(by Adhithya K R)
I’m not going to talk about the voice-overs in ENPT. There’s already been enough of that. Amidst all the chatter about whether there was too much mind-voice, there’s an aspect of the movie which seems to have gone unnoticed. It resonates with an epic that inspired much of Indian storytelling – The Ramayana. By analogy alone, there’s a lot that connects ENPT to the Ramayana. A brother who leaves the family as if in exile, a heroine kidnapped by a villainous man who carts her away to a distant city but doesn’t manhandle her and a hero named “Raghu” who sets out to rescue her. But analogies apart there’s a common theme to both stories: Separation.
Separation is an idea that GVM deals with in many of his movies. Sometimes it’s death, sometimes it’s distance, but there’s an undercurrent of longing for a person or times long gone and often this is what motivates the characters to take action. A guy goes in search of his girl (once, twice, thrice, …) or thinks about the times he used to spend with his dad, makes a film about the girl who left him or laments the loss of somebody whom he put in danger’s way. It’s this time spent away from someone else that puts a spotlight on what they mean to the character, an emphasis by absence. It leaves a vacuum that desperately needs to be filled – with people or with purpose.
So where does the Ramayana fit in here? Unlike the Mahabharata, where all the leads stick together for the most part, the Ramayana is a saga of separations. Imagine a royal prince far away from society, miles away from his brethren, separated from his wife by an expanse of water, braving every element to surpass the odds. It’s not just the physical separation though. The mental isolation that follows after the return to the kingdom and the resulting broken family conclude this tragic tale. It’s a beautiful example of the story circle where the protagonist ends up where he started, changing profoundly in the process. The journey that Ram undertakes parallels that of Raghu.
ENPT more than any other Gautham Menon movie seemed to focus on separation. The opening act of the movie is a silhouetted tale of a brother who leaves home after being subjected to a tragedy himself. It’s an event that shakes Raghu as he develops an aloof demeanour. His thoughts don’t match his words, his gestures are hesitant and he smiles only half-way. You think he’s beginning to open up when his girl leaves him, and he begins to drift further. Leaving a palatial house, he goes to the “stinking city” of Mumbai, trading a life of comfort for one of danger and uncertainty. And then… the bullet is shot at him. This is the point at which he is on the verge of the ultimate separation: From himself.
This changes him. He begins to analyse his emotions at every juncture. There’s no panic when he sees Lekha with a knife on her neck, only a train of thought. In the elevator, he sees a knife enter his body and he is still able to view it as if it is happening to somebody else. His mental monologue is not “Ayyo!” at this point, it’s “I knew there would be pain but not like this. Have to make sure the knife doesn’t go any deeper.”
The entire voice-over and the account of events we hear is because of this event that changes how the hero looks at things. Maybe this awakening that a brush with death brings about is what Gautham Menon was going for all along. Maybe the uncensored exclamations of “Beast mode” and “Auto-pilot mode” were precisely that, a meta-aware state that’s looking at you from above and noticing that you are functioning differently?
Raghu comes home as a man changed by separation. He has scars and he has things to be happy about. He’s gone full circle from protected to self-aware after being threatened to lose everything he holds dear, including his life. The concluding line “Ini thotta avangala nokki paayum” were the words of a man who can look death in the eye and joke about it.
Have I read too much into a simple story though? Maybe. I’ll need to distance myself and take a look.
Baradwaj Rangan 
brangan
December 5, 2019
Effing brilliant. A great read. Thanks for this Adhithya.
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Savitha R
December 5, 2019
Wonderful, totally different perspective , from this angle , the “voice over” seems to be a justified way of portraying the character.👌👍
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Gautham
December 6, 2019
Except the Ramayana thought , every other word and theory put forth here by Adhithya is exactly as I intended it to be. It did come up as a theory much later when we were editing the film but I didn’t write it thinking of the Ramayana.
Separation was the focus here. I went into sixty feet of water once and I’m not a swimmer and my whole life flashed before my eyes and there was this voice in my head. ‘The awakening with the brush of death’ is exactly it.. And Dhanush’s aloof demeanour, half way smiles, hesitant gestures was exactly how it was written in the script and he of course gave us exactly that and was a result of what happened at raghu’s home with his brother earlier. Everybody at home is subdued because of that one event that happened. Raghu’s mind doesn’t scream ‘ ayyo’ but laments ‘ vali irukkum’nu theriyum, kaththi irukkum athu yerangum’nu theriyale ‘ .. That’s also not actually describing the scene which is there visually like how some people are saying but it’s more a parallel thought. It’s not describing the exact moment. I’m not saying ‘ Avan yenna kaththi aale kuthunaan’.. That was the idea behind the voice overs in the film but somewhere that didn’t get translated and reach the discerning audience or some of them or maybe even most of them.
We had a sequence where he’s trussed up and thrown into the sea too and comes out alive but I didn’t retain it in the final length of the film because of some average looking visual effects. It was essentially meant to be a story of a guy and his many brushes with death and he’s alive like a cat with nine lives. And in the end he’s able to look death in the eye and joke about it. The first time he says he didn’t even get a couple of seconds to thank god or revel in the moment. I really was excited at the idea of these lines. Maybe I pushed it a bit more than necessary with the voice overs but somewhere I knew that Dhanush came into the film only because of the voice overs in the script and that somewhere led me to be indulgent. No regrets however. It’s creative work made on a whim and an impulse and with 75% gut in it and I’m happy I was able to pull of a new Dhanush and an engaging back and forth screenplay to a large extent. Somewhere the last act of the second half was plan B for reasons I’ll never mention here and it’s just me that has to live with that.
I really liked this piece because it read my mind, again to a large extent and got the film like it was meant to be gotten. I just wish some people gave this film a chance and then read the scathing reviews and not the other way around. Most of the reviews have also been a personal attack and it’s been amusing. I’ve read some of the critics reviews and like my mentor suggested, I’ve taken the feedback and will remember and work all that into my next few creations. But mostly the writing will be what works for me and what as an audience I would like to see and then put it out there and wait for everybody else to experience what I did and hope it will be the same. Always!
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AdhithyaKR
December 7, 2019
Thrilled to read this, when I realised who was writing it!
This piece was partly an angry protest against all the people in the theatre who were sitting behind me and making snide comments about every line of voice-over. The techniques used in the film really worked for me and I wished people gave it a chance to get under their skin, rather than just seeing it on the surface. The psychology of the characters and the way it was explored was brilliant.
I also felt maybe the movie works better if you’re an introvert with a lot of internal activity, as you directly relate to Raghu that way. Watching the movie alone could also have a greater impact. Like you’d mentioned once, every screening of the movie has a vibe associated with it and if the audience enters the theatre biased by the reviews, this magic might vanish after a point. I wish the audience gave it a chance without being biased by reviews as well, honestly exploring it themselves.
Your reply gave me as much insight as an interview at some points and it’s a good feeling to know that I got a peek into the mind of one of my favourite directors.
Thank you!
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archana
December 7, 2019
Beautifully written! It’s everything I couldn’t articulate to people who claimed to not like the movie. I wish I’d read this piece earlier, but nevertheless, it’s definitely going to help me in my impassioned discussions about the movie going forward!
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Sutheesh Kumar
December 7, 2019
Hi Adhithya,
That is a totally amazing take on ENPT and you beat MANK to it, who is a master at drawing parallels with Masala and Mythology.
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AdhithyaKR
December 8, 2019
Thank you… Who’s MANK though?
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brangan
December 9, 2019
OMG.
This is like going to Ayodhya and asking who Ram is.
This is like going to Bethlehem and asking who Jesus is.
This is like going to Mecca and asking who Mohammad is.
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MANK
December 9, 2019
hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Mein gott. i fell down laughing 🙂
Btw is Adhithya Gradwolf?
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AdhithyaKR
December 9, 2019
Forgive me for I have sinned. Went through the archives and had a revelation moment like the police officer from Basha. 😅
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AdhithyaKR
December 9, 2019
Nope, I am not he
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Varsha
December 10, 2019
The following is supposed to be a funny take on what I saw as a very average movie, written in the style of AdithyaKR’s article on ENPT. It is definitely not meant to offend anyone, be it those who may have liked Iruttu or, of course, GVM fans and particularly AdithyaKR. I had fun writing it, but I wouldn’t mind even if no one finds it funny. But please don’t get hurt. That is not my intent.
Spoilers ahead…
Mahabharata in modern times: VZ Dhurai and Revenge
I am not going to talk about the filmmaking in Iruttu. There has already been a lot of that(though not in this blog). Amidst all the chatter about whether the whole film was amateurish, there is an aspect of the movie that seems to have gone unnoticed. It resonates with an epic that is so vast that the epic itself claims, “What is found here may be found elsewhere. What is not found here will not be found elsewhere”. Needless to say, by this claim alone, one can find analogies to the epic in Iruttu. But analogies apart, there is a common theme to both stories: Revenge.
Revenge is an idea that VZ Dhurai has dealt with in a couple of his previous films. Sometimes it’s a broken heart, sometimes it’s the loss of a loved one, but there is an undercurrent of revenge in these movies and this is what motivates the characters to take action. A guy, with the help of a meticulous friend, imagines ways of killing his ex-girlfriend without a shred of evidence, or a guy commits execution-style murders to prevent a social evil that was also responsible for the loss of his love. It’s this time spent away from someone else that motivates the character towards revenge. It leaves a vacuum that desperately needs to be filled – with death, even sometimes an imagined one.
So, where does the Mahabharata fit in here? Unlike the Ramayana, which is a saga of separations, the Mahabharata is a tale where people simply can’t stand each other(at least one-way)! Be it the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Drona and Drupada, Karna and Arjuna, Krishna and Shishupala, Draupadi and Dushasana, Dhirtharashtra and Pandu along with his offspring, the revenge and counter-revenge is pretty strong. But the strongest connection with Iruttu is the fight over land/power.
Iruttu, more than any other VZ Dhurai movie, seemed to focus on revenge. The opening act of the movie consists of a series of bizarre killings culminating in an investigating police officer seemingly self-immolating himself out of an inability to solve the case. Enter Chezhiyan, the replacement officer, who, from the start, seems to be in no hurry to solve the case. He is a sincere police officer, so the reason for his behaviour could be that his colleague’s death has shaken him as he takes a vengeful attitude towards the locals, including the other policemen in the town who, he feels, have been careless in solving the case. Also, right after his arrival, his family is harassed by certain unexplained events, and that only reinforces his anger. But he can’t show it outright, so his words don’t match his actions. He speaks as though he is interested in solving the case to avail promotion. But, when he gets a call from the police station asking him to come urgently, he dallies and only reluctantly goes. Even after he reaches the station, he does not share the other police officers’ concern that something weird is happening. Inwardly, he seems to enjoy their predicament, as is evident from the scene where he chooses that moment, of all time, to go to the loo, leaving the hapless police alone.
The Muslim priest in the town senses this attitude of Chezhiyan and that is why he does not come forth to the police station to tell Chezhiyan what he knows, and tries to protect him and others from a distance.It is only after Chezhiyan himself experiences supernatural events that he slowly comes to terms with the possibility that the townsfolk may be innocent. He learns to control his emotions. At the end, after coming to the verge of losing his own daughter, his presence of mind saves the town and his family.
Revenge also plays a major role in the overall storyline, with the townsfolk taking revenge on the Jinn for disturbing their peaceful life in the past, with the Jinn taking counter-revenge on the townsfolk with the ultimate purpose of usurping the land that they feel is rightfully theirs.
Have I read too much into a film unworthy of such analysis? Maybe. I’ll need to distance myself from such films in future, perhaps.
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AdhithyaKR
December 10, 2019
Hilarious 😂😂😂 I was laughing throughout and the ending line was killer. Not offended at all, honoured to be spoofed.
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Varsha
December 10, 2019
Thanks, Adhithya. Iruttu was my second movie this week after Irandaam ulagapporin kadaisi gundu, and I was so disappointed with the film, especially Sundar C’s stone-faced acting, that I was looking for some way to vent my feelings and your article came in handy :). This was my first attempt at a spoof, so I was not really expecting great responses. But I was a bit hesitant to post it, as I was afraid it might strike a wrong chord with people, especially you. So, thanks once again for your positive feedback. I am honoured too! It means a lot, really!
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