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Video Essay: 25 years of Kurudhipunal
Posted on November 7, 2020
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Yajiv
November 8, 2020
BR, this was great! One of my favourite Kamal films from (what I consider) his golden period of movies. I watched Drohkaal not too long ago and I must say I enjoyed Kuruthipunal better, perhaps it just fit my sensibilities more.
Also, I totally lost it at your imitation of “thats a bloody order!” ROFL
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Ashwin Kumar
November 8, 2020
Beautiful analysis. Enjoyed every bit of it. Thank you!
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MANK
November 8, 2020
i always have a problem with Kamal’s remakes. he is a guy who has a hell of a lot of original stories to tell, then why mainstreamise a purely artistic film like Drohakaal. I like Drohakaal better, i don’t think it was a film that should have been transferred to mainstream. The changes that Kamal made are interesting, as you mentioned in the video essay, but i never warmed to this film, maybe because i saw Drohakaal first. Its one thing to be inspired by great foreign films like The Godfather or Rashomon and brilliantly adapt it as our cinema. I always looked on Kurudhi punal as an unnecessary venture.
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Rahini David
November 8, 2020
This was so much fun.
You should make more videos for remake comparisons.
IIRC, Dhanush named himself after Operation Dhanush, no?
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vijay
November 8, 2020
Kurudhipunal was the beginning of the lean phase for Kamal before it turned terrible altogether. It wasn’t a bad film especially for those who had not seen the original nut the the fact that iwas a Hindi remake was a letdown, just like the ‘A wednesday’ remake. Balu Mahendra was often resorting to such remakes during this phase as well which was also disappointing considering his frequency of releases
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Yajiv
November 8, 2020
@Rahini David:
You’re right. I recall reading that in a Behindwoods interview with Dhanush. Can’t find the link for it now though
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vijay
November 8, 2020
BTW, what is so special about 25th anniversary of this film?
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Yajiv
November 8, 2020
Also BR, I think the “Srinivas/Lakshmi” reference (of K Vishwanath’s character and his wife) is a callback to the names of Kamal’s real life parents.
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brangan
November 8, 2020
MANK: I agree that DROHKAAL is the superior film, but I do find this a very interesting remake in the mainstream-ing sense.
vijay: There is nothing special about any film, any anniversary. But certain round dates — 10th anniversary, 25th, 50th anniversary of VIETNAM VEEDU (which I wrote about and nobody read 😀 ) — offer a nice peg to look back at a film. That is all. It’s like a birthday. If your dad turns 74, it’s just another dinner outing, but if he turns 75, you might try and make it a special occasion. Is all.
Yajiv: Yes, but my theory — I think — holds in the context of the film’s “god” themes. The intent of the creator is not how I read films.
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Yajiv
November 8, 2020
@BR:
Fair enough! Thanks for responding. I did enjoy the god theme/context that you had raised. It was something I had totally missed despite watching this movie numerous times on cable TV.
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Nimmi Rangaswamy
November 8, 2020
Great Essay Indeed- also ‘ mainstreaming ‘ as a framework for the essay worked very well- KP is such a different film from the original- it looks and feels different! As Rahini says we need lots more of video essays, flashbacks, long reviews, etc… the video is now over 22,000 views in a day – so Mass and Class 🙂
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abishekspeare
November 8, 2020
Some of the trivia you told about was too far fetched and kinda didn’t work for me(especially the Pudhupettai cinematography one). I mean, yes, it’s fascinating, no doubt, but couldn’t those seconds be devoted to more discussion about what’s IN the film?
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vijay
November 8, 2020
BR, but why 25th anniversary of THIS film was the question I had. This does not rank very high even amongst Kamal fans I would imagine, of course you may disagree. Not quite Hey Ram or Virumaandi or Mahaanadhi or MMKR. This movie was the last of Kamal’s great phase and marks the beginning of his lean phase, when noteworthy efforts became more and more rare. Maybe from that angle this could be a relevant filn. Otherwise, it was just a not-bad remake like unnaipol oruvan
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vijay
November 8, 2020
Nasser was of course special in this film, the one reason I would remember this film for.
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vijay
November 8, 2020
trailer of “Vikram”, sahikkala
cant they atleast think of an interesting new title?
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v.vijaysree
November 8, 2020
The novel/play Indira Parthasarathy wrote with the same title — had nothing to do with this movie right? clearly, I have neither watched this movie, nor read the book 😦
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Thupparivaalan
November 8, 2020
vijay: I rather liked it. Feels to have kamal working with someone like Lokesh. I just hope it doesn’t end up being something like Petta.
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H. Prasanna
November 9, 2020
@vijaysree No, this is a remake of Droh Kaal, a 1994 Hindi movie. Indra Parathasarathi’s Kuruthi Punal is novel alluding to the Keezhvenmani massacre:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilvenmani_massacre
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Dora
November 9, 2020
I had a Major fan girl moment when you did the English thing 😀
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MANK
November 9, 2020
cant they atleast think of an interesting new title?
Vijay, that’s exactly what I thought when I saw the title, with that Vikram title track played on top of that. looks like Lokesh is going the Petta way like Subbaraj
But I found the trailer to be stylish and intriguing. Also some director trademarks, like this big dinner scene, reminded me of the scene from kaithi where Karthik has a big bucket full of biryani.
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Satya
November 9, 2020
vijay: Right. Though he has made like 200+ films, Kamal already starred in a film called ‘Vikram’ back in the 80s. Repeating the title, not actually cool. But then, when the makers are fine, who am I?
Thupparivaalan: Petta was fine. The last 40 minutes were surely interesting though also coming off as very Tarantino-esque.
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KayKay
November 9, 2020
Not one of the Kamal films I revisit. A little too grim and dark for my liking, not an issue had I known anything about the plot prior to seeing it, and I wasn’t even aware it was a remake of a Hindi film. All I knew was the Acting King and Action King teaming up to play ass-kicking cops? Woo-Hoo, count me in!
And then to see scenes where they both get captured, get their asses kicked and subjected to long bouts of torture wasn’t my idea of some kind of Lethal Weapon-ish action romp.
Kudos I suppose for a film that has the balls to kill off both it’s leads (I’d have to wait more than a decade to see similar levels of chutzpah from a director like Bala who cast 2 high profile stars in Pitha Magan and then had the temerity to brutally off the more likeable one) but it does disqualify it from my “re-watchable” list.
Nasser: Cool
Kamal’s frequent lip locks with Gauthami: HOT
Movie as a whole: Lukewarm
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shaviswa
November 9, 2020
I felt the same as @MANK did above. A pointless venture to remake a movie and then adding commercial elements to it (for whatever reasons). I saw the film at Devi Paradise (or maybe Devi not sure). Loved the cinematography on the big screen but the movie was a huge let down. Actually, it was very slow, boring and actually fairly predictable.
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vijay
November 9, 2020
Thupparivaalan, Kamal is too old to pull off stuff like this. Of course this is more like a teaser, maybe in the actual movie he plays something totally different. I am not very enthusiastic about his pairing with younger directors. He should have done it in the mid 2000s instead of calling project coordinator KS Ravikumar for every other movie. The problem is he still wants to play the conventional hero. Its time for him to do what Amitabh started doing in the early 2000s. His pairing with Kajal agarwal in Indian 2 is going to be dreadful. Hope they don’t have any duets.
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Vazhipokkan
November 10, 2020
Drohkaal was a sincere movie – therein lies its strength. Kurudhi Punal was too flashy (violence, performances). It had mixed propaganda in it, too (names/ religion of naxals, glorifying police custody violence). Technical brilliance was used as a hook and excuse to compare it favorably against Drohkaal. After all these years, I would prefer watching Drohkaal again in spite of all its flaws. Kurudhi Punal will make you cringe.
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Aman Basha
November 10, 2020
About Kamal232, the most common rumor I’ve heard is that it is a spin-off or sequel to the original ‘Vikram’. Anyhow, as I earlier predicted, there seems to be a quite a bit of politics here. Expect roadblocks for this one and Indian 2 from the authorities.
Asides, Drohi (which was the Telugu version) was not dubbed but made as a bilingual and one thing that particularly stood out was just how good the action scenes were, even by the standards of today.
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An Jo
November 10, 2020
One of the self-indulging remakes of Kamal Hassan:
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Sridhar Ramesh
November 10, 2020
It was crap then, it is crap now.
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brangan
November 22, 2020
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Niikhil
December 4, 2020
@ Bharadwaj
But, I think you have mentioned in the past that Nasser’s character didn’t work for you and was too OTT. Now, you say his acting is ‘terrific’.
We recently see you raving over ‘great edges’ in NGK, rating over Soorarai, whereas your NGK review was more about it being an unsatisfying film that derails after a certain point, rather than pointing out any individual flourishes.
Would you attribute to this some kind of organic change in cinematic taste after revisiting a film? Or, is this just you ‘adjusting’ with what you have, and ignoring the flaws like say in an arranged marriage?
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brangan
December 5, 2020
Niikhil: Had I done a comparison of Ashish Vidyarthi’s vs Nasser’s performances, I would have said why the former does a far superior job. My ‘problem’ with Nasser’s performance here is that he was an established villain. Ashish was new. He was young. He had that FIRE in him that I felt totally belonged with a Naxal-type revolutionary. Nasser looked older and we’d just seen him ace that role in THEVAR MAGAN, so a sense of sameness crept in.
That’s the great thing about a new face. How ever terrific a Kamal is in any role, the thrill of seeing him as Sappani must have been something else to that generation. (Or in my case, films like MOONDRAM PIRAI and SAGARA SANGAMAM.)
That’s where I was coming from, I think. (I don’t know if I have mentioned something different earlier; if so please point me to it. Would be interesting to revisit that article/comment.)
About NGK, I still feel SP doesn’t have a single scene as powerful as Suriya’s speech when his parents are killed. And I have always maintained this. As a whole, a film may be flawed — like AAYIRATHIL ORUVAN — but if there’s some 10 amazing scenes that stand out, I keep revisiting that film. (Even though I still say that the film is flawed as a whole.)
The individualism, the VOICE of the filmmaker you see in the ten scenes — that’s what one lives for.
I hate the love portions of KADAL (‘Moongil thottam’ and ‘Adiye’ are some of the most needless songs in Mani Ratnam’s career) — but man, some of the other stretches. Like the part where the woman lies in church. Or the part where Father Sam “tames” the boy. Oof!
Regarding the point where some of these observations may not come through in the review, it’s because the damn thing is written in such a hurry that it’s a miracle if there’s some basic coherence in it. 🙂
Re-watching a film makes some things stand out in sharper focus. Also, by the time, you are not concerned about the “overall-ness” of the film, as you are in the review. You can just look out for the parts that make you go Wow.
I still feel Suriya’s performance in NGK is better than his in SP (as fabulous as he was in SP)! Because he had sharper scenes in NGK, with more serrated edges.
Did that answer your question? 🙂
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Niikhil
December 5, 2020
@Bharadwaj
Sort of I guess. 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to answer!
“The individualism, the VOICE of the filmmaker you see in the ten scenes — that’s what one lives for.” – Wow
One of my takeways from your comment is these ‘sharp edges’ are more easily found in movies that have flopped.
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