For a director the toughest part is to make movies
after making a masterpiece. In Mani Ratnam’s case the
movies after ’’Nayakan’’ have suffered that fate.
Expectations have been sky-high by critics and fans
alike. Orson Welles, the maker of ’Citizen Kane’
remarked that a director had once advised him to quit
as he would do nothing to top Citizen Kane ( for those
who don’t know, Citizen Kane was Orson’s first movie
which he made at the ripe old age of 25 !).
Mani Ratnam has gotten a second wind with ’’Alai
Payuthe’’ and he uses his better judgment to cast well
in Aaiyatha Ezhuthu. For a movie to work one or more
of the holy trinity of movie making ie., Casting,
Story and Screenplay needs to succeed. Mani Ratnam has
gotten all the three to work here. Certain reviewers
who suggest that the movie is a take-off from Amores
Perros, are totally wrong and need to watch the movie
before making suggestions.
The movie starts with a central incident, introducing
the main characters then goes into flashback mode and
then comes back to the present time after finishing
the flashback stories. This is a film making style
used by directors like Roman Polanski, Quentin
Tarantino and Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu( who
directed ’Amores Perros’ and ’21 Grams’). However
rather than complicating the viewing process by making
a juxtaposed narrative, Mani Ratnam uses a sequential
narrative of the 3 Lead characters. The first is the
story of Madhavan and Meera jasmine a couple living in
the slums. With Madhavan being a local goon with a
deep survival instincts choosing to work for
BharathiRaja a corrupt and vengeful Minister. He and
his goons rough up some of the students to prevent
them from entering politics as ordered by the
Minister.
In the Second story is Surya a very determined and
intelligent student who wants to clean society of
corrupt politicians by empowering people. His love
interest is Esha Deol a relative of Janakaraj, the
neighboring doctor, who makes a comeback after a long
absence. The third is the story of Sidharth and
Trisha, two people with different goals who are about
to depart to different destinations and meet in a
dance club. The story’s strength lies in the fact that
it does not try to be overly preaching, but portrays
both sides of society with equal weight-age. The
determined Madhavan in a grey role dominates the first
half with a scene-stealing role. Surya has found his
mooring as a leading man with power, plays the main
protagonist. His confrontations with Madhavan and
Bharatiraja are excellently well written scenes by
Sujatha. Sidharth continues on from his role in Boys
to being a college yuppie with selfish dreams. Despite
having the weakest written role in the movie his
expressions of joy and fear are natural and has grown
in bounds as an actor. His scenes with his brother and father are very realistic.
A.R.Rahman has the magical touch when it comes to Mani
Ratnam’s movies and he has given the director an
amazing piece of work here.
The screenplay by Mani Ratnam lifts the story and
bring the tension to a crescendo in the climax. The
gripping storyline with some amazing action sequences
and brilliant cinematography have created one of the
best movies this year. Madhavan and Surya with the
best written roles seem to feed off each other’s
energy in their scenes together. Mani Ratnam’s ability
to put together style and technical wizardry without
compromising the story or using Foreign locales for
songs have made him the best director in Indian
commercial cinema today. To keep comparing his work to
past classics is very short-sighted and will not allow
us to enjoy his genius.