Wednesday, July 21, 2010

"Singam" - A short Review

The film is as any other Tamil masala formula for Tamizhnattu makkal, with dramatic dialogues and declarations meant for the Tamizh masses. True time-pass if one wants to spend time doing nothing much else.

However, there is one aspect in the movie which redeemed it for me. It dissented from the usual formula in modern tamil masalas, in showcasing the rural vs urban character. Usually in most movies (Take Gilli for instance), the hero is the guy from the metro (chennai of course!) who is intelligent, also knows all his martial arts and has the law on his side, ultimately. The villain is the goonda from the village, a country bumpkin who is all brawn and no brain.

Happily, in 'Singam' the hero is from the village; he is intelligent, smart, also knows to fight but tries always to avoid conflict, and of course has mass support. (You should watch the movie to see how this mass support is presented in the movie. Classic! and real). The villain is from chennai city with all the arrogance of coming from the capital. The juxtaposition was delightful for me.

A true-to-form scene is the dialogue between the police inspector hero and his corrupt superior, where the latter asks him, "do you think this (chennai) is a village for people to be illicitly brewing liquor?" And our hero lets loose a harangue that goes on and on about how we can think the village is inferior and chennai superior, and instances of all that is happening in chennai and so on. When the other guy can edge in to make his presence felt, he uses words like "remote tuticorin district potti kaadu", "small fry from dokku police station".

Response: I come from Potti Kaadu of Tuticorin district, from a dokku police station, bathing every day in Tamairaiparani river, and you come from this big city bathing in the stinking rotting smell of the coovum river. This is the difference between us.

Classic. No other word.

No comments:

Post a Comment