Pachaikili Muthucharam - very different

All of us know Gautam Menon's film making capabilities and he has just added another feather to his cap with Pachaikili Muthucharam. Before watching the movie, I heard mixed reactions from friends - some saying that the movie is excellent and some saying its crap. I could sense that the movie's opening hasn't been great, but there is something different about the movie which has made people pass extremely opposite judgements. This made me so open about the movie and I watched it with clarity without any bias.

The movie wasn't anything great as hyped, but definitely very different and made me watch with awe. It wasn't slow as some suggested. It was not fast, but brilliantly paced for such a story. Its not a love story, not an action movie, isn't a thriller - but a good movie worth watching at the theatres. Nothing is overdone, but I wonder how a few unparliamentary words escaped the censor. Harris' songs are mellifluous as you would expect. Aravind Krishna's camera should be one of the top highlights of the movie. Inspite of giving us a lot of close-ups, he doesn't hurt us in the eye. People have been shown so real, adding a huge tinge to their performances.

Venkatesh leads a happy and contended life with his wife Kalyani and a school-going son, Nanda. He isn't too ambitious and works for a pharmaceutical company and is stuck to Chennai and even avoids promotions to stay back there. Suddenly, the couple face a huge setback when their son is diagonised with diabetes and he has to take insulin injections daily. Venkatesh, though worried inside, is brave enough to continue the life confidently while Kalyani is downhearted and the beauty of their lives is thrown out of the window. This is when, Venkatesh meets Geetha and their friendship grows, though he is a bit guilty about the friendship. Before the relationship could shape up into an affair, he faces another blow and he loses all the money he had saved all these years. Gautam has moved the play exceedingly well as the hero uncovers some mystery and gains back all that he lost.

All these years, Sarathkumar does well either with a gun in his hand or some grey hairs on his head. Gautam has brought out the best in him without the gun or the grey hair, though he wields the gun towards the end. His skills come to the fore in many scenes like travelling in the call taxi with Jothika, finding his son and giving him an injection (starting scene), pleading with Andrea and many more. Andrea as Kalyani is not a let down. She does well when she is unable to forgive her husband and also later when she forgives and probably forgets. Jothika, I read, was the best part of the movie - but I have to disagree. The director has to be appreciated, yet again, for moving Jothika out of her usual stereotyped roles. But, Jothika was nowhere near the best she can normally deliver. She wasn't looking very pretty too - may be a deliberate attempt to portray her character. Milind Soman doesn't have much to do and one thing Gautam should stop is dubbing for the villain. Its too predictable and not at all gratified. Larger-than-life heroism is absent in the movie which makes you feel like watching the happenings next door and another good aspect of the ending is that the boy's disorder doesn't disappear cinematically.

All in all, I wonder why some people don't like the movie as its definitely a very different and bold movie which has been rendered extremely well by Gautam Menon with the help of Sarathkumar and Aravind Krishna. Though not a great movie superficially, don't miss it as the handling makes it a distinguished one.