Runtime: 156 minutes
Directed by: Mani Ratnam
Starring: Kamal Hassan, Saranya Ponvannan, Delhi Ganesh, Janakaraj, Karthika
From: Muktha Films/Sujatha Film
Not the usual wackiness I seek out in Indian cinema, but still a movie worth seeing.
In the past ten or so years I have checked out various films from India, usually the wacky ones (like Dhoom or Khoon Khoon, which is a sanitized version of Dirty Harry!) but also more serious films like Sholay. Most were enjoyable for what they were; Bollywood and everything else from the country is its own unique beast between how most of its product is rather long, mixes in various genres and even in what's been described as an Indian version of The Godfather-complete with a kill lifted straight from the classic-there are several musical numbers. The reason why I selected this was not just its easy availability on Prime; IMDb has its own separate list of the top motion pictures from India. This is currently ranked 4th, above Ray's The World of Apu. Something ranked that high among what I presume are native viewers... it seemed worthy of viewing.
It follows most of the life of Velu, a man who has been against law enforcement and the establishment since he was a kid, due to the cops killing his union leader pops. Through sheer determination in the lower class backgrould he would have once he found a new dad, Velu becomes like a Mafia don; people ask him for favors and he dishes out justice, no matter how brutal it may be. Velu's happy to kill a corrupt A-hole police officer but able to help out children in need and wants teenagers (including the ones he would eventually have) to get an education. Of course others want to usurp his power and you do see people die. Of course there's also friction involving his family.
This movie in the Tamil language was loosely based on a real life Mumbai gangster known as Varadarajan Mudaliar. While this does show the murder and the smuggling, it was still a sanitized look at his life which stresses the helping of his slums and why many there looked at him almost like a deity. It was a very good movie overall which made me realize that even back then Indian films were prone to plot twists that were on the outlandish side. Be that as it may it was an epic journey seeing all those events throughout his life and the various entities wishing to end his reign. The songs were find and the soundtrack was rather varied... it has everything from late 80's sounding jazz to music impossible to describe with nevertheless managed to work in context.
It does make me want to see this country's product far more often.
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