Vazhakku En 18/9

I wasn't really intending to watch this movie for few reasons.

1. Trailer itself wasn't very impressive (except the BGM). Played during OK-OK movie.

2. We ourselves face a lot of problem in day-to-day life. Given this, watching others problem on screen, that too spending 100Rs... no way..

3. Films that carry "message" is always allergic for me. I would rather happily watch Americans saving our Earth from Aliens for 100th time.(Watched Avenger recently..)

But, generally things don't work the way we plan. I did watch this movie "Vazhakku En 18/9" few hours back. Why? (enakku yen Jessie'a pudichirukku?)

1.  Himalayan hypes getting floated from all sides for this movie. Indiaglitz/Thatstamil/Galatta.. everyone sings the same song.. A must-watch movie..

2. Lingusamy stating  "he was ashamed to call himself a director" comparing to Balaji Sakthivel.

3. Film in making for close to two years. Is it really worth?

4. Completely shot with Canon EOS 7D still camera. I think they started with EOS 5D two years back, and switched to 7D later when Canon released this new version. How good will the quality be?

5. Rajesh going into tears and Mahesh Babu wrote a macro-blog for this movie - first time in world history, and that too in perfect Tamil.. Now, that really tempted me to watch his movie.

Disclaimer - Since industry is going gaga over this movie, I need to put the disclaimer before dissecting the movie. The below is completely my personal opinion as a guy who spent 100 bucks from my pocket. Any resemblance of this blog to any other blog/article is purely coincidental.

This is Balaji Sakthivel's fourth movie in his series of flops and hits - Samurai (Flop), Kaadhal (Hit), Kallori (Flop) and VE 18/9 (Hit?.. Lets wait and watch)..  Balaji, as I understand, takes his own time to conceive a  concept, crafts it to perfection without any commercial compromise (Bala to learn this), and presents it neatly on screen. In midst of many upma cinemas in recent times, his approach really deserves a pat on his back. When he can earn crores in short time, he waits for 2 years to present a decent movie on board. No compromise. But is his work all worth the wait? Lets look into the Pros/Cons..

Pros

1. Screenplay - Story line for this movie is simply nothing. Just a couple of incidents. But the way its presented is awesome. Making an audience (like me) sit in theater for 3 hours with such a story line is tough. We have seen all sorts of love stories, and this one is nothing different from the rest. But the screenplay, and the way incidents are knit together, Balaji does this with ease.

2. Cast - Sri (Kanaa Kaanum Kaalangal) is amazing. All the young lead character's have done a splendid job. But stealing the show is that little boy (Chinnasamy) who comes as Sri's friend. Think he is from real theru-koothu gang. The scene where he performs koothu to Sri on the road in the night - is excellently composed and awesome. I would apple-apple compare this scene with Vishal's (nava-rasam) performance in Avan-Ivan. One other classic performance is from the Inspector. Just calm, he does the job with ease.

3. Music - It really didn't hinder the visual. Music director just gave what is required for this creed of movie. Also skipping songs in this commercial world is a bold attempt. Hats off to Lingusamy for this.

4. Camera - Digital Still camera? Un-believable and Awesome. Not even Red-One digital, its just Canon  still photography camera that costs around 90,000 INR Quality is thousand times better compared to "Nadunisi Naaigal" film shot in digital camera and OK-OK shot in film camera. In OK-OK, the camera work was really bad and the many scenes were grainy. Balaji Sakthivel in an interview said, shooting in digital camera saved him/actors from getting tensed when film gets wasted. Also he can go for as many re-takes till he gets the desired performance.

5. First half - I need to say that I really enjoyed watching the first half, especially that "thamizharasi comedy" and the love scenes of Sri-Jothy.

6. Story-in-Story - There are many stories in this main story, each in a scene like a cock-tail. a) Villages turning to real-estates b) Child-labor in north side c) Prostitute's-story d) Sri-Jothy love e) Diminishing of koothu kalai f) Spoiled Students g) Correspondent-turned-Pro h) Corrupted Police i) GH doctor demanding money j) Jothy's mother character.. etc. Handling all these within the main-story requires hell a expertise and Balaji has done it. Beauty is, he conveys the message without making us feel it. He just strikes the right chord.

7. No commercial compromise - Thank god. No songs in Switzerland and Sri fighting with 40 stunt artists in a six-pack. Movie close to real life. Director Bala (Pithamagan) need to take such stories. He does damn good story lines, but need to come out of the commercial ring and act free like this guy. We can then compare Tamil cinema to Iran cinemas.

Cons

1. Storyline - A very flat story line. Balaji himself have to admit that there is no big storyline in this picture. Just two incidents roping together to the third - climax. Even the climax is based on a true story, and its revealed in this movie itself.

2. Whats new? - I need to admit that screen-play and making is new. Director is really skilled enough to take a small story and say it for 3 hrs without any drag. Studied in Annamalai university or what :) Anyhow, Is that all? Natural acting is really a plus. For example, the police character in this movie was good, but even Raguman's police character in "Ram" movie will also be very natural. I really couldnt find anything outstanding in this movie. May be techies can let me know.

3. Close-life acting? - (Edhartha nadippu?) - Nice but, its not a trend-setter. How about Mullum-Malarum, Udhiri-pookal, Mudhal Mariyadhai movies.. Recently, how about Tamizh MA? If you really want to see an Edhartha movie - watch Pather Panchali (Sathyajit Ray) - It will be like a candid-cam movie, and you need hell of patience to watch that.

4. Spoiled brats - How many plus-two students are spoiled like the one shown in this movie? Possibly very less. A girl going out with a boy for the first time, that too, after her father fires the guy for calling her to his b'day party - dips in beach, checks-in a room... poangappa... Same girl,  courageous enough to go till police station, hides the truth of the boy trying to "kill" her from her mother..

5. Draggy second-half - With a vellandhi love, right mix of comedy, the first-half was entertaining, but the second half; I felt draggy. Especially, the Aarthy-Dinesh story - could have been edited more crisply. In the first scene itself, the director reveals the intentions of the boy, but then he drags the story too much around this.. really not required..
6. Missing Logic - In the first half, when Jyothi enters the apartment she works, security will make a note of her entry. After the acid incident, will the police not even check the security register for whether Sri has entered inside the apartment by that time? Though police has framed the case and convinced Sri, will no one ask for this? Atleast the Rosy character (pro) or the Idly shop owner? 

I leave it here. Overall, the movie was nice, but not much impressive to exclaim "trend-setter for tamil cinema". Over-buildup going now can possibly kill this movie also. Just go without any expectations, we can watch it once. For me, it reminded me of the movie "Eesan" which kind of has a storyline somewhat similar to this, like how upper-class guys escape from the hands of law. But Eesan was a mess, and this one luckily escaped.

OK-OK movie running house-full. Few who didn't gets tickets for OK-OK, opted for this..
Billa-2 trailer during intermission got a theater-shaking whistle than the climax of this movie...