2019, Tamil, Netflix, 8.4/10 IMDB, Thiagarajan Kumararaja
A testingly slow series of screenplay- interestingly embedded in an array of puzzles, ranging from sheer existence of life, to perceptions on sexual orientations to spiritual beliefs. All this morality is wickedly preached through immoral means, coined as ‘futuristic evolution’.
The director, Thiyagarajan Kumararaja, what we know of him from his previous outing, eight long years ago, in Aranya Kaandam – he is a person who is detrimental to pick his characters from the most immoral background and try to voice out our morally insane life’s philosophy through those characters, leaving us to ponder about our own deceit self in today’s scandalous world.
Contrary to what the trailer promotes, it’s not just Vijay sethupathi who steals the show, as the entire muster fights the battle for the best performances, starting from the adorable Tiny Tot Ashwanth.
The characters are not what director Balachander dared in his movies, not that of Mani Rathnam’s charaded dark world, but of the infidel world that parallels our pious, god-fearing, genuine life, which we loudly proclaim that we are not part of and discard it as filth. Thiyagarajan kumararaja’s morale is unique and new to us tamil movie goers. He is to us, what the two legends were, when they crafted such daring epic movies ahead of their times.
A toddler craving for his father’s presence and a transgender reaching out to his son, an infidel wife with her naively loving husband and dead body of her ex-boyfriend, the porn star mom ironically with her porn-craving son and friends along with his confusingly converted father with his religious PRO, crook bisexual cop and his civil constables, an alien who talks about cell division and evolution, a porn movie which concludes ‘what is wrong now, may not be so in another 100 years’ and this is inevitably called ‘Evolution’.
Is that even remotely close to any characterisation that we have heard of in Tamil cinema? Nope. But this is universaly unique if taken in the right context and coming from us, one of the oldest civilization on earth, does make the rest of the world turn their heads towards us.
Selvaragavan’s Aayirathil Oruvan and Irandam Ulagam were never understood in the entire context of it’s maker’s perspective and that was the case with this director’s debut movie as well. At least the opening for this movie is big with promising casts and wish the movie is acclaimed better this time.
It’s the brain child of many creators say, Nalan kumarasamy, Mysskin, Neelan. K. Sekar along with Thiyagarajan. It needs loads of decoding before one can like or dislike the movie. Unless watched many a times with a critic eye, one is left handicapped to commend or malign the maker.
The efforts and years worth of preparations on such a shadowy screenplay, in a contemporary movie, laying foundation to a whole new set of logics, which we weren’t aware of, shouldn’t be left unappreciated.
Kudos team. Kudos Vijay sethupathi , Samantha, Fahad, Ramya Krishna, Gayathri, Ashwanth, Mysskin.