PANNAIYARUM PADMINIUM (TAMIL) (2014)

This quaint little movie is further manifest proof that there is immense beauty in the small and ordinary things/events in life which often go unnoticed in the express and over-wrought existence that we have come to understand as life these days. This movie also serves  to reinforce  what appears to be a forgotten fact that mandatory scenes in TASMAC shops (read boozing),  item numbers,  mindless violence and  Santhanam's comedy are not essential ingredients for making a Tamil movie.

This simple movie is set in the age of Shaktiman (late 90s), our very own superhero   show which was aired on national television and reigned undisputed over the imagination of the nation. The setting is a remote village of Tamil Nadu with a soft-spoken and well-meaning middle-aged landlord (Pannaiyar, as he is called by the villagers) with an equally affectionate wife. When the Pannaiyar comes across a Premier Padmini car at his relative's house, it is love at first sight. In a lucky twist of fate, the relative leaves the car with the landlord when he has to travel out of town to look after his pregnant daughter. The landlord employs Murgesan (Vijay Sethupathy) as the driver who falls in love with the car too. Soon, we see the car, which is almost the sole motorised transport available to the villagers being used by the villagers for all and sundry purposes and consequently, the entire village is enamoured by the car and they see it as  a prized possession. Even the landlord's wife who is initially annoyed at her husband's love affair with the car, is also fascinated by it and dreams of her husband driving her to temple on their upcoming anniversary. 


The landlord seeks to fulfil his wife's desire and is eager to learn driving. But, Murugesan fears that he may become dispensable if the landlord starts driving by himself and employs several dilatory tactics to fool the gullible landlord. Does the landlord get to learn driving and fulfil his wife's desire on their anniversary ? What happens to Murugesan ? What happens when the coveting daughter of the landlord sets her eye on the car for herself and her husband ? Watch the movie to find the answers. There are also sub plots involving Murugesan's love interest (an expressive Ishwarya) and a quest of a young boy who saves up to earn a ride on the front seat of the car. 

Debutante director Arun Kumar has proven his mettle in creating believable characters whom one could relate to and root for. He backs it with apt casting of the leads as well as the supporting cast. The two leads - Jayaprakash as the endearing Pannaiyar and Thulasi as his loving wife - are simply excellent as they emote well and share a warm chemistry. Their performances are accentuated by the fact that their characters were such which required them to maintain a fine balance, failing which they would have become a caricature. Yet, they manage to carry the entire movie on their able shoulders and compensate for the cliches and faults in the writing with their acting chops. I was especially impressed with Jayaprakash who is utterly convincing in his portrayal of the loving landlord. Vijay Sethupathy is convincing in a substantive cameo and Balasaravanan as Peedai brings comic relief. The director's brilliance is evidenced in his writing where he has used the car in a central, yet subtle manner to explore the various dimensions of his characters through the connections they forge with the car.

For a movie which owes its origins to a short film, it feels a tad too long and the length could have been chopped by thirty minutes which would have made it a taut watch. Nevertheless, Arun Kumar tries valiantly by injecting his narrative with healthy doses of situational humour and marshals his technical resources, be it cinematography or the art departments admirably to present an authentic rustic and period feel. Credits are also due to the debutante music director Justin Prabhakaran who has provided some lilting and melodious numbers which herald him as a talent to look forward to.

Despite its flaws, this slice of life drama is a highly entertaining effort by the writer-director Arun Kumar which tugs at your heart and deserves several plaudits. He has dared to debut a movie with two senior character artists as leads and has succeeded in his venture substantially. He deserves kudos for exploring a path that is less trodden and is the latest addition to a growing club of new wave directors in Tamil cinema like  Thiagarajan Kumararaja (Aaranya Kaandam), Karthik Subburaj (Pizza), Nalan Kumarasamy (Soodhu Kavvum), Alphonse Putheran (Neram), Balaji Tharaneetharan (Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom) and Balaji Mohan (Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Eppadi). One feels immensely heartened at these signs which portend healthy auguring for Tamil cinema. Amen !!

A HEARTWARMING RIDE !! A MUST WATCH !!

POKLOSIE (aka AFTERMATH) (POLISH) (2012)

The physical ravages of wars are massive and require long and arduous efforts and resources for reconstruction. However, wars have a far deeper dehumanising effect on the psyche of the perpetrators as well as their victims as they unleash and actively stoke the predatory animal instincts which were hitherto hidden under the cloak of culture and civilization, thereby pushing them to doing what they would otherwise consider as reprehensible. These shameful acts leave behind profound festering wounds which are hard to heal and scars that are often, indelible as in the case of guilt. Guilt has its seeds in shameful acts of the past and remains latent under an armour of unbridled aggression which masks it in a false sense of righteousness and justice. This movie chronicles the efforts of a duo whose activities threaten to uncover a long buried secret of a remote Polish community and the desperate attempts by that community to safeguard those secrets which were spawn off their collective guilt.

After about twenty years of living in the United States, Franciszek visits his brother Jozef, a farmer in a small Polish village. While Franciszek feels cold vibes from his brother who is sullen with him for deserting him and his widowed mother when they wanted him the most, he also senses a simmering antipathy in the village against Jozef who is treated as a social outcast. He discovers the reason behind the villagers' anger is that Jozef has been unearthing - digging out / buying / even stealing - tombstones of Jews. These tombstones have been used by the villagers for paving the roads and for sundry other purposes. The tombstones belong to the Jewish families who were once residents of their village and are presently non-existent.

Why does Jozef dig up these tombstones ? What connection does he have to those poor dead souls ? Is there a reconciliation between Josef and Franciszek ? What is the uncomfortable secret behind the tombstones of the Jews that Jozef unearths ? How did the entire Jewish community disappear from the village ? Were they part of the victims of the holocaust ? What is the reason behind the villagers discomfort and their hostility towards Jozef ? The movie provides answers to these questions and more in a narrative which, despite being structured like an unfolding thriller, is, essentially an evocative human drama with fine performances by the leads.

The movie is inspired by accounts of real life events which were reported during the second world war and sheds light on the simmering tensions and fault lines within the Polish society which are present till this day. Upon its release, the movie proved hugely controversial and stirred up a hornet's nest of emotional undercurrents in Poland which underlines the relevance of its themes even in the present day.

A VERY VERY GOOD WATCH !!

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THE PATIENCE STONE (aka SYNGUE SABOUR) (PERSIAN) (2013)

Noted Afghan born writer/director Atiq Rahimi adapts his own prize-winning novel to a screen drama in The Patience Stone.

It is the story a nameless Muslim Woman (Golshifteh Farahani) caught in the cusp of a fierce war zone in an unnamed country (what could probably be Afghanistan). She is tending to her much aged husband (nameless gain), a wounded warrior who is presently in a vegetative state with no apparent sign of life or senses. Early in the movie when the onset of war is obvious, she packs off her two children to a safe haven. However, she is forced to stay on to look after her husband. A husband whom she had not met even after her marriage. She married a photograph of him as he was fighting for the cause. 

On his return, the husband turns out to be an oppressive and conservative person in stark contrast to all her dreams. Now, on finding him in a comatose deaf-mute state, she, for the first time since her marriage, feels a surge of freedom. She sees him as the titular mythological Syngue Sabour or The Patience Stone to which one can pour one's heart out without any inhibitions. She feels herself recounting to him her deepest feelings and secrets to a great cathartic and therapeutic effect.

The movie, in most part, is a monologue, by the woman played by Golshifteh Farahani, confiding her secrets to her husband. The marvellous actress delivers a stellar performance which is the keystone holding the entire movie together. In a performance that straddles a whole spectrum of emotions, she forges an immediate and  compelling connect with the viewers and keeps them emotionally invested in the story. 

Writer/Director Atiq Rahimi provides snapshots of the social and political conditions of the region. While Farahani's narrative reveals the ultra conservative male dominated society with little, if any, freedom or respect for women, her travails during the ongoing war point to the existential crisis that hounds the populace there. 

A VERY  GOOD WATCH !!