A movie is not a book. If the source material is a book, you cannot be too respectful of the book. All you owe to the book is the spirit.
Graham Greene
INTRODUCTION
Malayalam film industry is about great filmmaking. It is quite evident in the number of national and international awards it has won over the years. If you take the goodness density, the average number of great movies you see is more. You do not see many junk movies in Malayalam, for they have many stalwarts in all the fields. I love good movies and see it in any form and in any language. I have seen quite a few great Malayalam movies as my paternal side is from the ?God?s own country?. A lot of movies remade from Malayalam are hit in all languages. Kunhikoonan was a superhit in Malayalam.
Since the same director directed this movie, it didn?t lose any steam and it is simply exceptional filmmaking. One man made it look so easy. That would be Surya. Looks like Surya is working really hard to be the person he is. He literally becomes the role he acts on, these days. Having an iconic puritan from Kollywood, Sivakumar as his father, it looks like acting runs in his blood. He has done the role to an absolute perfection with his hard-work that no other actor comes close to his acting as a hunch-back; may be Kamal as sappani in ?16 vayathinile? is a comparable one but one has to take the time and subject as well.
Perazhagan is not just an entertainer with great comical values but it is a movie with strong message to the film-goers. You need to approach it at a different level to get the point. Of course, one can be just happy with the full meal he/she gets through the comical value and the great acting by Surya and Jothika.
PLOT
The movie is all about Chinna (played, err, lived by Surya). Chinna is a hunch-back with a deformed leg as well as a buck-tooth. He is a jolly do-gooder with a heart as pure as gold, except for some funny comments he makes without thinking. He wants to meet the girl of his dreams as beautiful as Aishwarya Rai and he thinks of highly of himself. He meets a blind girl Shenbagam(Jothika), who is a sister of a street-performer Vijay. Vijay gets killed and he takes care of her, falls for her. Arranges for her eye operation.
Karthik(Surya in dual role), is a boxer and is a son of a ordinary police writer. He is in love with Priya (Jothika), and is opposed by Priya?s father, who is a DSP.
Varada(Balu) is a gigantic goon sent to prison by Chinna. He comes back and bashes Chinna badly once. He is put into prison by Nair(Priya?s dad, played by Devan). He develops a grudge against Nair as he gets beaten well in prison. He gets released.
Chinna helps priya to run away with Karthik when Varada kills Priya. Karthik Looses his mind over the loss of Priya and is sent to jail mistakenly. Chinna overcomes his initial fears to tell nair and varada is in jail again.
Will Karthik over come his temporary insanity? Will Shenbagam get her eyesight? Who will she marry? What will happen to Varada is the rest of the story.
ANALYSIS
This movie is all about Chinna. Chinna is a great character one can?t see on a fairly regular basis. He is the person with a heart of gold and innocence of a child. He is too joyful to accept his physical deformities and enjoys life. He helps his foster mom (Manorama) with such a mind that he enacts a false-drama to hide the suicide of the dubai-gone son. Surya plays this role to such perfection that one remembers the role Sappani played by the maestro Kamal. His emotions are well done and his acting as angry Karthik is simply awesome too. His romance with Jothika is simply awesome.
Jothika is great and her chemistry with surya is simply fantastic. Only competition Surya has in this movie is Jothika. She has played the role so very well that she reminds everyone why she is still loved by many tamil film fans. Her role of a blind girl is executed to perfection. She does the jolly role of Priya nicely too.
Vivek as Kuzhandai, the marriage assembler is simply awesome. He has a role to play in a seasoned manner. His comedy is not overdone and sends a strong message also, while you laugh. His reverence to Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam is shown in a scene too. Vivek is very much an integral part of the movie.
Manorama, the Guinness record holder for acting in maximum number of movies, proves why she is the ?Aachi? of the Tamil filmdom. You will be surprised only when she is not up to the task. Great job again.
Manobala, Deven have performed their role well too. Babu (villain) is just gigantic and he is scary. He has done his role of a thug very well.
Yuvan Shankar Raja has scored nicely. ?Ambulimama? is a super hit for both music and picturization.
Rathnavelu?s beautiful picturization of Kerala is simply superb. The backwaters and the riverfront scenes bring back pleasant memories. Nice job
The stunt scenes are nice. I pity that there is not an action group for protesting the scenes involving varada bashing Chinna. It is so heart breaking to see a disabled person getting bashed up so badly. The director should have avoided it.
A big round of applause is due to the dirctor Sashishekar for a beautiful movie.
CONS
You are not sure where the movie takes place. (Is this a big city or a small village?)
Couple of stunts involving bashing of Chinna and he is shown in almost goodshape in the next scene.
Some ignorant comments uttered by a person with so pure a heart.
The role of karthik is not clearly defined in the movie
Catchy scenes
Hospital scene when Shenbagam gets her eyesight
Climax
Scene where Chinna talks about his wife to Kuzhandai
Ambulimama song
Vivek?s comedy scenes
BOTTOMLINE
This movie is all about entertainment. It gives you a strong message on how to live life in a great fashion even when you have pressing issues. It is a great movie with a lot of comic scenes. It does not matter how good you look. It matters how good you look in your heart. It is not nice if you have a good face but a bad heart filled with prejudices. It is how to live life happily without any prejudices and with a clean heart.
This movie will be another feather in the cap for Surya. He is the king now and there is no doubt about it. With so many hits under his belt Surya has achieved what he deserves for his hardwork. His acting is a pure joy to watch.
Go for it and have a gala time.
Perazhagan ? Is beautiful poem and a beautiful film to watch. TWO THUMBS UP
I Hope you liked the review. Do comment as time permits
KALIL
When I was a child I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I have ever dreamed has come true a thousand times. - Elvis Presley
When I was very young, I was already a fabulador. I loved to give my own version of stories that everybody already knew. When I got out of a movie with my sisters, I retold them the whole story. In general they liked my version better than the one they had seen. - Pedro Almodovar