It is such an irony that most good movies lose out commercially, at least the controversial ones. This movie - Anbe Sivam , is one such movie. But believe me, this one is a masterpiece and a must watch movie. The title states the intent of the movie; Anbe sivam (in Tamil) means love is god . If Dan brown’s Da vinci code rocked the world, this Sundar C’s effort should have made a huge mark at least in Tamil movie industry.
The plot
The movie has two tracks –
The duel between an atheist and god-believer
The difference in thoughts between an idealist and a common typical US return guy
There is message in each of these tracks. The atheist in the movie does not say ‘There is no god’; instead he says ‘love is god’. The believer says ‘I pray god and I am the most powerful’. So the atheist is the hero and the god-believer, the villain.
Kamal Hassan plays the role of the crippled atheist/communist. R. Madhavan is a US return guy, who is about to get married. They both meet in an airport, when their flight gets delayed because of floods. The flood gets heavier and they get stranded in Orissa. They speak and find that their ideologies are different. But they stick together, as they find their way out of the mess, because of unknown/undiscovered brotherhood between them. On their way back to Chennai, Kamal Hassan narrates his story to Madhavan.
Kamal, in this movie, is a street play artist. He protests against an industry tycoon ( Nasser ) and his policy of paying wages, through his plays. The industry owner’s daughter ( Kiran Rathod ) falls in love with Kamal and they plan a secret marriage. Before that, Kamal meets with an accident and becomes handicapped with his face brutally smashed and disfigured. When he is hospitalized in the accident, the girl’s father tries to kill him too. But Kamal fights all this out and becomes a prominent social worker. He and his lover part, as the girl’s father lies to her that Kamal is dead.
These entire characters’ paths cross once again, as the girl Madhavan is about to marry is Kiran, who was once Kamal’s lover. When Nasser comes to know that Kamal is still alive, he tries to kill him again. How does this crippled hero escape?
The movie
There is so much of action, thoughts, messages, humor and romance in this movie. I would always wonder if all this stuff can be shrunk as a package of 3 hour movie. This one does that brilliantly though, with equal importance to each of the movie’s feature.
The movie for sure is filled with dozens of sarcastic remarks on god-beliefs (irrational beliefs). But that is just a part of it. If one can think beyond that, it is a socially conscious movie which teaches how to be humane and strong-willed. The wit in the sarcasm could be thoroughly enjoyed if seen with an open mind.
The comedy track is with Madhavan and Kamal encounters. But these are not short of message too. Humor is subtle and easy. The movie, in its first half starts off in a lighter vein and proceeds to convey strong messages. But through out, the movie is filled with suspense and action.
Performance
If the movie score 200/100, Kamal gets 100 marks. Absolutely rocking performance as a handicapped person, who also has his face disfigured. A book might not be enough to speak about Kamal Hassan’s performance in this movie. Madhavan plays a very very neat role and makes a point that he has lot more potential than just bearing a chocolate-boy image. Nasser breathes fire as a staunch follower of lord Shiva. Never knew that Kiran could also look beautiful on screen and she acts well too! In fact, she does a wonderful job as the lover of Kamal.
Apart from the main-stream cast, every single person who has acted in the movie has done justice to their role. The person who plays the role of Kamal’s friend (in the flashback) makes us both laugh (in humorous scenes) and cry (in sadder moments of the movie). Splendid performance. Uma riaz accompanies Kamal in most of the flashback scenes. Madan , the cartoonist/critic, plays a guest role as well. Not to forget, Santhana Bharathi , makes his presence felt in the climax.
Music
I would call Anbe Sivam as Vidyasagar’s best so far. Every song leaves a deep impression. Though the number ‘Yaar Yaar sivam ..’ , will stay on the history books longer, ‘Poo vaasam ..’ is not short of class too. And yes there is that rocking ‘Yelo machi …’ in Udit Narayan ’s voice.
Finally …
This is one movie you will not want to miss. If you don’t like atheism, the movie will still teach you to show love for animals, how to be kind, to teach you social responsibilities like donating blood and what not. If these do not fall inside your interest paradigm, you could enjoy the movie’s music, humor, action and love sequence. If you missed this movie, you have missed a movie that is complete in all aspects.
-Vinayak
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