BEHINDWOODS CELEBRITY COLUMN

 Hi ‘behindwooders’

 

This is a new column started so that you do not miss certain nuances which caught my eye and I either appreciated / loved / smiled or laughed. It may be a specific shot, stand-apart lines of a song, dialog, or a particular situation. This is not a (p)review but a small nudge/ poke at your ribs  to say, ‘hey don’t miss this’!

Ajith’s popularity is well known, he doesn’t think twice about ageing gracefully or coming to terms with the fact he is into his 40s now. He has sculpted a niche for himself through sheer passion and perseverance, forming his own inimitable style. Pat on his back for rising to this status without any Godfather or family background.  Veeram is Ajith’s 54^th film in his escalating career graph.

This is Siva’s 5^th film, 2^nd film in Thamizh. Congrats Siva, for the running time of your film. Nowadays viewers are not equipped mentally to focus beyond this time in a theater however comfortable it may be and prefer crisp, sweet and short films.

Thenmozhi alias Mrs Subbu’s (Devadarshini) various “OH” modulations and intonations are soooper, when her husband (Ramesh khanna) asks her a bevy of questions if she has ensured the kids have gone to bed and all the doors are shut…to ‘do’ what his 1-track mind is thirsting for!

When Vanangamudi (Pradeep Rawat) and Vinayagam (Ajith) clash over allotment of a tender. Ajith’s punch dialog to him is a sure shot scene-stealer. ‘Much is not the criteria, which is what counts’. It gets even better. When Pradeep asks Vinayagam which caste he belongs to, Ajith’s retort: “If you think I am a Thevar, then I am the brave Thevar; If you think I am a Dalit I belong to the scheduled caste; If you think I am a Vanniyar, I’m a Vanniyar known for my valor”

“Blood cannot differentiate caste or community”. Audience will go on a whistling spree! Siva, full marks to your dialog. This awareness is the need of the hour for our country.

Vinayagam’s brothers want to fix a bride for him, so they can follow their ‘pursuit of happyness’ with a guilt-free conscience. Glitch is Vinayagam hates the word ‘marriage’. Through Ajith’s childhood friend and district collector Subbu, they find out his Achilles’ heels is the name Koperundevi. So thanks to Bail Perumal (Santhanam) being their love-guru they start their ‘Mission Kopu’. Santhanam is the apple of everyone’s eyes in this film, not just the Vinayagam brothers but the audience too.

A good and witty track is Thambi Ramaiah who plays Nasser’s cousin wondering where he has seen Vinayagam earlier. He is a victim of ‘memento memory’ when it comes to fitting ‘the Vinayagam piece’ in his jigsaw puzzle!

Nasser plays the apt role of Koperundevi’s father, in my opinion he can never go wrong.

Appukutty as Ajith’s cook Mayilvaganam is obsessed with marrying a fair girl much to Ajith’s disapproval. Ajith’s ‘pah’ reminded me of Vijay Sethupathy in NKPK. One single word from ‘Thalai’ spoke volumes!

The introduction scenes between the hero and heroine are thoughtfully sketched by Siva. In fact watch out for the BGM for Tamannah’s intro, if you are a Superstar fan you’ll immediately smile!

And Ajith in his crisp white veshti is sure to break many hearts, age no bar. He is so much at home in it, wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I add, veshti gets a new lease of life!

Fight scenes with homework well done by the gray cells of stunt master Silva is commendable. Incidentally like Vivega he is also a technician who has shown his mettle in both films – Jilla and Veeram. In the beginning when Ajith rides roughshod over the villain, in a step-by-step guide to his brothers, he leads them by their hands on how to hammer their bodies into the coffin. And post interval when the stunt sequence has been used as a game of I-spy with baby Kayalvizhi (Yuvina), Silva shows his originality.

Towards the last half hour, Santhanam comes up with his trade mark dialog which is a tough one to translate. He tells the villain about our handsome hero’s latent talent.“Kuththu madhippaa idai pOtuteenga, annan oda kuththu madhippu ungalukku theriyaadhu”. Definitely an awesome dialog for our archives. “You more or less sized up the situation. But you don’t know how sizable a shot he takes in such situations”

Santhanam tells Nasser “Even an anaconda will shed tears if my bro pleads” and this entire situation has been well planned by Siva.

The villain asks forgiveness from Nassar saying “Thalai kaal puriyaama paesitaen. Ippo dhaan theriyudhu ‘Thalai’ edhu kaal edhu nu”. Again English cannot do justice to the play of words in Thamizh, but it translates to: “I can’t make head or tail of what I spoke to you. Only now I’m able to differentiate the head from the tail”

Of course reading in between the lines is Ajith being lovingly referred to as ‘Thalai’ (head) by his fans. Like lyricist poet laureate Kannadasan’s famous song, was this dialog written for ‘Thalai’ or ‘Thalai’ spoke this for the film? The pun intended is worthy of a wow! Siva, words are child’s play for you.

The song ‘jinguchakkan’ choreographed by Dinesh, shot in Chennai (Kudos to art director Milan) is a treat for all, young and old, male and female. Ajith is his charming self, who has mastered the art of converting his weakness to strength and Siva knows the pulse of the audience. Full marks to the efficient editing by Shri Kasi Viswanathan associated with the national award winning films TMPK and ASK.

Siva has capitalized on Thalai’s charisma and the ‘head-iness’ lingers!  

Veeram: Salt and pepper heads the way

Verdict: ‘Head’ rules all hearts

There could be several more nuances I may have missed. Please share with me in this column, I’d appreciate it. The object of ‘rekhs ready reckoner’ (thanks Behindwoods) is to anticipate the movie-watching experience and applaud movie makers.

Until my next, when the Thamizh month of Thai points to new a whole new world,

rekhs
10-01-14