Nandalala- Poignant,brilliant

Even though it's a long time the movie was released,I wanted to put this one on my blog board badly.By the time I have completed this write up,I would have lost the number of times I would have watched the movie. After a really long, long time, this is a movie that has compelled me to watch it twice in a theatre. First of all, this is no comparison with “Kikujiro”, since I have not watched it. Even if this is an inspiration from that supposedly gem of a movie, this is a brilliant attempt in Tamil cinema . Credits should be given to the director for avoiding any masala. Hats off to the director for having broken one of the most irritating clichés of Tamil cinema – intro song, duets, punch dialogues,,,It was heartening to come out of a movie hall in 2 hours ----which might set the trend for Tamil cinema.

The movie pivots on two heroes- BGM and cinematography

Like how the movie starts with IR, I also start with IR’s BGM and songs. It is yet another masterpiece from the wizard of RR .Just for a moment imagine the movie without IR’s BGM. The gross effect of the music and symphony is just out of the world experience. The use of various instruments is brilliant, although I am not aware of most of them. The orchestration in some scenes takes the film to a different level altogether without the need for any dialogues and has done all the talking.

The second hero is Mahesh muthuswamy.Some of the finest Tamil movies were mainly engrossing due to dialogues, characterizations and some fine performances from the protagonists. But I am really delighted seeing such a true visually talking movie. The movie had every typically Myskkin: shots close up frames interleaved with wide angle shots, definite top angles of sky, macro shots of nature like flowers, insects. The usage of montages has been perfect and has not been overdone even a bit.

The casting is almost perfect. The lead characters Mysskin, Snigdha and Aswath Ram have done their roles to almost perfection.Mysskin; the actor has come out with flying colours and has been really tickling throughout. Not casting a big star and taking one of the lead roles for himself, actually has worked in favour of the movie. The little chap Aswath looks to me as an already seasoned performer. The emotions he has potrayed at this age are very impressive. Mysskin, the director’s unusual knack of making unexpected casting ------ like Pandiarajan as Logu in Anjathey, has come to the fore once again. Snighdha as a sex worker has done her job to perfection ,even though she has little screen presence compared to both the protagonists .Even the small secondary characters have a long lasting impact on the viewer like the old tender coconut seller, the bullock cart driver, the lorry driver, the police man etc. Some inanimate objects like the yellow car used by the troublesome college lads or the bike used by the dad and his kid seems to be characters of their own.

Like a usual Mysskin fare, it has several of the director’s trademarks. Especially the small but witty dialogues, like the “bypass or main road comedy, stomach pain comedy” etc. Heart touching scenes in extremely small but exact doses like the handicapped girl treating a handicapped man. The effort gone into every minute detailing of each character is immaculate .The way Bhaskar mani character wears the shoes wrongly is a testimony to this. The director has conveyed most shots only through BGM and cinematography and leaving interpretation to the viewers like the scene where they meet the mother of the boy or let it be the scene where Bhaskar mani gets beaten up by a group of thugs when try to force away Snigdha .The editing is excellent and the transition from one scene to other is seamless and has greatly enhanced the quality of screenplay The only thing that is atypically Mysskin is the obvious absence of a kuthu song and yellow-sari clad women.

The only cons I would like to add, that too for the sake of commenting negative points is the way Bhaskar mani character is shaped appears a bit murky in the sense that some scenes depict him to be a normal man and on the other hand mentally affected in most scenes. Thinking from another angle ,the director might have taken the advantage that his degree of insanity is not defined anywhere. The song “Thalatta ketka naanum” song doesn’t seem to fit in the screenplay a bit ,in the sense that it appears a bit unnecessary and if the director could have done away with it ,the movie have been more compact and it would have been a near perfect movie.
According to my knowledge of Indian cinema, this has to be the most perfect road movie . KH himself has recommended the film to Sun movies. The latest accolade that “he would love to do a film” like Nandalala from none other than Bala truly is another feather in the cap for the movie.