The movie opens with a blunt narrative of the rivalry between two petty political groups in North Madras. Immediately the narrative style grabbed the attention with ease and poise, because the bone of contention here is not about money or power (though it is indirectly), but it is because of a wall! Yes you read it correctly - “Wall” it is!!
Pa.Ranjith who made a decent debut with ‘Attakathi’, a soft romantic story based on the outskirt dwellers of Chennai, has come up with a dashing story of the little known politics that is perennial throughout North Madras. The story revolves around two political groups vying for power and in the ensuing battle, their underlings get butchered. Violence, power, politics, friendship, love and betrayal were the flavors used to spice the narrative, which was one of the most engaging in recent times.
Though ‘Pudhupettai’ took the initial plunge to depict the life as-is in the mean streets of North Madras, there, it was all about the goons and their escapades. Here we not only get a glimpse of the goons but also we get so close to the everyday lives of people who are in the lower middle strata, who have families with a breadwinner working in an IT firm, who live in housing units that hardly calls for a lofty living and with little aspirations. It is about a mother who constantly but emotionally banters her son with her line of ‘thavamirinthu pethen da unna’ (I gave birth to you through intense penance), a housewife who knows what her husband does is wrong but hardly has a say about it, a yester-year gangster who is reduced to an eccentric clown and so many others whose characterizations were pretty intriguing and who would not be even known to the upper or middle-class society even in other parts of Chennai (south, west and east). Their slang, body language and dialect made it look typical and sounded so ‘Madras’.
Karthi was at his best - be it in the emotional or action scenes, he had that boy-next-door looks to his advantage. At last, he seems to have recovered from his terrible rough patch. Catherine Tresa looked really odd amongst the crowd - she was like a doll and had the charms, but to survive the characterization in this milieu she might have required an entirely different feature set. The supporting cast were too good - first it’s Aathi, who had appeared in brief roles in many movies, has got a beefy role and has utilized it perfectly. Then the actor who was cast as ‘Johny’, the yesteryear goon, was a revelation. Then the goons who were carefully handpicked for their respective roles were just about fine.
Music by Santosh Narayanan and cinematography by Murali were the other major highlights of the movie. The raw feel of the narrow dwellings and the authenticity surrounding them (there was an electrical mosquito repellent bat at the background during one of the house shots) were too good for the detailing and thus helped elevate the narrative to the next level.
Though the story was predictable in the latter half and a wee bit longer, I cannot help but pass my hearty congrats to director Pa.Ranjith for dissecting the ‘North Madras’ ethos without making any compromises and laying it barely in front of our eyes even if it demands some blood and gore to be splashed on screen more often than not!!
Verdict: Very Good!
Rating: 3.5 / 5
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