‘Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu’ movie review: Simbu and Gautham Menon are superb in this very ordinary gangster drama

The dying embers of a forest fireplace find yourself elsewhere as a flame-throwing machine.

No less than this appears to be the lyrical concept that should have ignited a spark in Gautham Menon to adapt Jeyamohan’s quick story, now as Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu ( VTK). No less than that’s how VTK opens, with Muthu (Silambarasan) being the ember in a dying fireplace who will get thrown out of it, as if to suggest that he’s a survivor. Or fairly, he’s a ball of fireplace himself. The latter sounds extra plausible.

Let’s get this out of the best way: Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu isn’t your common gangster movie. Actually, it doesn’t even declare to belong to the gangster style. As a substitute, we get a pleasant procedural drama that’s each a blessing and a curse. Extra about that later. And Gautham Menon anyway isn’t fascinated with telling the story of a gangster; he appears content material with the journey itself. He appears fascinated with capturing the lifetime of Muthu in actual time. By doing so, Gautham creates a temper piece with area and leisure that makes it laborious to inform whether or not I loved it to its entirety or if one thing felt misplaced in translation. However what I can confidently say is that the world VTK tries to assemble within the first half is beautiful — each by way of writing and route. 

Gautham normally has this urgency to get into the protagonist’s head and ‘narrate’ his story, however that has been course-corrected. He has been utilizing voice-over as a tool to additional the narrative. To refill screenplay gaps. In VTK, the narrative itself is procedural in nature. Due to this fact, there isn’t a urgency to hurry over the story, no urgency for fast pay-offs. In different phrases, it may be argued that Muthu’s story may be informed solely this fashion. If you adapt a literary piece of textual content for display, there’s a tendency to trim reams of pages which may take up the majority of the screentime. Some filmmakers would possibly present this gradual development of life in montages or transition results; Gautham himself has achieved it. 

Think about this: for Muthu to depart his village in Naduvakurichi, Tirunelveli, to work as a migrant labourer in Chembur, Mumbai, just about takes about half an hour. And the following 40-odd minutes is devoted to the everydayness of Muthu’s life; the individuals he meets, the tales he listens to. It could possibly be stated that a few of these bits felt by-product and repetitive. Maybe that was the purpose. To point out the ordinariness of their lives, similar to Vasantha Balan’s Angadi Theru. 

In Mumbai, Muthu works at a parotta store run by a Tamil. His co-workers are all from totally different villages from Tamil Nadu however with very related tales. They’re all invisible folks that make a metropolis look seen. However Muthu doesn’t know that the store is an underbelly of the underworld. His superboss is Gaarji, a gangster from Tirunelveli, who has a beef with Kutty Bhai (Siddique), a Malayali gangster. Muthu and his pals nearly reside twin lives. They await the order to execute and every time they do it, demise performs its course and a brand new occupant arrives on the scene.

We get this terrific line from Muthu’s buddy Saravanan (Appukutty): “They’re like massive machines and we’re similar to screws on them, not figuring out something concerning the machine.” Come to think about it, the “machine analogy” will get fully-realised within the interval block when Muthu is pressured to take a pistol to defend. As if to recommend that: “He’s now not a screw however a machine. Somewhat, a bullet.”

The strategy of VTK is sluggish growth and you may’t assist however get partially soaked in it. Gautham appears to actually respect Jeyamohan’s writing and that exhibits all via the primary half. Actually, the movie ended for me on the intermission. It felt full. It felt like VTK had made its level already. 

The purpose it was making an attempt to make till now may be traced in Thamarai’s lovely line within the track ‘Marakuma Nenjam’: “Adangadha rattinaththil yerikitu mela mela mela poghum. Adhil ninnu keezha paartha pullipilliya thaane thonum. Adhu pola bodha unda engum.”

This “adangatha rattinam” turns into a metaphor on Muthu when he will get sucked into the circle of violence. And how he falls into the pit is the place a lot of the meat is. Proper up so far, VTK was straight up my alley. Up until now, it felt in contrast to something we’ve got seen in a Gautham Menon movie. And the second the second half begins, it heads in direction of a slippery slope and again into the Gautham Menon zone. However that’s not the principle challenge.

The issue with VTK is… it’s simply too odd for an expansive gangster saga. Written by Jeyamohan and Gautham Menon for the display, VTK’s screenplay wanted higher dramatic factors. This isn’t to be mistaken with “mass” moments. Please, no. Evaluate the intermission scene of VTK with what Vetri Maaran did in Vada Chennai and you’ll realise the place I’m going with this. The staging ought to have been achieved in such a means that we really feel participative and never distant from the character. Right here, we simply observe Muthu taking over the revolver. It does nothing. However you get the thought of the second half. It’s in Thamarai’s lyrics once more: “Engu thodangum. Engu mudiyum. Aatrin payanam.” The selection that Muthu has made is “aatrin payanam”. He doesn’t know the place it can finish, so will we. Once more, VTK is simply too odd. Too by-product.

There are, nonetheless, positives. That is Simbu’s finest performing in ages for the straightforward motive that we, fortunately, don’t see Simbu within the movie. The actor is really outstanding as Muthu, particularly within the Mumbai portion. Put him in a body crowded with individuals and it’s very possible chances are you’ll not even discover him. That’s how a lot we don’t see Simbu on this movie. He even will get the Tirunveli dialect proper and there appears to be a aware effort to make sure that the character doesn’t slip into conversational Tamil. Early on, when somebody asks Muthu to put on slippers, he says, “pirakku pottukaren” versus the same old “apprum”.

Simbu is as invisible in VTK as Gautham Menon. This can be a welcome departure for the filmmaker who has usually come beneath fireplace for making the identical movies once more. Gautham too has tried doing one thing totally different this time — actually! There are a number of lengthy photographs that merely didn’t work for me. However my favorite shot is when Muthu goes to a textile store the place he meets Pallavi (Siddhi Idnani, in a badly-acted and bad-written romance) for the primary time. We see them having a chat till cinematographer Siddhartha Nuni turns the digital camera away — it’s a mirrored image in a mirror. Gautham does this once more in a later scene for the other impact, as if to close Muthu’s advances.

The filmmaker has additionally taken a number of criticisms of his earlier movies — with regard to normalising stalking —  for the higher. So, when Muthu stalks Pallavi, she shoots him down. Not precisely that however we not less than get to listen to the lady say, “That is improper” and never fall for his charms. Likewise, in a later scene, when Muthu throws a wad of money in entrance of Pallavi’s father, asking for his approval to marry her, we get to see Pallavi calling this behaviour out. For, solely a scene earlier, we see Muthu saving Pallavi from her boss’ sexual harassment.

The most important constructive has bought to be how well-rounded the screenplay construction is: the place it begins is the place the movie additionally ends. Which is why I’m not precisely certain what to make of the final 10 minutes that teases for a second installment. For me, the movie ended in the course of the intermission.

Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu is presently operating in theatres