From Suriya Sivakumar to Suriya to Suriya Jothika

14 years back, we had seen a boy making his debut with the dream girl Simran as his pair when he had Vijay who was one of the box office stars during that time. How many of us will have such a golden chance? Well it was Vasanth who roped in this man to Tamil cinema and all because of gem of tamil cinema, Mr. Sivakumar.

First few movies of a popular celebrity’s son will obviously result in a tragedy and comedy for the audience. Aval varuvala, aval varuvala song was mimicked by many teasing Suriya Sivakumar. Except for carrying the chocolate boy look, he didn’t do anything strange to attract big directors or try a different subject. From acting to dancing to fighting, what he did in Nerukku Ner was seriously funny. 

But the man took 5 years. From Nerukku Ner, he switched to another double hero subject and paired with the late Murali, in Kadhale Nimmadhi. But both the movies had a decent run with Deva, the music director who was at the peak in that time with his sensational peppy numbers. One cannot forget the song ‘Vidha Vidha ma soppu seepu kannaadi’. And then, he continued give some path breaking movies like Periyanna, Sandhippoma, Uyirile Kalandadhu. I honestly don’t remember a bit of Sandhippom or Uyirile Kaladadhu but I remember Vijay singing two songs for the movie Periyanna under the most talented director of Tamil Cinema, SAC.

In between these, Suriya Sivakumar had two decent movies which had a good story and music. They are Poovellam Kettupar and Friends, the latter being a remake of a Malayalam movie and eventually become one of the blockbuster of Tamil cinema. As I said, both had decent script but absolutely no scope of acting and Suriya Sivakumar continued to be emotionless actor sans expression and verbatim dialogue delivery.

Many would still argue, what was the path breaker for Suriya Sivakumar to become Suriya. I would still stand on the movie Nandhaa and not Khakka Khakka, of course the latter had much better acting. But, it was the movie Nandhaa, though didn’t do well in the box office, established or rather made a change to his name by throwing his dad’s name. It was Nandha which gave him Mounam Pesiyadhe which again was by the director Bala’s school of education, Ameer. Nandhaa didn’t go well with the box office but was critically acclaimed movie but Mounam Pesiyadhe had success in both areas. Also, in between the see-saw went the other side of cinema and tasted two bunch of garbage Shree and Unnai Ninaithu, the latter being the closest remake of a movie by the same director (Poove Unnakaaga).

2003 – 2005 is a period in which everyone started praising Suriya for the type of roles and the movie he selected. It is this period in which he started to concentrate more on his character than blindly selecting the movies like how he did in the past. He started with Khakka Khakka and it not only unearthed the talent of Suriya but also the director GV Menon who gave a romantic story Minnale. The movie did well at the box office and also attracted the critics. Suriya was praised for doing a cop role in more practical was than we had seen a cop before in tamil cinema.

Immediately after Khakka Khakka, he again went to the man who molded him, Bala. This time, it was not a main character, but the character which unearthed another talent, rather a difficult thing for a hero, comedy. He did the character with so much perfection, that people expected a National award for his role but poor fellow didn’t get one but Vikram bagged one for the movie.

For any actor, working under Mani Ratnam is a boon. Suriya too had that boon in Ayutha Ezhuthu. Though Madhavan did a fantastic role in that movie, Suriya was quite good enough for his character and did a decent job. Also, he did a remake of Kunju Koonan, the famous Malayalam movie as Perazhagan. The role that he did needs some effort of pain which Suriya learnt good lessons from Dilip and did a good job.

Ghajini, the plot stealer from Memento, yet again proved Suriya’s caliber. All is well known that Aamir Khan requested A.R Murugadoss to direct the same movie in Hindi which eventually become a blockbuster of all time in Indian cinema. Even though the comparison between the two Ghajini favored the Hindi version, Suriya Suriya dhaan. Another decent movie to his credit was Vaaranam Aayiram but again, because of the forth coming para, the value of his role in the movie was teased rather than being appreciated.

Now, at this point in life, he had earned a decent fame, and again he switched the cards to do some commercial pot boilers like Aaru, Sillunu Oru Kadhal, Vel. And this is another turning point in his career when added the name Suriya Jothika. He started to use his wife name in all possible areas. He started act everywhere apart from the movies. He started acting the stage, awards function, started attending regular television shows, started doing guest appearances, become stardom. This was the time when started using Jothika to earn popularity. Hope, he comes out of this sooner and get back to the period 2003-2005.

Naan Kadavul - Aham Brahmaasmi

I ain't eligible enough to review this master piece, but as a fan, as a lover of good cinema, I would like to thank Bala for giving this wonderful movie. Just sharing a few of my thoughts about the movie. I will defintely come back with a thesis about the movie after watching more number of times.

I am not gonna talk about the story, as I feel even that will spoil the curiousity of the viewers who haven't seen the movie. Honestly speaking, the movie took three years to release. But the active days involved in the shooting is not all the three years, but it would certainly be a year or so. This proves the amount hard work and home work and research involved in the movie. The only man behind the scene is none other than the great Bala.

Who on earth could make the physically and mentally challenged people to ACT? Who on earth could make the same people to dubb their own voice? HATS OFF is just two simple words to describe the talent and homework he has done. Imagine how he could have caught those physically challenged people from different cities. Ah! man, this thought itself makes me to ask for the director's cut.

He not only describes the lives of the forced beggers, but also exposes their inner character in the form of dark humour. Even though they were forced to beg, they live united teasing amongst themselves. One should witness the dialogue rendered by the beggers especially those sarcastic ones. They keep their knowledge about the news updated. Quite strange, but listening knowledge.

Aarya's pain. Though he doesn't have much screen presence when compared to other cast, he has done a fabulous job. It's again purely because of the mentor who could get what he wanted from Aarya. No doubt the amount of hard work and pain that he has to undergo in order to practise and live like an Aghori. The voice modulation with an arrogance amplitude modulation. The way he inhales dope, chew pan, practise aasanas, fearsome look, brave walk....what not?

Pooja occupying more screen presence is a welcome change and hardly very few directors does this. A few areas of hers could have been cleverly done, but other than that she completely gave us a treat. Special mention to the scene where the Villian beats her and the climax. One should also know that she dubbed her own voice but she could have also sung the songs in the scenes. I predict she could fetch a few laurels to her name.

Editing was not perfect in the movie. Wonder if we need to blame the Censor board or is it because of poor editing? I had to partially accept the fact that the movie has various jump in editing, but later I had to convince that the jump was present in each reel. Probably a different technique being used. But this has affected the continuity of the movie in some places.

Censor is another major contributor in this movie. This guy has earned a bunch full of abuses from most of the audience for each and every censor sound in the movie. Many scenes were trimmed or joined. Had given an 'A' certificate and included those scenes, I would have been even more happier as the movie length would have increased by 15-20 mins.

I was not happy with Arthur Wilson being the cinematographer before watching the movie. I expected Thiru or Rathnavelu to be a part of this master piece. But the first scene showing the banks of Ganges, WITH NO COLOR correction, no light effect and no CG, he has given a natural feeling. If he had given a color correction, I am sure the scenes shot at Kasi would have no meaning. Don't whose idea it was, but it was just a great and clever thought and sensible camera work. Even the dark godown where the beggers were dumped, had a slight light effect which no one could predict it as artificial. The bird eye shot of the Village and the Villian's begger dump area was catchy.

Art direction is yet another area where immense care has been taken to portray the real nature of the place. The temple stair path was amazingly a strange and real feel with the shops and also the waste papers and used bottles and 'Dhonnai' loitered in the path way. I am not sure, if they have shown the real people in Kasi or have they erected sets? But Art direction needs a special credit.

Dialogues were amazingly unique, hard hitting in a few instances, controversial, sarcastic, humourous, powerful. As I mentioned earlier, the dialogues rendered by the beggers were ultimate. Aarya had a few controversial and hard hitting dialogues. They should have also followed the exact rudras and the mantras.

Bala, without Ilayaraja is an incomplete man. I am angry on Bala, that he should have used 'Maadha Un Kovil' song in a demanding scene, which was replaced by some other known earlier track and made the scene to look artificial. But still, his Ramana Maalai could easily move any person. A perfect apt song for the situation and a perfect choice from his Ramana Malai. Madhu Balakrishnan's voice added more energy to the song. The opening song was a perfect for the role he portrayed. I can see lot of heroism in that song, especially for the intro aaasana posture. And the most important part, BGM. As usual, HE rocked the movie. Interestingly, silence was chosen as the BGM and a double base or Sangu or Udukkai to get a goosebump effect among the audience. The climax left me dumbstruck as I was wiping my hands for 15 mins to avoid goosebump.

Last but not least. The man behind all of them, Bala, the dumb guy(with respect) who makes his audience dumb. Creators of tamil cinema, please learn to direct a movie from this GENIUS.

Verdict : Defintely, brilliant movie from the Macho Man Bala!