Aadukalam | 2011
Genre: Drama /Crime
Author : Srivathsa
Synopsis: "Aadukalam" stands out for its character build
First of all, I have to admit that I admired the final credits, where the director,
Vetrimaaran, wisely lists out the films and books, his movie "Aadukalam" was enthused
from, right after his directorial credits. The filmography included Alejandro Gonzalez
Inarritu's films, KamalHassan "Virumaandi" and a few more. Rightly so, the cock
fight sequences were definitely inspired from Inarritu's grippingly fierce "Amores
Perros", only with a different animal. It was the canine in the former. Even when
the movie doesn’t get near these inspirations, it has its hold.
The film "Aadukalam", chiefly revolves around three individuals, who are certain
about their awareness in the pastoral game of cock fight (visual effects, convincingly
done). It’s a story of rivalry, perfidy and allegiance. Dhanush, who plays Karuppu,
is as apposite, as he was in Selvaraghavan's Goodfella-ish "Pudhupettai" and so
is Kishore, who plays Durai. The first thirty minutes of the movie, didn’t have
me by throat; It had shoddy editing; patchy scripting and vague chaotic imagery
(unlike Inarritu's offing), but then the movie, swiftly catches the impetus and
becomes a surprisingly proficient offering.
The tonal variations of the movie, becomes distinctive, settling itself in restricting
the number of characters to a very noticeable few. The characters execute their
duty with rightness. "Aadukalam" was more like an assorted box with characters comparable
to Joesph Maleknowicz's "All About eve", cock fights analogous to fights in "Amores
Perros" and betrayals as in "Virumaandi". It also had a tinge of "Paruthiveeran"
at the end. Did I forget to mention, the unimportant, romance in the movie?
Thankfully enough, there were no compulsive fitting of songs, even though it had
a few good, well choreographed numbers, quite essential for a commercial movie in
the Tamil film industry. The movie is sceptically dark and carries that rustic native
look. The only trouble it has is the dilemma on the story; if it has to cross the
line between art house and commercial cinema. It sure doesn’t falter for the same
reason.
It was quite a delicacy to watch the characters falling into place, so skilfully
well. "Aadukalam" is worth an effort, by Vetrimaaran. It succeeds on a few levels;
in fact on more important levels of a few marvellously crafted characters, which
we don’t quite see regularly, these days in the Indian movie industry.