up. When two enemies make up, they don’t throw back their heads and laugh and clink glasses. When a cop waits for a thorn in his flesh to die, he just… waits. In silence. He doesn’t burst into you-deserve-this-you-scum dialogue. The biggest surprise of the film isn’t just that a fairly new team (even co-writer Manikandan, fresh off Kaaka Muttai’s success, isn’t really that old) has made something so organically sound, so one-of-a-piece, so free of false notes – but that underneath it all, it’s really a message movie about minding your own business. Or as the song Vaal veesum vaazhkai puts it, Un poakkil ponaal oor seendaathey. And even here, Anucharan knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t whip out a megaphone. He understands that it’s not important that we get the message, only that Kathir does.
KEY:
- Kirumi = germ
- Kaaka Muttai = see here
- Un poakkil ponaal oor seendaathey = mind your own business
An edited version of this piece can be found here. Copyright ©2015 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Rahul
September 25, 2015
FYI to whoever is in Toronto, its playing here on November 7 with subtitles.
LikeLike
rajandr
September 25, 2015
The lyric goes like வாள் வீசும் வாழ்க்கை. நான் வான். In essence captures the whole message of movie in a sentence this song.
LikeLiked by 3 people
brangan
September 26, 2015
rajandr: Of course (slaps head)… Now that makes more sense 🙂
Changed it, thanks.
LikeLike
Siva
September 26, 2015
I always wait till you post your reviews before I make a decision to watch a movie. You went one step beyond, you brought the movie live through this review and now I if I watch the movie it will be like second time👍.
LikeLike
Hari E
September 29, 2015
Rangan – I watched the movie yesterday. Your review was spot on. I would venture to say the movie was much more enjoyable to watch after reading your review, which kind of prepares you to see the movie in the right perspective. I really enjoyed the tone down nature of the movie, as you mentioned. I did not enjoy the songs placement, which kind of dragged the movie down and also ending was too swift and contrived. I was waiting for your review on Maya, then realized you have a rule not to watch horror movies. Are you going to break that rule for Maya?
LikeLiked by 1 person
brangan
September 29, 2015
Hari E: Heh. It’s not a rule, as such. But the jump-out-of-your-seat mode of horror (as opposed to the Pisaasu mode) is something I prefer to stay away from. It doesn’t do much for me, and I don’t know that it’s fair to review a film knowing that you’re resenting its basic tropes 🙂
Also, about: I would venture to say the movie was much more enjoyable to watch after reading your review, which kind of prepares you to see the movie in the right perspective.
Thank you.
LikeLike
Iswarya
September 29, 2015
Something very “unfair” about this new template that I just noticed: The picture embedded in every post appears as a background to the links of “Previous” and “Next” posts. And together they make up an uneasy collage as on this page, with the demure-looking newly-wed in ‘Kirumi’ having her head attached to a calendar hottie’s torso!
LikeLike
Iswarya
September 29, 2015
Sorry.. I meant, “Kuttram Kadithal” not ‘Kirumi’!
LikeLike
tonks
September 29, 2015
In this template, I cannot get to the near periphery of the like button, without it getting clicked by mistake. It is impossible for me, on my phone, to see who has liked a comment, without that act unintentionally registering as a like of mine. Does anyone else have this problem?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Priyangu
September 29, 2015
@Siva, totally agree! After reading this review I felt BR must have gone to the movie hall with a high-end microscope, movie name also being ‘kirumi’ incidentally, and thought he just walked into the adjacent hall with the same instrument to watch ‘kuttram kadithal’ as well. Even the makers of those movies might be overwhelmed by such detailed observations!
LikeLike
Sutheesh Kumar
September 30, 2015
Hi BR, i have a feeling that you might like Maya, please give it a try.
LikeLike
Karthik
October 2, 2015
Your reviews are very good and I read them before and after watching every movie. such detailed observation has nowadays made me a regular at Tamil cinema (Not the ones which are star studded). Pity that films like these don’t get adequate response in smaller towns. Appreciable about this film is that the cops are not the do good IPS officers our lot is accustomed, subaltern show both their sides. The bad guys when plundered dont go on an offensive they solicit as their objective is money because when someone cheats and gets slapped the master says no hitting just get out. No enemies to be made. Protagonist can’t outsmart anyone as he is unsure of himself. The characters are realistic and particularly there is no lecturing on everything under the sun. Times are changing.
LikeLike
venkatesh
October 4, 2015
what an absolutely gorgeous and assured film…. kudos
LikeLike
bart
October 4, 2015
A well made film. Lack of stars, heroism and more importantly, “no bad guys finish last” ending. Can’t say why this dint succeed. A whole new protagonist, grey characters all around, wonderful music, editing and picturisation (songs though good were unnecessary to the narrative) – another “Madras” of this year! Only a “Karthi” was missing.. (Kathir was just a great “Kathir” though)
LikeLike
tonks
October 10, 2015
When a cop waits for a thorn in his flesh to die, he just… waits.
The way he grinds the cigarette with his boot in this scene, it was symbolic of how you’d obliterate an insignificant germ.
Wouldn’t have watched the movie but for this review and the review added to the viewing experience.
Things are so cozy in married life when your mother -in- law is your own sister 🙂
LikeLike
tonks
October 10, 2015
It was refreshing to see a Tamil movie with no misogyny and realistic characters and situations.
LikeLike
sridharvisu76
October 16, 2015
Thanks for the wonderful review. I read first line and then watched the movie and read the rest of your review.
Found it to be an awesome movie. Acting is stellar in how it is underplayed as close as possible to reality.
LikeLike
Ragenikanth
November 23, 2015
Just watched the movie sincere and realistically made
LikeLike