Can there be a movie with each and every frame having a poetic touch and feel. If it can be it is none other than ’’Autograph’’. Autograph portrays the fact ?Nothing is permanent in this world except changes? deeply and emotionally through a journey in life of a character named ?senthil?. The movie portrays the journey of Senthil’s life from his school days to his wedding day. It also tells how four girls influence him in different stages of life.
On watching this movie one can realize that ’’World is a stage and Life is a drama with lot of characters and twists and turns in it where in which each and every small character plays a vital role in bringing ultimate changes in one’s play (Life)’’.Each and every one’s life in this world has a unique story like that of ’’autograph’’ and while watching this movie you will definitely turn back the pages in your life and recall your past memories and there lies the success of this movie. Each and every frame in the movie speaks about the effort taken by cheran to make it a celluloid poem and hence if I analyze the different faces of cheran in this movie the whole movie will be analyzed and reviewed.
Before analyzing, the plot goes like this
First episode: Senthil’s school days in a village in Dindugal and his first crush with kamala and their separation
Second episode: Senthil’s college days in Allepey in Kerala and his matured love with Lathika and their separation
Third episode: Senthil’s golden era during which he gets out of all past tragedies and meets Div.ya and with her help he gets job in an advertising company and they both form a thick bond as (ideal) friends.
Fourth and final episode: Senthil’s marriage with Kanika in front of all his school and college friends including kamala and lathika there ’’Autograph’’ comes to an end after kamala, lathika and Div.ya each taking a photograph with the married couple.
All the episodes are linked and shown as his past memories when he goes to each of these places to invite them for his marriage.
Faces of Cheran
Cheran as a Story, Screenplay and Dialogue writer
Cheran has always been a good script and screenplay writer. His movies are always packed with emotional family dramas in village backdrop or third dimensional approach to social issues and solutions of the same but whatever it may be it comes with ultimate reality on celluloid screen and this movie is no exception. The plot and the screenplay are different from all his previous movies. Though the screenplay that jumps to past and present is nothing new to Tamil cinema, the scenes are well ordered to make the flow continuos and smooth. Many of them say that screenplay is dragging at some places but I would say that one couldn?t think of a better screenplay for such a realistic story. I never felt the movie boring at any point. Dialogues are sharp and natural at all the places whether it is in Madurai Tamil or in Malayalam. Especially the words of Div.ya about friendship at the background when senthil and Div.ya were gossiping in a park and lathika?s words to senthil about ?reality bites? to console him as he feels guilty of getting married to someone else when lathika lives alone as a widow.
Cheran as a Director
Cheran excels as a director in this movie. Among all his previous I consider this is the movie which explored his extraordinary direction skills (Before this ?Porkaalam? was my choice of his best in direction). I should appreciate the director for all the following factors
1) He has extracted the best and natural performance from all the actors and actresses even the characters in the very small roles like kanika, Krishna, mallika?s husband, Senthil?s friend subramani, Illavarasu as class teacher, Rajesh as Senthil?s father and boy who has done Senthil?s role in school days have done full justice to their roles.
2) He has concentrated more on casting. All the characters fits their role in looks and body language, for example the boy who has done the role of senthil in school days well resembles cheran not only in looks but also in body language and mallika as kamala who does both the roles as school (village) girl in the past and a married woman and a mother to three kids in the present fits the role with much innocence in her face.
3) Many scenes have directorial touch but to mention a few
i) Analogy of senthil and lathika?s love to Adam and eve?s love when Lathika gives him an apple which takes their love to greater height and divine
ii) When senthil comes to meet lathika after so many years to invite her for his marriage and shocks on seeing that she lives alone as a widow, in this scene first there is a close up shot of Lathika and in the background sound of a bird flying is added which moves in one direction and immediately next shot is the close up shot of senthil and in the background again a sound of bird flying is added but know the sound moves in opposite direction implying that the two love birds are separated and they have moved to different directions. This single scene is evident of the direction skills of Cheran.
4) He has given equal importance to all the three girls mallika (kamala), Gopikavarma (Lathika) and Sneha (Div.ya) and extracted the best performance from all the three girls and all the three are equally good.
5) We should appreciate him for no commercialism (comedy, unnecessary songs) anywhere except a stunt sequence.
6) He has used four cinematographers Ravi Varman, Vijay Milton, Dwarakanath and Shanki Mahendra for each episode of Senthil?s life, which is never done in Indian cinema before and that really has a good impact on the visuals.
7) His guts to use a commercial music director Bharadwaj for such a sensitive subject in which BG score is very much important. To my surprise the songs are melodious especially the ?nyabagam varuthey? song has soul with simple tune and lyrics and all other songs blends well with the screenplay and the BG score is outstanding and particularly the BG score of Kerala episode is praiseworthy. Hats off to Bharadwaj and I expect more of such work from him in the future.
8) Lot of care is taken on Costumes to suit the place and period of play.
Cheran as an Actor
Cheran himself plays the lead role Senthil and his common man looks and physique makes him the best fit for the role and we feel him like a man at next door. He has reduced some weight for acting in Kerala episode and again increased his weight for the doing the rest and he has put a lot of efforts in shaping himself for the character as professional actors like kamalhaasan and vikram do these days. I personally feel he can show more expressions in his face but his subtle performance for this character suits well and is sufficient. The only distracting thing is his monotonous way of crying.
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