Yutham sei and Mouna guru are good cop thrillers in this year. Can you spot the other similarity ?
When I was coming out after watching a crap movie, a guy was asking his friend — Machaan.. What was the last good film we watched ?! Do you know the basic expectation of a regular cinema fan while parking his two wheeler in the lot ? Simple. At least this movie has to fulfill what he sincerely pays for, in a theatre. I haven’t got that basic expectation met, in the recent past when coming out after watching.. mayakkam enna, oshti, 7am arivu, velayudham, raja paatai [ worst crap of 2011 — needs a separate post ]. After a long break, I was thrilled by watching Mouna guru.
Sometimes, I stop myself by preconceived mind block approaching movies, acted by certain people / who come by background. [ Any of those ‘Nidhi’s who depend on beautiful heroines, Santhanam, foreign locations, songs ]. I was hesitating to watch this movie for the same reason. But I was proved wrong this time ; I was enjoying through out the movie. It’s like.. the best food we look for comes out in an unknown road side hotel, where you don’t have any expectations.
Story
Instead of story.. let me list the characters. Karunakaran — a simple college student, his mother & brother Amal’s family, his simple lover Arthi, a college campus with some troubles, mysterious stealing in the college hostel, kind-hearted college prinicpal Jayaseelan, a group of cops, a crime scene with a suitcase full of cash, a bad AC A.Marimuthu IPS, his concubine friend Maya, their plans and the unknown consequences, an asylum, a pregnant n clean lady inspector R.Pazhaniammal investigating the case [ remember Coen brothers’ FARGO ! ], unfolding truths towards the end.
A perfect crime thriller with a gripping interval block !
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The complete credit goes to the writer and director SANTHAKUMAR to make such a wonderful script avoiding cliche’s and heroism. Right from the casting to the climax, the director rules. He starts the story straight, without any deviations. Underplaying is the theme used in all characters and sequences. There could have been a glorious opening song, furious fight, 6 packs [ Nalla velai 🙂 ], Santhanam as college mate, cinematic climax etc., I still wonder how a new director avoided all these junk elements !! Santhakumar has worked as an assistant to Dharani and Susi.Ganesan [ Virumbugiren ]. The dialogues were crisp and neat. The basic element of a good script is the suspense. When you expect, that should not happen and something should happen when you don’t expect. It is followed through out the movie.
The asset of the movie is Mahesh Muthuswamy [ ex aasthana cinematographer of Mysskin ]. Yuththam sei was slightly dark but MG is bright and clean. The locations, angles, colors, mood don’t overshadow what the script has — that’s the grammar of a good photography. I saw some traces of Mysskin’s elements in this story. There’s justification for each and every move in the story. For ex., the knife shown in the climax — they take it from the asylum.
The flaw I observed is the music director S.Thaman. Neither the songs nor the BGM [ some times ] were attractive. In fact, I didn’t feel the synergy — especially in a thriller movie. Also, the climax slightly gets disturbed for a while and gets on track. I loved the performances of Arulnidhi, John Vijay, Uma riyaz Khan [ Surprising portrayal ], Anand Varma [ principal ] and Iniya. The interval block was superbly taken and designed like a climax — the best block of the movie. One example of a character study is the 2 variations in the dialog delviery of John Vijay [ with drug influence and without ]. None of tha characters know the complete story and everyone travels on their part.
The environment of Tamil cinema is highly polluted by Mambatiyaans, Suseendhran, Vikram, Simbu, Dharani and what not. When it comes to air conditioner, there’s a saying that the shadow/chillness provided by a small tree cannot be compensated by any artificial air conditioners in the world. Such a small n simple tree is MOUNA GURU. I don’t hesitate watching a good movie twice and this movie falls in that category. [ wathed later ! ]
Similarity of Yuththam sei & Mounga guru : Iniya. Iniya plays Cheran’s sister in YS and heroine in Mouna guru. The difference is this flick doesn’t even have the item song ! Hope Santhakumar doesnt give any interviews to the media and concentrate on his next project.
Happy watching
Trivia : Climax was taken in abandoned NATARAJA theatre, Choolai 🙂
–Toto.
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