A Romantic ride from Chennai to Madras

Tamil Cinema had History movies as well as period movies but you can easily hand pick them. If you have to take History movies, a few brilliant numbers that strike first are Siraichaalai, directed by Priyadarshan, taking a portion of patriotic struggle in a prison as well as tagging a love story. Also we had many biographies like Bharathi, Periyaar, Iruvar, etc., which again portray about them. If you have to pick real period movies, we have our Hey Raam from our Master Kamal Haasan which was again a research on a truth. In the recent times, we had several 'in-the-name-of-period-movies' like Subramaniapuram and a few others which had very less use of art work but more dependant on Ilayaraja to show case them as a period movie. But Madarasapattinam holds a clear Period tag with appreciable research on Vintage madras.

The story should not be confused as a patriotic movie as marketed or as shown in the trailers. This is purely a romantic story 'PERIOD'. This is a clever take for a period movie. Quite often, when you make a period or a history movie, 99% will fall under patriotism. Yes, even this movie has such scenes but the romance was given more importance and Vijay has clearly conveyed at right situation. August 15, 1947 is THE day for the Indians, but when Paridhi hears about the British will be leaving the town, you could see a sigh! Even in scenes when Indians were eagerly expecting the Independence Day, you could see the lead in search for their love. But, Vijay has also touched many political areas during that time of Madras pretty carefully.

Before I dig the cast, I must appreciate the art director and the whole team's research work for taking us a tour to ancient Madras. The immense hard work in the art direction elevated a big higher with Nirav's magic in the form of camera. Check out the tone of color being used to differentiate Madras from Chennai. Lastly, I saw such a work in Kanchivaram thought it didn't have scope to show the present. Both were sensational throughout the movie. They don't just merely show us the hand pulled vehicles, trams, motor vehicles, etc., but they have concentrated on the tag or the advertisement it carries. Bravo! Adding more to it, they also tried to cover a few political events that happened during that era. We could see Nasser (Wrestling teacher) being an ardent follower of Nethaji, where he still believes that he is alive. And whenever an airplane flies, people started shouting 'kundu poduraanga' to imply the bombing in Madras during 1940s.

Talking about the cast and in particular about the support cast needs a special mention here. Late VMC Haneefa, man, we just lost a brilliant actor! As usual he made us laugh with his remarkable sense of humor and witty dialogues and of course his dialogue delivery. Aarya as Paridhi did a neat role. But the ample scope was put on Amy who carried the movie from the beginning till the end credits. If you know that she dubbed her own voice, she danced, she sang, will you believe? Not just that, her acting was sensational. She did right reactions at right places. The old Amy was magnificent. She had a dignified appearance which she carried very well. Balaji and the other comedian were seriously good in evoking laughter than the so-called Vivek & Vadivelu's irritation screen presence with a separate track for them. The taxi driver did a good role with stressing on donation part again and again. So, the casting was rightly chosen and quite neatly placed by the director.

I seriously had no hopes in the music when I heard GVP. But after listening to tracks pre release time, my hopes were quite decent. I can see maturity in this movie. The love theme was very clever and smart one which elevates the screen. His BGM in other scenes were also quite good and importantly not irritating. First thing that strike me at the cinema hall was the work of the editor Anthony. The screenplay travels from London to Chennai to Madras to Chennai to Madras to London to Chennai. The travel is smooth as a Benz car ride. The connector for the period switch like Sudhesi Mithran to Hindu or the Coovam to the Thames River is top notch! I never felt any jumps in the scene or any disturbance when a switch over is made. Great work in the editing department.

Vijay, the director after remaking scripts has proved that he has got some caliber and stuff. The opening scene seriously made me to think if it's going to be another Titanic but he just erases our thought soon. When you think that he has come to pre interval Lagaan, he comes again and ceases your thought immediately. I am just trying to say that one cannot take these scenes as evidences to equate it to Lagaan or Titanic. Though he still carried Priyadarshan flavor in the movie, I could see a new entry to the group of good film makers.

Verdict - Go for the pleasant romantic ride from Chennai to Madharasapattinam

Review posted @ www.clapsandboos.com