Naan Kadavul (I am God)

Watched 'Naan Kadavul' again. To people who do not follow Tamil cinema, this is a tamil movie directed by Bala. Came in the beginning of this year (Feb 2009). Here is the review I wrote then:

I was studying 6th or 7th standard then. My parents had left me and my brother in my mama’s place in Tanjore for the annual holidays. It was a very big house with lots of vacant rooms and a big garden. Since there were no kids to play, I usually spent my time loitering around. Watching movies on the VCR deck was another favorite pass time. One day, there was a movie called ‘Panic’ which was about an epidemic spreading around a city. People who catch that disease start biting other people and the disease spreads. That was the first time I saw a gory picture with lots of blood and zombies. Haunted by those images, I got very disturbed and it took my three full days to come out of it then.

Next time, I got that disturbed was when I read the fiction ‘Desperation City’ and ‘IT’ by Stephen King. This was during my college days. The former was an out of the world depiction of horror in a desolate city and the latter was about how a ‘thing’ in clown makeup goes about destroying a city. In both cases, I was haunted for a week and pushed to a depressing mood.

Now, two days after watching ‘Naan Kadavul’, am still making up my mind as to what is disturbing me in that movie. Bala has carved a hole in the world we live in (as we know) and made us peep into worlds which according to us don’t exist (or do so on newspapers as we sip our morning coffee). What will strike us more is that till date we have not made that attempt to see these worlds. Believe me all that talk about the aghoris being the main plotline of this movie is crap. That world is just an aberration to bring justice to the brutal world of begging. And as with all Bala movies, the humor elements will spring from the most uncanny places you can ever think. I think that part did me in. I am left wondering as to how such people can be humorous given their way of life. But without it, I guess, they are as good as dead. Or maybe I do not understand the ever fighting and resilient spirit inside a human. Whatever…it shook me too much, I guess. I could not eat that night at home.

I heard this climax was actually planned for Pithamagan (another Bala movie). It was a good way to end the movie. And I think we are now mentally ready for a Bala movie climax such that it does not surprise us much. Some of the dialogues mouthed by Arya are simply out of the world (for example, when Arya tries lighting up a ganja pipe in a temple fire, someone says “koil nerupa neenga asutham panniteenga..(you have made the temple lamp impure)”. Arya replies back “neruppuku edhu da sutham asutham?” (How can you make fire pure or impure?) !!. Thanks to Jayamohan for such crisp dialogues. And I think I need not mention the music part. There is no one else who could have done justice to this movie than Ilayaraja. Cinematography is very good (Arya’s intro and the shots of Arya in early dawn with the udukai are really awesome).

This movie is a definite ‘no-no’ to anybody below 21. And to lots of girls too, I think. I am surprised they got a U/A certificate. Also, there seems to be too many cuts in some places which make it a difficult viewing. And I don’t understand why the dialogue goes blank with a sound at a lot of places. If those are adult dialogues, then what are the scenes in any normal Tamil movie focusing on the girl’s not-to-be-mentioned parts or for that matter all those double meaning comedies? Sigh…..people at censor board, look at your Hindi brethren and learn a few things.

Some two weeks back, on a hot afternoon on Mount Road, I was walking after a very good lunch. All of a sudden, I saw a queer sight. A deformed lady was sitting on the tar road (along the sides). She was sitting with her legs (or whatever you can call as legs) completely exposed to the sun above and tar below. And she was not even sitting on any makeshift paper or anything to give her even a small comfort from the ruthless Sun. I felt bad and dropped a note to her. I asked her “Why don’t you sit up on the platform where there is a shade?” She looked straight at me and replied “In that case, I would not have got this note”.

Makes sense to me in a strange way now.