Asuran

While Asuran was a runaway success at many box offices and a darling of film festivals dare I voice my disappointment with it?

This is a violent, gory tale of a cast war over agricultural land usage rights told in the present and an unnecessarily long flashback just so the lead can show his wooing of a lady love and origins of his angry young man days.

Wealthy landlord wants poor farmer’s land, offends his wife, farmer’s son gets mad, landlord’s son kills farmer’s son and the revenge story continues…how many times have you seen this plot? Out of nowhere the small-framed farmer starts fighting like Rajnikanth. Now he needs to explain to his flabbergasted son where he got his ninja moves from so he launches into a looong flashback telling his brewer to farmer tale.

Sivasaami, the farmer, is a no-nonsense hot blooded bone breaker on the one hand and on the other hand he is agreeing to bow in front of every villager on the landlord’s command and surrenders to go to jail to save his son. He parts with the words that his son should study and get a bureaucratic job.

I made the mistake of starting to watch this movie after dinner. Let me say this – if you don’t want to taste your dinner twice avoid doing what I did. The gore in this movie rivals Quentine Tarantino’s imagination.

I kept waiting for the big turnaround in the plot, to no avail. (5/10)

Super Deluxe

I just got hit by a tsunami of four masterfully interwoven stories – each extraordinary in their own right. Three of them shining light on a different aspect of sexuality without any vulgarity. The fourth examining a man’s relationship to God.

Right from the opening scene one simply cannot “put down” this brilliant piece of art. With its hook-jab-hook-jab-jab-hook story punches it keeps you grasping for air as you try to digest what just happened. There is no shortage of bizarre moments in each story which shock and delight at the same time. A farting corpse, a traumatized neighborhood kid, an outspoken granny…what a craftsman of dark humor Kumararaja is!

Story #1: A girl forced into an arranged marriage has a fling with her ex-boyfriend who dies in her home. With the help of her husband she now has to find a way to dispose of the body.

Story #2: A father of a seven year old abandons his family, becomes transgender and comes back only to realize that while society may shun, ridicule and abuse him his child and wife accept him as he is.

Story #3: A group of schoolboys set out to watch a porn movie when one of them realizes his Mom is a porn actress.

Story #4: A man’s dogmatic belief in God is shaken when his son is in hospital and he realizes that he is not the only one ‘chosen’ by God.

Though I don’t speak the language the caliber of the actors was obvious from their expressions, body language and ease with which they portrayed their roles.

I couldn’t help but notice the excellent art direction and camera work that tied the stories together beyond the plot. There is plenty of color used in each story – houses in shabby chic decor, blue washed walls, vibrant clothes, even the light has a ‘color’ of its own – all of this makes even the weirdest places gain an air of classy. The camera direction has very cleverly used angles and perspectives to give meaning to the characters beyond what is being said or done by them, e.g. look for the scene where the transgender character is fighting policemen to curse the evil inspector who abused him. There is power bestowed on them by the camera’s lens.

The only thing that felt like a slight mismatch was the appearance of an alien girl who splices one of the school boys into two…ummm…maybe just a director’s quirk. I was close to bumping my rating down to 9 for this absurdity and the overstretched God-man scenes but the sheer brilliance of the rest of the movie kept me from doing it. (10/10)

This was my first ever Kollywood movie and if this is the benchmark I am going to have a hard time finding other Tamil gems like these.

Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo

A friend had recently shared a list of South Indian movie recommendations with me. I was excited to expand my purview of movies from the Indian sub-continent, especially as I had heard about some really good movies coming out of that part of India. I trust this friend’s taste but I think he tried to bamboozle me with this one. 😉 Out of the 15 or so movies he recommended what are the chances that I stepped on this Easter egg first? M, I haven’t lost faith yet! I will continue watching the others after I am over the injuries inflicted by Ala Vaikunthapuramaloo.

I have to admit my appreciation of an out and out South Indian hit may be a bit off. This movie made over 260 crore rupees at the box office and has an IMDB rating over 7. I, however, was not able to sit through this past the 45 minute mark. I kept giving myself 5 minute increments – 9 times! – until a violent voice inside me said “Kill this movie NOW or somebody is gonna get hurt!” Fearful of my own fury I stopped.

At first I thought I am watching a David Dhawan-esque movie with South Indian sensibilities. Bit by bit it dawned on me that my grey cells were at risk of mass extinction if I continued. Why? Here’s a sampling…

• The way the nurse holds a newborn and slaps him to check if he is alive might actually do the opposite…
• 2020…I know, Corona and all…but a mullet hairstyle for the main lead?
• There is a whole ‘fly in the air’ type of action sequence. Bonus: a chunni – used as a weapon – gets washed in the whole process!
• 20 minutes into it the first song hits you over the head with so much bling that it makes the Golden Temple in Amritsar look pale – giant gold rapper pendant, gold playing cards, gold sneakers, gold car keys, …
• The lead actor gets a job by hanging his future employer upside down by his legs. Go figure.
• The “heroin” is objectified down to her legs (literally) from the moment she enters the frame. The “hero” simply cannot take his gaze off of her legs for any conversation he is having with her. I finally lost it when the next song came on: “My eyes are hooked on to your legs!” [<– literal translation]

These are just sample atrocities from the first 45 minutes!

My ratings scale is shaken right now but I’ll give this a 1/10 purely so I can keep my faith alive in Tollywood. (1/10)

Pray for my mental recovery and I shall be back with another Kolly-/Tolly-/Mollywood review for you soon.