Kireedom - A Crown in Ajith's Head?

I watched Kireedom today for a multitude of reasons. Primary reason was it was going to be the last Tamil film that i was gonna catch on the silver screen for months to come. Secondary reason was it offered a get together with my BITSian friends. Third (Wonder how it would have sounded if I had used "Tertiary Reason" :) ), as a kid I had fallen in love with Mohanlal's performance in the classic original Kireedom (1989) which won him a special President's Medal for acting. So I wanted to see it just for the sake of curiosity to know how much has been retained in its 2007 avatar and how the Ultimate Star Thala Ajth 's performance matches with Mohanlal's. Another reason was Aalwar-after acting in probably the worst film of his career, I was pretty confident nothing could match its mediocrity.

I had certain apprehensions whether it would end up as another tribute to the never say die spirit of Ajith fans who lap up all his wonderful subjects like Ji, Jana, Anjaneya and Aaalwar. Thankfully it didn't turn out to be so. Of course, there is the unavoidable intro song, which with words like "Thala aadumbothu Vaal Adalaamo" clearly spells who the song is written for. It plays to the gallery of Ajith Fans, who would take it as a slight against Vijay and would stupidly rejoice at that with wonderment at their Thala.

I had high expectations from G V Prakash Kumar (who is incidentally younger than me, that makes me feel old), the music director who gave my favourite album of 2006, Veyyil. I thought he would live up to the name of his uncle A.R Rahman. But I was disappointed a little. The songs are good, not great like Veyyil. Background score is adequate, but cliched at many points. At some points though, his brilliance shows. Maybe i expected too much. After ARR, only Harris Jeyaraj promised much, but now even his music is stale as he always recycles from his own songs and even copies blatantly from some English songs. So after Veyyil, i had pined high hopes on GV Prakash Kumar as another ARR in the making, but after Kireedom, i have second thoughts regarding that. Hope he comes out with another Veyyil in the future.

The intro song was mediocre, the melodies were OK, but the last song Kanneer Thuliye shocked me, it was straight lifted from his own uncle's work Poongatrile (Ey Ajnabee) from Dil Se (or Uyire, as u wud have it). Even the charanam sounded too similar. It may be tough to stay away from ARR's influence after working under him for so long, but surely tat ain't reason to do this. Hope he doesnt go the way of the Yuvans, Devas and Srikanth Devas.

The film remained surprisingly true to the original, except for the initial scenes of Ajith and Trisha, which were romantic and funny too. Vivek was not upto his mark, though his antics when Trisha and Ajith are romancing on the water tank and his dialogues on how tough it is to be a Rowdy these days evoked laughter, even from Challa :) Santhanam was suprisingly better than Vivek, though some of his jokes had double meanings attached (not that I am complaining :) )



The main crux of the story is how the dreams of a father and the life of his son is shattered by the twist of fate that befalls them. How a guy aspiring to be a Sub Inspector, is forced to take the aruvaal by circumstances, which also make him seem like a rowdy to be feared and respected to the people. How some incidents change the way everyone, including his family and his fiance's look at him and what happens in the end. To summarise, there is a Tamil proverb " Panamarathukku adila paal kudicha ellarum kallu kudikurathaa thaan karuthuvaa"
(He who drinks only milk under a palm tree, wud be suspected of drinking toddy)

The various emotions that pass through the protagonist was excellently captured by Mohanlal in the original. Does Ajith recapture the magic? Well, not completely. He is good, and surely much better than most of other actors in that at least he tries sincerely. But still, there is something that tickles me somewhere in his performances, not just in this film but always.
Somewhere he strikes me as being artificial, and forgive me there is still a trace of that eunuch in Varalaaru left in his body language. Maybe a Kamal or Vikram (in their younger days) would have suited the role better.

Trisha is used to carry the story forward in the first half, but disappears for most of the second half. But her character is such, and the story doesnt need more of her presence. Rajkiran performs well as father though he is a shade lesser than Thilakan of the original.

But the film is very much watchable, it is really good that they have decided to stick the original ending which augurs well for Tamil Cinema. A Brave attempt, as the film walks on a slippery pole on one side of which is commercial cinema and the other offbeat cinema. It's in no way boring and Ajith is good, if not Mohanlal enough. Ajith must atleast be congratulated for trying something different unlike Vijay, who thrives giving the same old wine in the same old bottle.

On the whole, the film is watchable and very good by Tamil standards.

In Contemplation

It is that time of the year when the Gods of Holidays have conspired with Singara Chennai and decided the city could do with one nuisance less. So they are packing me off to an Azkaban in Rajasthan, away from old friends and family. Which also makes this a time for contemplation, of the times spent together with friends and parents, and also of the times we didn't get to spend witheach other. When i go through these phases, i emerge empty with no thoughts running in my head.
This time around, i spent even lesser time than usual with my friends because of Practice School. Two months were too long for this drudgery to be endured. Of course, i shouldn't complain as mine was the saccest station available. But i will save writing about PS1 at Lasersoft for a different time.

Now, even though I went to work only for few hours a day, it coincided directly with the time i usually scorch the streets of KK Nagar in my Mercedes Zing with Viki, egging me on from the pillion. Naturally, this reduced my outings with Viki and the time I spent with him.

Slowly, but surely I can see contacts with old friends loosening. Not with my inner most circle of friends, but others who formed the "R Section" Gang , "E1" Gang , "Srimathi" Gang, the Quiz Team and various other gangs which gathered around a common place. Common place- maybe that is the answer. There is no longer the common place that united all, no more goin to school, no more goin to enrichment classes (as Srimathi Ma'm would put it), so it becomes more of a chance than necessity to meet these people.

Even among my closest friends, Nishanth is living in Trichy, so he could make it only for a day to meet up, though we made it memorable by watchin Sivaji - The Boss. Anerudh usually comes to my home the maximum, but this time around he came just twice i guess. But i have to see his face in college too, so that's OK. I was spending most of my time with Sunil and Viki, but realised Sunil's presence only in the absence after he left for NUS. Today he buzzed me half an hour before leavin for USA, and again it struck me that i would be seeing him only after an year.

Viki left last Friday, and we more than made the infrequent meetings by oor suthifyin n last 2 days, we even played cricket at Vadai's place for 2 days, but were kicked out of the house on the both the occasions. We also took a daring attempt to see Thullal, but God decided we had sinned too much so he didn't give us a chance to see that neorealistic classic :(


Now Viki is gone too. We were talking on the day he was leaving about how close we were to becoming classmates again in Eswari Engg College. The college is 8 mins from my place, 3 from his. We even fantasized how it wud have been if all of us were reunited as classmates. The disparity in a few enterance tests have flung us apart to different corners of the country-Trichy, Pilnai and Hamirpur. If u consider Sunil, it wud be "corners of the world" as he is in Singapore, rarher in USA now.

Of course, all of us have made new friends in our new place, and life goes on smoothly, but once I came home after bidding goodbye to Viki, the thought struck me: I ve only 3 more semesters left with Koba, Challa, Anerudh. 4 or maybe max 5 sems with the dualites.

After 3 sems, i might be blogging similarly about Koba or Challa, 3 years down the line, Upoo, Booboo, Jinglee, Brownie and S Ga and everyone and everything I met in BITS might be reduced to memories in photographs, reflections in thoughts. At this thought, i shivered: is this what life is all about, about making bonds only to know they would be weakened as time wears on and severed completely after many years. Is the purpose of life to brace these severances to the extent one becomes immune to it? Is to disregard the importance of life and the various bonds that get attached to one's life? Is it to meet the loss of bonds by making new ones? Or is it to know that there are people waiting for you in the life after death...In Contemplation...