4 / 4 STARS
DIRECTOR: K. BALA
ACTORS: NANDHAA, RAJKIRAN
ACTRESSES: LAILA, RAAJSHRI
MUSIC DIRECTOR: YUVAN SHANKAR RAJA
STORYLINE:
In the holy city of Rajesvaram, a young boy named Nandhaa lives with his adulterous violent father and his deaf-mute mother (Raajshri). When his father attacks his mother, Nandhaa, in a violent rage, attacks and murders his father. He is placed in a mental asylum where he grows up. His mother is unable to forget the smile on his face over his father's corpse, and is unable to forgive him. She never visits him in the asylum.
Years pass. Nandhaa (Surya), now grown up, seeks out his mother and little sister. He repulses his mother and she pushes him away.
Nandhaa turns to Rajkiran, a respected elder in the village instead. Rajkiran is a man who has no respect for the law -- only for the inner goodness of his heart. He considers himself an avatar of Vishnu, come to rid the city of evil. And he embraces Nandhaa as a son. Nandhaa immediately reciprocates that love, finally getting affection. He is ready to kill and die for Rajkiran.
Rajkiran harbors Sri Lankan refugees in the town. One of these refugees is Laila. Laila and Nandhaa fall in love, slowly but surely, and their marriage is planned.
At this time, Rajkiran is murdered by his own son-in-law. An enraged Nandhaa discovers this and picks up a weapon again, ready to murder again. Will he? Or has he "reformed"? Will his mother ever forgive him? Will he and Laila ever be happy together?
COMMENTS:
Wow. After a long time, I have the satisfaction of having watched a good movie. And I know reviews of "Nandhaa" have not been so enthusiastic as mine, but Nandhaa, in my opinion, is so many times better than Bala's previous extraordinarily successful outing, "Sethu." While "Sethu" relied on plot contrivances and horror-and-sentiment shock value (such as waking up right after Abitha has left him in the mental asylum, falling on the spiky gate, and not being able to escape from the asylum), Nandhaa is a subtle but brilliant psychological thriller.
The Indian populace has been so attuned to in-your-face aggrandizement of sentiment that I don't think most people are willing to accept subtlety. So many reviews claimed it wasn't plausible that Nandhaa's mother would hate him so much. It's perfectly plausible -- she saw him grinning over the corpse of his dead father, and in addition, in later life, he's willing to kill again. Remember, also, she is a deaf-mute. She would have been unable to hear the abuses her husband heaped on her -- Nandhaa would have heard every word. It's understandable that Nandhaa would hate his father more than she did. Another complaint in the reviews was that the Rajkiran-Nandhaa relationship wasn't well-established. It was perfectly well-established. The minute that Nandhaa, rejected by mother and sister, was asked by this man, "Saappitteeyaa?" and referred to as a son, Nandhaa was hooked, and it's entirely plausible he would worship him. This is a movie that works completely on plausibility -- quite a stretch for a Tamil film.
I'll tick off the good points of this film one by one. The direction. Bala excels. Okay, so he steals a couple of "Sethu" frames early in the film--the rest of the film is daringly different. Look at the way the "Maayane Andha" song has been picturised. Beautiful. Next, the dialogue. Wonderful dialogue. When Rajkiran quotes the Bhagavad- Gita, and gives his explanation of it, my blood chilled.
Next, the acting. Wow. Every single actor in the film has done a breathtakingly beautiful job. Surya is Nandhaa so completely. Rajkiran is his character so completely. Raajshri plays the deaf- mute mother character amazingly. And even Laila, who I would have thought incapable of an extraordinary toned-down performance (especially after her "whacked-out" role in Alli Thantha Vaanam) delivers some very funny lines in plausible Sri Lankan Tamil. The romance between her and Nandhaa (with the whole mortuary bit) is undeniably cute and fun and extraordinarily done.
This is a good movie. People are dismissing it as an "art film" so they're not seeing it. It seems the Indian populace dismisses anything that isn't masala as "art." Nandhaa isn't an art film. It's a good film that could hardly have been handled better. People are also dismissing it as a copy of "Sethu," but the two are entirely different (except for a few images from the beginning of "Nandhaa"). Plus, "Sethu" felt contrived. "Nandhaa" feels entirely natural.
It's definitely "Nandhaa" versus "Kutty" as the best films of the year.
NOTE ON THE MUSIC:
Yuvan Shankar Raja -- my new favorite music director -- has written absolutely beautiful music. My favorite four songs are "Mun Paniya," "Kalli Adi Kalli," "Oraayiram Yaanai," and "Maayanae Andha." I also feed bad because when watching the movie, I realized there was a beautiful unreleased background song ("Manithan") that I don't have on CD. I'm going to have to try and get it. The music is appropriate, haunting, and beautiful.
RECOMMENDATION:
Watch it in the theater. Definitely. Not because the colors show up better or the songs will seem better (because it will look the same on video), but because it's a really good movie.
VIJAY VANNIARAJAN