Angadi Theru Movie Review- Where Dreams Get Sold

Not all people who come down to Chennai from the smaller towns & villages of Tamil Nadu end up making the journey to become the next superstar or C.M. For a lot of people the metro city represents the land of opportunities to them. One such place in the city which plays host to the endless stream of migrants from the ‘districts’ is the bustling Ranganathan Street in T.Nagar where everything is organized yet completely incomprehensible for the regular people, who just view it as a major shopping destination.
The street plays host to a number of multistoried buildings which act as “one stop shop” malls by selling a host of products across categories. The street also plays host to a lot many smaller retail outlets and some independent “roadside” businessmen. The “one stop shop” malls/superstore follow the typical South T.N business model where the entrepreneur/owner (called annachi ) runs the store with the help of staff picked up mainly from the smaller towns & villages. The owner takes care of the boarding and lodging of the employees and they work together as a cohesive unit. In my FMCG and retail days I have seen so many such stores in Chennai and elsewhere, following the same model.
On my visits to these stores at times I have wondered if there’s anything more than what meets the eyes or is there a story behind the story. But then the game stopped there as I never went beyond thinking slightly on these lines and never even organized my thoughts on the same. Now wait a minute why am I going on & on about all this, isn’t this supposed to be a movie review? Of course it is and you will find out shortly why I have been saying all this. Vasantha Balan the director of the acclaimed Tamil film ‘Veyyil’ is back again with ‘Angadi Theru’ (market street, AT from hereon), which is again refreshingly fresh and a realistic film at heart.
AT is all about life in a “one stop shop” in Ranganathan Street, T.Nagar. On regular intervals they keep recruiting youngsters ( male & female ) from the ‘districts’ and during one such recruitment drive , the hero Jothilingam ( debutant Mahesh ) and his friend Marimuthu ( ‘Black’ Pandi ) join the store. Jothilingam had to take up the job after his father’s untimely death which cuts short his plans to study further.The boys are made to soon realize that life there is not going to be easy. Right from the long working hours to the cramped living arrangement and the unhygienic staff ‘mess’ ( dining area ), everything is a testimony to the fact that they are almost like bonded labour over there.
After some feelings of distrust between them, Jothilingam and Kani (Anjali of Katradhu Tamizh) slowly start liking each other, even as they work alongside each other. But life is not going to be easy at all as they also have to contend with the floor supervisor ‘Karungali’ ( director A.Venkatesh ) who is a terror to all the junior employees. The journey further for Mari and Kani puts them through so many situations that gives us so much more insight into life in the market street i.e AT.
What one needs to understand and prepare one self for is the fact that AT is not about a fairy tale romance of a young couple but a harsh realistic portrayal of a certain section of society, a society we are exposed to but yet remain ignorant of. AT tells you that there is a story behind every single person around us. Not only is the movie a fairly well made take on how the “system” of a “one stop shop” in Ranganathan Street works, it also tells you about the lives of so many other people living/working in the street. So there are a number of other characters all of interesting dimensions who come our way through this film.
Now when I look back at the movie it is very clear that Vasantha Balan has tried something very interesting in this movie. In fact in the first 15 minutes or so of the film itself one can get to know in brief how the movie will turn out to be- but for that one has to look out sharply, very sharply. In terms of the casting one can easily say that the actors fit into their characters completely, thus elevating the film. Mahesh makes a reasonably good debut but the actual honours go to Anjali and ‘Black’ Pandi. Anjali had put in a good performance earlier in Katradhu Tamizh and now with AT she signals that she certainly has the potential to pull of roles of substance.
In a rather serious tale like this if there is any mild relief in between , then the sole reason for this is ‘Black’ Pandi as he provides some genuine light moments without resorting to buffoonery of any sorts. Director A.Venkatesh also leaves a strong impression with his role. The music of the movie (Vijay Antony & G.V.Prakash Kumar) works in sync with the pace with the film. ‘Aval appadi onrum’ is one of my favorite soulful songs in recent times.The sound design provided by Tapas Nayak ( Bheja Fry, Paa, Puthiya Mugam etc) lends a nice spark to the sharp BGM ( Vijay Antony ).
One of the pillars behind the movie’s output is the cinematography by Richard Maria Nathan (a former assistant to K.V.Anand) whose innovative use of hidden cameras actually brings to life the elements of Ranganathan Street fairly well.Also praiseworthy is the art work by G.K & Muthuraj and the editing by Sreekar Prasad is effective. Jeyamohan’s dialogues also help in lifting the narration considerably.
Long after you finish seeing the movie, you still carry so many images behind with you. For those in Chennai, visiting Ranganathan Street will be a different experience after you watch this film. All said and done the next time you see someone selling cotton ear buds or hand kerchiefs in the local trains or streets in a Mumbai or Chennai or anywhere else, please remember there could be a story behind that person too.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://tinyurl.com/yky9npo

Masilamani and Sun Pictures- Changing phase of Tamil Cinema- for better or worse?

I am just back from a late night show of Masilamani- a recent Tamil release. For a movie into the 4th week of its release there was more than 80 % occupancy. At a large single screen theatre like Kasi in Chennai which is regarded as a collection center, this certainly means that the movie is a safe proposition. The movie has a close connection to last year’s surprise hit- Kadalil Vizhunden (KV from hereon). Not only is the lead pair the same (Nakul and Sunaina), this one again is a Sun Pictures release. KV was the first movie to be released by Sun Pictures, the film division of Sun TV network and emboldened by its success they have gone on to buy over and release a spate of movies like Thenavattu, Dindigul Sarathy, Padikathavan, Ayan etc.
The success of KV itself could be a case study in isolation. While the anthem song – Nakka Mukka had already become popular, the movie was in the cans for a while. Starring virtually the unknown pair of Nakul and Sunaina, there wasn’t much going for the movie- i.e till Sun Pictures took over the movie and decided to make it their first venture. What was then unleashed was the marketing might of the Sun T.V network. All of a sudden the T.V audience was bombarded with promos of various kinds for KV. No, they did not stick to the earlier trailer which was floating on air for some time earlier. They unleashed a series of different promos of various time durations with sharp focus on the selling points.In fact so impressed was Sun Pictures with the response to Nakka Mukka that they even made the cast and crew shoot another version of the song which wasn’t earlier there in the movie. It also helped that there were other songs which were also quite good (like thozhiya en kadhaliya ) and Vijay Antony’s songs and the lead pair got well recognized. Whether you were watching news, a daily soap or a movie, any interruption would be greeted with a KV promo and lo and behold the people flocked to the theatres out of curiosity. Thankfully the product was reasonably entertaining and thus a successful business model was created. Buoyed by the success of KV, Sun Pictures announced that they were there in the market for keeps.
By that time the then big players- Pyramid Saimira and Ayangaran were already facing the heat and Sun Pictures was more than happy to capitalize on the situation. Things turned a complete circle later on as Shankar’s mega project- Endhiran changed hands from Ayangaran to Sun Pictures. After KV Sun Pictures literally went on a buying spree and picked up movies for release. Whether it was a small movie like Dindigul Sarathy or a mass movie like Ayan, they showed that they were adept in handling the project. They even went on to release an English movie- Outlander all over South India in both English and the regional languages.
While their efforts at releasing and marketing the movie is commendable when we look at it from the view point of a KV or a Dindigul Sarathy, it becomes extremely irritating to accept carpet bombing on air in the form of promos for movies like a Thee. Dindigul Sarathy (a remake of Sreenivasan’s Malayalam movie Vadakku Nokki Yanthram) would have definitely struggled for a release considering it had comedian Karunas in the lead but Sun Pictures ensured that not only did the movie get a good release, it was also well promoted. Thenavattu saw Jeeva attempting an action movie for the first time and while critics blasted the movie and said Jeeva should rather concentrate on doing movies like Ram and Katradhu Tamil (leaving the mass movies to Vijay and Ajith), the marketing of the movie seemed to work and the movie was a success.
The heavy duty promotion of Ayan has been a big factor in ensuring the spectacular success of the movie. So once again with Masilamani they have been doing what they’ve been reasonably successful with. Expecting just a regular masala movie (coming out very clearly from the promos) I went on to watch Masilamani for the heck of it but came out both disappointed and confused. The movie directed by RMR Manohar has nothing great in terms of a plot. Its all about Masilamani (Nakul) fondly called Masi by all and he is the typical do-gooder. The heroine Divya (Sunaina) is a dance teacher and while Masi falls in love with her at first sight somehow whenever she sees him, he comes across as a ruffian to her due to circumstances.
That’s when Masi comes up with an alter ego called Mani who is the opposite of what Masi is and the rest of the movie goes completely in predictable fashion. Music by D.Imman is of the typical variety and couple of songs have become reasonably popular. The movie has a stock comedy track (no connection to the main story) with M.S.Bhaskar and Karunas. So obviously the promos are all focusing on the songs and the comedy scenes. While the movie is not on the lines of a Villu or a Thoranai it certainly is nothing great to talk about.
This gives me a major cause of concern all of a sudden. With the kind of financial and political muscle that Sun Pictures has they are only going to be producing and releasing a lot many more movies. While I salute their efforts to release and promote a small movie like Dindigul Sarathy, I am also happy to see them push a big movie like Ayan. After all the money made from an Ayan can be used to fund many more smaller films. But what I’m not in favor of is having movies like Thenavattu, Thee and now Masilamani thrown down our throats.
As a keen follower of Tamil cinema I do welcome the advent of a big player in the industry but I’m watching them carefully and curiously to see how they are headed. Let’s see what unfolds in the days to come.



P.S- Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/masilamani-and-sun-pictures-changing-phase-of-tamil-cinema-for-better-or-worse/