Vazhakku Enn 18 / 9 (2012)

Language: Tamil

Director: Balaji Sakthivel

Actors: Sri, Urmila Mahanta, Mithun Murali, Manisha Yadav

Cinematography: S D Vijay Milton

Music: R Prasanna

A crime thriller that has a real feel, you don’t feel this is a movie till the last frame where the lead artist says, “However long it will be, I will wait for you”. The highlight of the movie is how the director tells the story. He chooses to do that through a series of flash backs as seen from the point of view of two people. One, a boy (the lead) who is accused of throwing acid on the face of the girl (the lead) and the other a girl (the second lead) for whom the acid burst was meant for. 

The storyline is simple acid is thrown on the face of a maidservant of a middle class household. The police interrogate a boy who has had a couple of run-ins with the girl (maid servant). But another unlikely angle arises when the young girl in that household suspects it could be her neighbor, a rich boy who is after her. Then comes the rich boy’s influential mother, a minister and the police and the director’s knack to draw you to the edge of your seat.

This movie has all the ingredients to rocket Tamil cinema into the world stage. All the characters in the movie are so real and you could relate to most of them. The cinematography is another huge plus for this movie, purported shot on a Canon EOS 5D digital camera the images speak volumes. Prasanna’s background score adds strength to this classic. One can keep talking about the director’s attention to detail and the way he has chiseled his characters, it looks so real. Every single actor / contributor to this movie needs to be commended. Director Linguswami deserves a very special mention for producing such a classic in this age of commercialism.

There have been many comparisons of this movie with the Oscar winner, A Separation which I think is very unfair. That I think is the Tamil jingoism we are used to, that makes us get into such comparisons. Vazhakku Enn stands out, it would be unfair to compare this masterpiece with other movies.

I loved the way Director Prabhu Solomon & Mysskin talked about this film (on two different occasions).

“The days of us watching good movies from Iran, Korea etc. is gone. The time has come for them to watch our movies, this will be the first” says Solomon.

“I asked Balaji Sakthivel how this movie is doing and he said it is doing okay…. This is a movie that should be celebrated… A movie each and every one should be talking about” says Mysskin.

This movie is a gem, a must watch for all movie lovers. A sure super dooper watch and most recommended. 

Pranchiyettan & The Saint (2010)

Country: India

Language: Malayalam

Director: Ranjith

Actors: Mammootty, Jesse Fox Allen, Siddique, Kushboo, Innocent, Jagathy Sreekumar & Master Ganapathy

The film revolves around the conversation of a god fearing Thrissur based rice merchant, Francis and Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis has a long history of being ridiculed / mocked upon as Ari Pranchi or “Rice man” Francis by his friends and acquaintances. He tries desperately to shake that “Rice man” image and move up the ladder of high society. A loss in the local club election, failed attempt to take center stage during the felicitation of a Malayalee Oscar winner and money lost trying to buy Padmashree (An Indian government civilian award) award out don’t help his quest to become a celebrity. Most of the times he loses out to his childhood nemesis who also happens to be the husband of his childhood sweetheart.

His inability to buy the Padmashree award makes him withdraw into a shell of loneliness. And then comes the cinematic bait of a young woman (Priyamani) who manages to cheer him up. The story comes to a climax with Francis trying to help his school’s headmaster to achieve 100% results in 10^th grade. There is one boy who stands between his dream of 100% results who according to him will surely fail. Francis takes it on to him to give special care to the boy and ensure he doesn’t fail. And predictably the boy fails in turn making Francis fail again. These are issues we see Francis discussing with the Saint. What comes out of it is the movie.

Every single actor in the cast has done his / her little bit to make this an entertaining movie. Mammooty is magical playing a middle aged rich man who does quixotic things in his quest to become a celebrity. Innocent who plays the rich man’s friend who assists him in his quest, Kushboo & Siddique who play the hero’s childhood sweetheart and nemesis respectively and the young boy Master Ganapathi are simply superb.

I am not someone who is very conversant in Malayalam, I can understand the language with some difficulty. But I can say that the director / screenwriter Ranjith has done a great job. There are a few dialogues that will linger in my memory for long. Like this one where the protagonist tells the Saint, “Our guys from Thrissur can call any one Yettan (Brother), even Eshu (Jesus Christ) they will call Eshuettan (Brother Jesus)”. There is only one song in the movie, but still the music composed by Ouseppachan is among the highlights of the movie.

I would surely put this a must watch comedy movie. Most recommended for anyone who can understand a bit of Malayalam. A sure Super Watch !!

Trivia: This movie features 5 national award winners. Mammooty, Priyamani, Director Ranjith, Cinematographer Venu and the Music director Ousappachan