Slices of south - South of Nowhere

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Veyyil - Everlasting - Movie Review

Two beautiful roses bloom in a shrub. One gets plucked and finds its way to garland the head of a beautiful maiden while the other gets trampled under the feet of the same lady. The lady more commonly called fate, circumstances, destiny etc. This is exactly what Vasanthabalan has tried to explore successfully, to a large extent, in ‘Veyyil’, the standout mainstream movie of the year 2006 in Tamil cinema.

Veyyil is the story of two brothers who start the same way in the dust-laden streets of Virudhunagar, but traverse different paths in life, until they come back together… I am not delving into the story beyond this as this movie is certainly worth a watch and I would not spoil the freshness and the aroma of soil (“mann vasanai”) that it offers you.

Pasupathi portrays the role of the elder brother with a marked maturity that stands out purely by its effective subtleness and spontaneous expressions. This movie would certainly be a hallmark canvas of display in the reportaire of Pasupathi for times to come. The romantic shades followed by despair in the first half and the sentimental, solace-seeking, emotionally charged second-half brings alive the life of a loser, close to perfection.

Bharath shows us yet again that he is the front runner in terms of acting skills in the current crop of young actors in Tamil filmdom. He plays the role of an active, typical busy-bee in a small town, with loads of temper contrasting with the affection that he has towards his family. It is not uncommon to find such “leaders” / “entrepreneurs” in smaller towns of Tamilnadu, and the film history has not seen a closer look of such people, until Bharath, the advertising agency owner, arrived yet again through Veyyil. His temper leads to some good funny moments with Bhavana (serves as a relief in an otherwise serious narration) and her family. His devotion towards his brother and the delicate situations that he is put in inbetween his family on one side and his brother on the other side have been well-handled by the fast-growing actor. His dancing skills help in infusing pace to the movie in the opportunities provided.

Some of the remarkable sequences in the movie are, the younger days of the protagonists, the love sequence between Pasupathi - the movie operator and Malavika, the return of Pasupathi to his home after 20 long years, the affection of Bharath towards his brother and siblings, the funny encounters between Bharath and Bhavana and the parting shot. The three heroines Malavika, Bhavana and Shreya reddy have handled their roles with dignity and elegance. The supporting cast playing parents and sisters of the heroes have played ‘part of the family’ to perfection. Special mention to the person who plays the father role – brooding, affectionate and adorable on the whole.

Music by the debutant GV Prakash, will top the charts, deservingly so. “Uruguthey”, “Veyilodu vilayadi” and “Kadhal neruppu” – pick of the flowers. A red carpet welcome to you Prakash! The background music in the opening sequences of the second-half add lots of weight to the scenes. A mature BGM in such young age…

The songs have been picturised beautifully fitting in line with the story mileu, without resorting to gimmicks, garish sets or outlandish foreign locales. Special claps to the director, choreographer, and art director on this aspect alone. Case in point: “Kadhal neruppen”.

Next comes the captain of the ship – Vasanthabalan. Wonderful attention to details in every small segment of the movie (e.g.: In the song “Uruguthey”, the movie operator Pasupathy is shown romancing with the lady outdoors only when the theatre is closed due to “Bandh”. This - in a passing segment for 5 -10 secs in a song. The typical spread of match boxes drying under sun in the streets of Virudhunagar is another example). The picturisation of “Veyilodu” is poetic. The realistic settings and earthy dialogues add lots of weight to every scene. The choice of actors is close to perfect (the villain, for some reason protrudes). Not resorting to comedy track, avoiding stereo-typed characters to the maximum extent (Villain and the mother characters exempted) and giving fresh backgrounds to the protagonists (movie operator and ad agency owner) deserves a special shake-hands. Wonderful second movie after a not-so memorable first. Probably Maniratnam in Tamil was the last to have this record, who peaked later. Wish and hope Vasanthabalan shows this maturity in the forthcoming offerings and touch half the heights scaled by the former. Shankar, thanks for finding Vasanthabalan again…

Stressing upon realistic settings and portrayals, Veyyil is certainly not without its droughts... The villain character, being shown a complete negative right from the start, ever-weeping mother character are some of the oft-seen stereotypes. The heroes, being stabbed umpteen times in close-gruelsome shots managing to go running, hunting for the villains somehow does not gel in this otherwise believable-by-frame movie. Making the character of Shreya Reddy, husbandless, seems to be a clear ploy to bring the ‘loser’ hero closer to her. The character and family of Bhavana, adds fun to the movie and nothing to the story. Minor thorns in a beautiful bouquet…

The ‘loser’ smiles triumphantly from the posters as the final winner at us, the audience, making us feel the same about having seen the movie…

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