Amidst the’Sivaj’ boom, a tamil film has crossed its 10th week without much fanfare, and I happened to see it just now. What a relief from the Sivaji hangover! A pleasure seeing real youths as youths, without loads of make up and fancy wigs. The movie is a product from the S.P.Balasubramaniam / Ilayaraja / Gangai Amaren clan. Directed by Venkat Prabhu s/o Amaran, produced by S.P.B.Charan, music by Yuvan Shankar Raja and background score by Premji Amaren, who has also given a wonderful performance as Cheenu.
There is not a great storyline, but the script is fantastic. Many movies have been released on lower middle class youths and sometimes on their sportsmanship.’Mere Apne’, ’Ankush’, ’Jo jeeta wohi sikkandar’, ’Iqbal’ and’Lagaan’ are some of the movies that come before us. This is also a cricket film, but there is a great difference between Lagaan and Chennai. This is an out and out fun film, and bubbles with youthfulness and parody in every scene.’Sharks’ is a cricket team from R.A.Puram and’Rockers’ their rival team from downtown Rayapuram, and they are really a tough gang, and whenever they meet in public, it results in a clash. The members of the’Sharks’ are the pratagonists of the movie, and believe me, the film has no hero or heroine as such. One is a grocery shop owner, played hilariously by Premji, and there are a two wheeler mechanic, an Ambulance driver/owner, a software boy, a waiter in a Coffee shop, a younger brother of a dada, a barbershop owner who is a sort of well wisher, and some unemployed boys; and their part time and sometimes full time craze is cricket. They throng to play with anybody for a bet match, and in one sequence they end up playing with school kids and get defeated too.
The script flows with small incidents. One boy from Rayapuram shifts to the rival area, with his family. The hatred later develops into friendship, and he is enroled in the home team. Romance blossoms between a boy’s sister and another one, leading to quarrels and heavy drinking. The waiter is taken to the guest house of a girl customer, for you know why. Dada’s brother is stabbed in a case of mistaken identity. And the great finale leads to the semi finals between the Sharks and Rockers without the stabbed boy.
The youngsters lead by the Director have given a really tremendous movie. Tongue in cheek comedy, the camaradiere between friends, the Chennai slang, excellent performance by all the actors, slick editing by the veteran B.Lenin, stylistic cinematography by Sakthi Saravanan and the songs composed by Yuvan have taken the film to an elevated platform, and reminds us of comedy films of Hollywood standard. Unlike Lagaan, the cricket matches take place in floodlit grounds in the night time. And the running commentary by Badava Gopi, the mimicry artiste is hilarious. Though all the artists have given superb performance, Premji stands out as Cheenu, with his one liners and not so handsome features. Whenever he says’Enna kodumai saar ithu’, a spoof on a dialogue by Prabhu in’Chandramukhi’, the theatre roars into laughter.
And for the topic of this review.It is a dialogue from Shankar’s’Mudhalvan’, when Arjun evicts a North Indian family from a housing Board house, the head of the family utters it. Premji uses it as the opening line of a party song!