But in reality i hear this film did well in some parts, not sure anyways.

Great Film, whose story is liberally borrowed(in parts) in kollywood, like Sethu - where the hero kidnaps heroine(for a short time), kathal kondein ect

at forumhub, there is lot more discussed on this movie, like the atheist angle, abiraami song ect…

The film looks at this man Guna, with unconditional sympathy; how he is doomed in this big bad world; and in that sense, it is a cynical film. Guna is a madman (an obsessional psychoneurotic) who is told, by a fellow asylum-inmate (Ananthu), that Abhirami (the Goddess) will marry him on a full sense of godliness attributed to him in the movie — he can unlock anything like cars, safes etc. and help his uncle in his thefts. He wants to be cleansed (in the famous scene Guna explaining to the doctor about how Abhirami would ‘cleanse’ him). He unconditionally believes that he is God, and that only Abhirami can cleanse him. This could be read as a “denotative” to Kamal himself. Kamal (Guna) is mentored by Ananthu (playing a metaphorical character), to a state of being blissfully obsessed about the art of cinema (Abhirami).

well i was imagining the famous scene like kamal was walking around and saying..”Aah, intha cinema asingam, kuthupaattu asingam, heroines thoppul asingam, producer’s cinema-arivu azhukku, elaathayum maathanum… maruthanaayagam edukkanum…hollywood poganum. oscar,oscar, oscar…”

Also the brothel is one of the most realistic and unapologetic from Indian cinema. After the excellent opening credits with the memorable BGM, the silence, the dark clouds cover the full moon, Guna on one leg, the camera swiftly moves to a window with shadows of love-making couple in the lit room, men watch the erotic dance on a open hall, gambling in a small closed room, clients leave (one speaks in hindi, the other in telugu - mali eppudu osthaaru?) The first significantly long dialogue (After some brilliant snippets of the area with the fluid tracking shot) of the film : kavala padatha, idhu AIDs illa, naan irukken Dr Madasaamy…naan solren ‘la..Penicillin irukkura varaikkum..eppadi AIDS varrom? (though not in verbatim, this speaks volumes about the “doctor”, and the ‘then’ awareness of the disease) Tour-de-force shot which precisely defines what “motion pictures” represent!

Though I was aware of the lore, I didn’t connect it with “Abiraami sonnaa pournami dhaan”. Lovely. btw do u know the lines/translation of “punniyam seythanamE manamE” ?

The Godness aspect makes the film very fascinating. Rosie mentions it first in the film - that she is ‘only’ human. “Amma sethuttaanga maadu” is when Guna mentions his ‘difference’ (a precursor to Manidhar uNarndhu koLLa). Janakaraj mentions it in a devious half praise: ” naan senjaa thappu….nee senjaa ? …..nee paadhi saami illayaa ?”. (Kamal’s reaction is lovely - who doesn’t love flattery).

Kumar at the Forumhub used to underline how this film documented the lack of tolerance for people who are even marginally different from the mainstream. So the derisive “you are different” could have morphed into the delusional “I am different”. I even suspect the hand of some self-helpisms from a certain psychiatist.

I also like to see Guna in conjuction with Mahanadhi as an critique of escapism. Our tradition makes the divine aspirations legitimate, indeed something to yearn for. To leave the mess and go to the hills, escapism masquerading as vanaprastham.

The delusion of uniqueness, the arrogance of knowledge, pride about living on a plane much higher than what was expected of us given our circumstances are vices we may all be guilty of. Or even vices we wish to be guilty of (to quote Charlie Kaufman from Adaptation: “I could be the only screnwriter who knows to play the oboe”). If you persist with that, the curse is you tend to believe it yourself. Your opinion of yourself is completely untainted by reality. A reality you prefer to turn away from.

So, Guna’s death “in reality” may not be heroic, tragic or romantic. It may just be plain ugly. He manages to have you tied down by the earnestness of his self-deception. So much so that you wish to consider his death heroic, tragic or romantic.

Interesting angle HAL. I would go further and say it may be about the impossibility of perfection at all. If the artist and viewer are aesthetically on the same line perhaps the creation of a film will be redundant. If they are not, the creation will be futile. And the process of creation is just absolutely peripheral : “Abiraami uLLa irukku..ezhuththellAm veLiya irukku”. One of my all time favourite dialogues in Tamil Film History.

I loved the long scene with the doctor - nice camera work to match Kamal’s fluency. I can’t think of any (OK, except Sivaji Ganesan himself) other tamil actor who could have done that scene that powerfully.

Kamal’s dark colored skin drew another parallel to Sivaji, who employed this while playing sympathetic and unfortunate characters in a few of his movies.

Great concept and a good story but felt it was short of its potential due to the poor way the story evolved through the movie. Kamal carried the movie but a better director would have produced a marvel.

Randramble,
Kamal’s reading of religions and their philosophies is well-grounded to say the least. His atheism doesn’t come off as a pet peeve of sorts he has on the ways of religion.

HAL,
Yes, I thought Ananthu playing the friend, philosopher and guide of Guna in the film was suggestive of their real-life equation, but to buy into that reading any further with respect to the motifs of the film would be a stretch, I think.

Prabhu Ram,
Yes, it touches upon how the marginal people are pushed to the very end. (And, it’s a superb point that you make about how the derisive “you are different” could morph into the delusional “I am different.”) What the film effectively documents is the delusional journey of a man who is simply unable to (”not allowed to” and “can’t” — they mean the same thing in real world) take himself for what he is. Above anything else, what I consider as important in the film is the way it shuns any kind of romanticising of Guna’s condition. The film takes an unflinching view of the protagonist and the kind of nonexistent salvation he’s looking for. Indeed, in reality, there’s nothing romantic about Guna’s journey and the salvation he attempts to attain through his death. (It’s deeply ironic that many tend to romanticise this salvation of his, applauding the film for its depiction of “divine” love of Guna for Abhirami, which is “pure” and devoid of all the “asingam” he finds in his world.)

Kannan,
Yes, it’s a very interesting angle. By placing his “origin” in that sort of place, the film makes us spontaneously understand what kind of salvation Guna is looking for. And, of course, this can also be seen as the ‘bare-it-all’ version of “the virgin birth.”

This is more of a “Fetish” for the mainstream critics, and people alike.

The film takes an unflinching view of the protagonist and the kind of nonexistent salvation he’s looking for.

Hmmm….I felt it did romanticize it a bit, just to whack you on the head when you get home and chew on it. How can you argue with: “Appo yaen laddu kudthe ?” Touching, funny, absurd, endearing and lump-in-the-throat, all in one line !!?! This guy just messes me up.

It doesn’t have to “argue with” his viewpoint, does it have to?

Not at all. That would have made it a very ‘ordinary’ film.

No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved - His Excellency Oscar Wilde

btw PostnAyaganist, whattaword !

Oh, by the by, yours truly is a postnayaganist; and, also a bigilist.

Wilde’s line is: ” An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style“. I was disagreeing with the word unpardonable , because ethical sympathies can get me Mahanadhis and Hey Rams.I should have put it better.

I liked the ‘unweildy’ one. When it comes to puns, I firmly belive in the pun groan-o-meter: the stronger the groan the better the pun.

btb, according to the clear material classifications enunciated by the Master, I am BiscOthist.

P.S. I’ve to admit that I don’t like puns that make people groan. And, I’m terribly disappointed that this one actually made you groan. I sincerely believe in puns with a concrete context; pun for the sake of pun is not that much fun.

P.P.S. It’s the same thing (as in the “ism of it” is the same), biskOthu or bigil. (Of course, that’s not to say biskOthu and bigil are the same, or that they could be so in an alternate world. They are different — even in a completely unique way, and that’s the very point.) I honour ‘bigilism’ as the official name of the doctrine because it comes off as a resounding rebuttal to nihilism.

On a more serious note, I apologise for starting off here with a recycled post. (I meant to add this note earlier, but didn’t manage to.)

Oho !

Re. bigil-biscothu, point taken. Though the philosophical standpoint the distinctions are crucial, for the sake of greater common good I dissolve my one member ism and join you in mainstream bigilism. Moreover, I like rebutaal its stands for. Very punny.

I’m terribly disappointed that this one actually made you groan. I sincerely believe in puns with a concrete context; pun for the sake of pun is not that much fun.

Ah ! Meant as a hearty compliment. This is why I should not say “why I like what I like”. Should leave that to pro-reviewers like you

And pun is its own argument I say. That juvenility is the closest Man can get to telling aging to sod-off.Unfortunately, the pun has been sub-classified under the joke category: which is restrictive. During my lifetime I’d like to see it move to its correct classification: poetry.

“varum…. varum…..vroomvroomvroomvroom” is just one example.

Ok, steered it back