Virumaandi Tamil Movie
With 'Virumandi', KamalHassan undoubtedly proved his workmanship behind the camera as well by exhibiting the unadulterated culture, people, beliefs, tradition and most importantly the love and hospitality of the people of South Tamilnadu. "Mr. KamalHassan, is one hell of a GRAAMATHAAN ("Villager") in this movie and I enjoyed every bit of it and the Madurai Slang".
It's nothing but original and you should have hailed from a village (from Tamilnadu) to get the pure extract or you need someone from that place accompany you to the movie hall to do the translation work. Kamal also have done lotta justice in casting the right face for the right character. The only short-fall might be Kamal's complexion, he is little too fair than all others in the movie. My favourite pick is PeyKaaman (Shanmugasundaram), the sub jailor has lived his character.
"Death" - Unless caused by nature - it's an authoritative murder. This is the message from Kamal. But here is a question that arises at the end of the movie. Considerable number of lives are threatened and taken by Kamal's Aruvaal (sickle). who is accountable for those murders?
Virumandi (Kamal) is a village bully whose land is targetted for it's water resources by two kingpins Nallama Naaickan (Napolean) and Kothaala Thevar (Pasupathy). The greed leads to all chaos, bloodshed and violence. Kothaala Thevar, realising the crush that Virumandi has for Annalachumi (Abhirami) plans to backstab him by agreeing for his nieces' wedding with Virumandi. Virumandi, hoodwinked by thevar's tactics is finally convicted as the prime accused and imprisoned with a death sentence for the chain of murders executed by thevar (who getaway with a life imprisonment).
It's a classy and unique approach by Kamal in narrating the story by letting the two main characters tell their own versions to Angela Kathamuthu (Rohini) who is visiting the prison to film a documentary about death row inmates and to raise voice against death penalty. The film infact opens up with this frame where critics and a couple of death row inmates are interviewed for their comments about death penalty. While the two thirds of the movie is all about the flashbacks, the final third is in the Central Prison that forms the climax. Angela's video cam comes as a rescue for Kamal to prove his innocense. The evil elements get killed in the prison riot and justice wins at the end.
Abhirami - has portrayed her role flawless and matched Kamal in most occasions. Hats off Abhi. Way to go!. Slight disappointment that Napolean and Nasser were given insignificant roles and it's very unfortunate that very little was delivered from their acting factory. Kanthimathi and C.R.Saraswathy have done incredibly well. It's a promising re-entry for Rohini.
Maestro Ilayaraaja - Does he have to prove anything more, that too when it comes to a village subject??. The Music is so soothing and outstanding both on the song scores and the background scores. "Unna Vida" bags the crown of all.
Prabhakaran has transformed the Coca Cola grounds in Chennai to CK Patti in a fascinating manner. No words to describe his masterpiece. Keshav Prakash (from the school of Ravi K. Chandran) has earned a respect for his Guru. Vikram Dharma has given the metroiites a chance to witness a hair-raising Bull Fight sequence from the edge of their seats.
I got the feeling of living those 3 hours of movie time in the villages of NallamaNaickanur and ChinnaKolaarPatti and I am sure you'll get that too.
