Before reading this article, you must know my emotion. Every cinema lover who believes in good script and innovative idea to lead the movie will have same kind of emotion. The Legendary Hit Movie Vazhakku Enn 18/9 (Case No: 18/9) is itself a special case in Tamil film industry. Screenplay alone played a vital role in the movie, but it was not well appreciated by Kollywood audience. Usually, a movie will be ignored by audience due to the lack of publicity and good review by Medias, but Vazhakku Enn 18/9 well appreciated by medias like The Times of India, they gave it 4.5 out of 5, the highest rating ever for a Tamil film. Even website portals like behindwoods.com, rediff, sify, in.com, Indiaglitz etc., also appreciated with excellent comments. Ananda Vikatan hailed the film as "Pride of Tamil Cinema" and rated it a whopping 55 on 100. Many actors, Directors were also made very positive comments. Well known journalist Sreedhar Pillai had tweeted that "Vazhakku Enn 18/9- 4/5- Very, Very Good. Gutsy & Outstanding film. Balaji Sakthivel extracted spellbinding performances from all newcomers." and specially mentioned" Balaji sir I need ur autograph& 2 take a pic with U. U have done Tamil cinema proud."
This movie started its Pre-Production work during 2008 and it was commenced in 2010. The Script work alone took about 15 Months, said Director Balaji Sakthivel in a press meet conducted after success of the movie. The movie was shot by Cinematographer Vijay Milton using a Canon EOS 5D SLR camera.
Even though, the film which got the maximum critical appreciation this year, it was mostly appreciated by film journalist, Press & Media and many directors., I Personally have communicated with lots of youngsters about the movie Vazhakku Enn 18/9, only 45% were thumbs up ! Why is it so? 60% of the audience goes to cinemas hall with the previous investigation of the movie. Nowadays, most will send the review in two line while watching the movie via SMS and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The saddest part is most youths are not ready to support such movies, since they need fights, separate comedy track, gana songs, item songs etc. Movies with such elements like Subramaniapuram, Naadodigal, Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, Anjathey etc., were well appreciated. But lack of such element in Vazhakku Enn 18/9 should not be the reason for not appreciation. Recently, director Mysskin delivered an angry speech against such audience for not supporting genuine movie like Vazhakku Enn 18/9
So, youths must love and support such movies to encourage such talented directors like Balaji Sakthivel.
Kaleel Ibrahim
kaleel.salem@gmail.com