Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/enai-noki-paayum-thota-gautham-vasudev-menon-dhanush-voiceover-debate-baradwaj-rangan/
Every time someone tries something new, audiences are amused. Take Mani Ratnam’s dialogues. People used to laugh: “Mani Ratnam padam hero maadhiri pesaadhe.” (As in, don’t speak in those clipped tones.)
Spoilers ahead…
For the past couple of days, I’ve been getting memes based on Enai Noki Paayum Thota (ENPT). Some of them are very funny — I’ve always maintained, at least when it comes to comedy, that the people who make these memes are brighter than most of our screenwriters. I also agree that there is nothing we can do about these exaggerated reactions. A filmmaker puts out his or her work. And the audience responds. Some of these responses are like mini-reviews on Facebook. These come in a (mostly) respectful tone, even if the reviewer did not like the film. But on Twitter, anything goes. You can control neither the content nor the tone of the response.
So I get this — and this piece is not about whether we are being “fair” to a filmmaker when we mercilessly begin to troll a certain aspect of his/her work. That is the way the world is, and you can’t turn it back to a more “civilised” time. Now, I have to take a “civilised” tone because reviewing is my job, and I have to be “professional” about it. (Well, unless the film is terrible and really gets under my skin, but more about that later.) The average viewer has no such restrictions. They can be as cruel as they want — it’s all in the spirit of fun. Every filmmaker knows this: Don’t enter the kitchen if you can’t stand the heat.
Continued at the link above.
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Ajay Kumar B
December 2, 2019
I agree with everything mentioned in this piece. But I still don’t think the voiceovers worked for me completely. I’ll tell why. When we are introduced to the character and when he tells us about the astrologer and stuff, it works. But when Raghu starts telling us about things that we can easily guess and actually put together ourselves, it gets really frustrating. Yes, I understand that the voiceovers are used to tell us how he actually feels. Its an experiment and I respect GVM for that. But when you have an actor like Dhanush who does so much in just one scene with just his acting, I really don’t feel you need so many voiceovers. Best example is the scene in the hospital after the doctor tells Raghu that Thiru has passed away. The camera lingers on Dhanush for more that 30 seconds or something. I completely bought him. I understood his pain and sorrow. So after that powerful scene, there’s this voiceover that says how he feels and it’s like saying the same thing twice. The voiceovers are like the scenes in thriller movies that show us one shot from the beginning of the movie in the climax to connect everything. Its not lazy because GVM did it on purpose. But I don’t think it worked for me.
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Vidya Ramesh
December 2, 2019
I watched the movie today in Bangalore with a lot of preconceived notions about the voice over. It really didn’t bother me one bit.. I don’t know if it added too much though. I really loved the movie can’t understand why people were so mad about the voice overs. Atleast in the theatre today I didn’t hear anyone trolling or talking over it. That is a uniquely chennai movie going public ka behavior i guess.
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R Gowtham
December 2, 2019
“We don’t troll Krsadhasd Kidajhwdki for Three Colours: Blue, do we…?”
No, we don’t.
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Vidya Ramesh
December 2, 2019
My only issue with the movie was that it the romance and the action are totally so tonally different that they don’t gel too well. The romance is very good especially the first kiss in their trailer. The songs are fantastic but I felt that the movie takes off only in the second half. The bit where they cut away from the knife on her neck to him kissing it.. Tonally jarring. Reminded me of the edits in the haunting of hill House which is a horror show. It doesn’t work very well here at certain places.
It works in kakha kaakha because he is a cop and his girl is part of the action .That movie too begins with the hero under water and thinking about his lover. Here there is a brother in whom we are not completely invested in and are suddenly asked to care about. Would have loved some better writing on the brother story line. I don’t get the second half was not good critique.. That was the part I liked the most. Also don’t understand the voice over was used too much thingy.
PS: iam glad that the discussion is about form rather than “oh my god dhanush is kissing his heroine” Tamil kalacharam is going in a ship type nonsense.
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Vidya Ramesh
December 2, 2019
The action bits are generic but I didn’t mind them. You don’t read a murder mystery thinking the butler didn’t do it. Of course the butler did it but how did he do it is why you read the book for. If the how is gripping enough I will buy it. I bought the bullet hitting him and him not dying. I bought the two guns blazing over the bridge bit at the end.
GVM is always worth watching BR. Always.
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vijay
December 3, 2019
On a lighter note, where voiceovers would have really helped was with say Ravikrishna in 7G Rainbow colony. With his brand of acting you never know what the idiot is thinking in any scene in which he was silent. Talk about being emotively-challenged
As far as Mani ratnam’s clipped dialogue is concerned he wasn’t pushing the envelope or anything like that. He did that in not a single film, but in film after film, and that was because of his own limitations. He admitted later that he used to think in English and then translate. And that sometimes showed. Later on when Suhasini and Sujatha started chipping in, it went away slowly. With GVM his inspirations from pulp and Hollywood actioners is obvious. Sometimes he literally borrows/translates Hollywood lines. The moment you heard “a six man covert op unit” in the trailer of a tamil film like dhruvanatchathiram you knew who the director was 🙂
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meera
December 3, 2019
BR… I’ll go back to my example of UNNAL MUDIYUM THAMBI… the voiceovers were necessary because it shows the transformation this man goes through… it’s not a mere dislike of his father’s ideologies or the tight boundaries of his family’s legendary musical acumen but also his awakening to the world around him… the voiceovers worked wonderfully .. it conveyed the itch and the restless to do be socially responsible and this protagonists need to go that little bit further… this is a tough to bring about “visually” or through dialogues…
but in GVMs cinema.. let’s take one of the hero falling for the heroine moment… “this” can be and has been aesthetically presented.. having a voiceover here just reiterates an already made point or glosses over the rough edges.. doesn’t set about to achieve anything new. I like GVMs urban suave touch but am still not convinced he is a “good” director. I rem cringing in YA when Anusikha character kept reiterating how good looking satyadev was or the million voiceovers by Jeeva in NEP.. it did not work for me at all.
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Vidya Ramesh
December 3, 2019
I wrote three longish comments here.. They just vanished over night! 😦 I loved the movie BR where can a send an ask BR question?
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Nathan
December 3, 2019
Whoa! Kieslowski’s Blue in defense of GVM’s voiceovers? Talk about bringing a bazooka to a boxing bout!!
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Sutheesh Kumar
December 5, 2019
Oh! What a hue and cry about this voice over business. It is said that cinema is show not tell, likewise a picture is meant to be a thousand words. Completely agree with it.
But, it’s like in the comics or a graphic novel with the blurbs, it’s just an augmentation technique(remember Amelie).
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Varsha
December 5, 2019
I had a lot of mixed feelings while watching ENPT. The initial romance portions were enjoyable, up until Lekha is taken away by her mentor. I knew the romance wouldn’t occupy much screen space after that and I prepared myself for the inevitable action sequences. Also, I had no problem with the voice-overs till then. In fact, I enjoyed it thoroughly as, in addition to the humour, it gave me insight into Raghu’s thought process and defined his character arc well. Even when the action started, I was sort of invested in the proceedings as there were interesting developments now and then in the plot. As in Asuran, I was even able to buy into Dhanush’s ability to bash up goons because at least it’s consistent with his character right from the start. Even in the romantic first half, he is shown bashing goons with ease. And in the voice-over in the elevator, he gives a reason(!) why it looks easy when he does it, which simply translates to “I am a superhero!” The only place where consistency takes a hit is when he is also shown to handle guns with ease! But, as has been mentioned by others and BR in the AskBR section, the characterisation of the villains, especially Lekha’s mentor, and that of Thiru(Sasikumar) fell flat! Even the voice-overs started to become more of a burden, even though it kept me invested in Raghu. So, I was in a flip-flop mode all through the second half until the climax, which was such a dampener that I hated the film right then!
Thinking about it all later, I felt, maybe, the whole movie makes better sense, though still problematic, if we see it completely as a narrative of Raghu, sort of similar to Varanam Aayiram, though that was an autobiography about a family. Here, right from the start, we see everything either from Raghu’s point of view or at least in his presence. We see what he sees. We hear what he hears. If we get to know of the backstory of a character, it’s because he hears it from someone. We get to know only his innermost thoughts through the voice-overs. It’s almost as if Raghu is narrating the events to us, his friends. Or, better still, you have to “become” Raghu to truly process this film. This is why we get to know very little about Thiru and the villains in the second half. Raghu has told us all that he knows about Thiru, right from the start. But he does not quite know the Thiru of Mumbai. Same is the case with Lekha’s mentor. We get to know that he is a part of the arms deal only towards the climax simply because that is when Raghu knows it! And the other villains are complete strangers to Raghu, and hence, us!
So, one could perhaps defend the generic second half by saying it is Raghu’s point of view. But, sadly, Raghu’s version of the story is the least interesting one! I found one particular point in the screenplay/direction where even a non-linear narration is not as effective as it should have been. In the second half, we are first shown Raghu being shot at point blank range. Then we are shown the past events leading to this. It’s, of course, a no-brainer to guess whether he survives the shot! But the thrill is in knowing how he survives. The non-linear narration sustains our interest in this for some time, but the moment Raghu finds out the locker key is not meant for opening the locker, I sort of suspected a link between the key and the gunshot. My suspicion was confirmed when Raghu, still some time from getting shot, reacquires the key and puts it in his pocket. It would have been even more effective as a thriller if this scene was shown after Raghu survives the gunshot. The plot of ENPT, as it is, would work better as a video game, where the audience is also the key player in the story, than as a film where we are mere spectators. One way for it to work as a film for a general audience would probably be to ensure that every other character interacts with Raghu even deeper, since Raghu is our window to this film’s universe.
Coming to the debate over the voice-overs, personally, I don’t think one needs to overtly worry about the trolling.Though, as a person looking in the news for different film content every week, I do share BR’s concern about experiments on form being discouraged, IMO, genuine filmmakers like GVM getting trolled is also a form of praise for their work in general. GVM being trolled much for what the majority of the audience perceives as a bad film by him(I don’t think people would have trolled his voice-overs to this extent if his film had worked content-wise) is only a sign of how high a pedestal the general audience have placed him on as a filmmaker! As the tamizh saying goes, “Pazhutha marathula thaan kalladi padum!”(Only trees bearing ripe fruits get stoned!). The real pain, for any filmmaker interested in his/her work, would be if everyone started ignoring their films. Also, upcoming directors, who are yet to make a name for themselves in the field, need not lose sleep over these kind of trolls. If an AD says “Venaam sir, remember what happened with Gautham Menon!” they may as well reply “I am no Gautam Menon or Mani Ratnam yet!”. Sure, it takes time for everyone to get accustomed to experiments on form and it would indeed be nice if everyone showed some decency and patience, but with today’s social media, that seems to be a pipe dream even with some people who claim they love cinema! Somehow, I don’t see experiments on form without good content surviving in today’s climate. Instead, as long as these auteurs manage to give good content now and then even in an experimental format, their experiments will survive and be an inspiration to the next generation.
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bart
January 6, 2020
Caught this movie late on Amazon. Acham Yenbadhu Madamaiyadannu paatha Enai Noki Paanjuriche Thottaa..
Horrible use of voice overs – stating the obvious and banal stuff in quite a few places (~60% over done), the second half nonsense (Sasikumar character’s undercover operation mostly goes unexplained – who supports/ commissions or the random hideouts or gym locker which could’ve been long broken by the corrupt police, the same first half dummy villain becoming a super duper don (who can potentially alaekka buy / force 1000 better Lekhas instead of going through hell with this one), script-convenience overloaded and so on. The romance portion of first half works and Dhanush gives more life to the script than whatever it had. Never seen such a dummified Vela Ramamurthy sofar – that Sherwani scene at the end welcoming his son (as though it was some generic relative) was unintended ROTFL..GVM could’ve remade Priya instead.. Mudiyala Vitrunga Gautham – MVG (for whoever said GVM has returned!)..
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