SAIVAM - “Bakh” “Bakh” - for Vegetarians and
PETA activists!
Cast: - Nasser as Kathiresan, Kausal
as Vishalakshi, Ravi as Balamurugan, Rajalakshmi as Dhanalakshmi, Kalyani as
Meenakshi, Suresh as Meiyappan, Lakshmanan Ganesh as Ganesh, Vidhya as
Thenmozhi, Shakthi as Kumaran, Suchitra as Usha, Sara Arjun as Tamil Selvi,
Baasha as Senthil, Twara Desai as Abhirami, Ray Paul as Saravanan, George as
Raja, Malathi as Kala, Vittal as Ramanathan, Savithri as Kamatchi among others
& Crew: - A.L.Vijay,
Produced by – A.L.Alagappan, D.O.P – Nirav Shah, Music- G.V.Prakash Kumar, Edit
– Anthony, Distributed by – Red Giant Movies.
The
story, backdrop and setting (Screen play),
An
Intro: - I am deliberately avoiding writing the premise of this film as my
review should by itself serve as a premise of sorts.
This
genre of film making is a critic`s nightmare. Saivam really leaves a very
uncertain feeling at the end of the film. After watching the film you really
want to compliment the director for choosing an offbeat and seldom touched
subject Vegetarianism stemming out of animal cruelty but alas as a viewer and a
critic you are simply constrained and restrained as Saivam sadly falls short.
1. The director appears undecided on the depths he can go to highlight the
issues he has taken up and 2. He is not able to clearly balance the two main
issues he has taken up. And finally the director ends up making a docudrama
which may go well with activists of both causes but may simply not entertain
today’s discerning viewer. Critics will
praise this film as an offbeat and original idea and the film may end up
bagging a few awards too but in my opinion the director fails in his attempts
to showcase the cause and instead ended up focusing on the emotional bond
between the two protagonists Nasser and the granddaughter thereby even the lost
and found rooster which was placed in the film with a clear purpose is
relegated to the background. Nasser and the entire family finally change to
vegetarianism only because of their love for the little girl (the sweet little
thing) rather than the issue at hand - the ritual of animal sacrifice and the
cruelty meted out to the animal. Let me now highlight some of my thoughts which
may have worked better for this film:-
The first half opens with Kathireasan’s (Nasser) wife
achi (Vishalakshi) and servant Kala shopping at the local “Sandhai” (Farmer’s
Market) for non vegetarian goodies for Nasser.
My
opinion: - The presence of
the little girl Tamil Selvi (Baby Sara Arjun) at the “Sandhai” and the visualization of the impact of
seeing the dead animals, seafood etc however small on her would have served as
a good foil for her final characterization.
The director then attempts to characterize Tamil Selvi’s
kindness by making her free the animals tied up at home. Great!
My
Opinion: - Here again if a scene of Sara aiding or rescuing a few strays like
cattle, cat or perhaps a dog would have helped the films cause instead the
narration tends to drag
beyond permissible viewing limits by the director showing lengthy family
reunion scenes which somehow ends giving
most of the first half the feel of watching a Tamil
TV soap.
The scene now moves on to the family reunion feasting at
the traditional family home.
My
Opinion: - Here again the Sara should have been shown developing a further
distaste towards non vegetarian food especially after her market visit. (Gautama Buddha’s impact after a visit to the
city)
The family strongly believes that all their woes stems from their family
forgetting to sacrifice a rooster (affectionately named “papa” by the family)
to the family deity. What bugged me here was that the village in question
strangely has very few people living in it, the village at most times bears a
rather desolate and deserted look the streets are mostly empty and their
absence is not explained by the director. More often than not people seem to
appear and disappear as and when the director requires their presence in a particular
scene. Anyways back to the 1st half, each couple Nasser’s sons and
daughter in laws have various issues like infertility, job uncertainty etc was
very natural and added to the flow of the story though the problems at hand
could have had a little more intensity. Nasser in the interest of the family
finally decides to sacrifice the rooster. Then to everyone’s horror, the cause
of action “PAPA” the rooster goes missing. Here again the relationship of the
various characters takes a while to register. Everyone in the family starts a
frantic search for the rooster. Here the humor does work a bit for the film.
The idea of searching for the rooster starts at the school as the director had
earlier conceived a scene based on the nursery rhyme “Mary had a little lamb”
in Saivam “Baby Sara has a little black rooster” etc. The repeated usage of
“Bakh” “Bakh” after a point becomes rather childish. Here the grand dad Nasser
is a very kind hearted disciplinarian who believes in a self evolved tradition
that if anyone in the family commits a mistake he or she has to do a few “
Thoppukaranam’s” a kind of sit ups. Baby
Sara is most often the repeated offender. She is kind of impishly naughty at
times and at other times takes the blame upon herself for others. Since the
grand dad in particular and the family adore her and just cannot hurt her with
any kind of punishment, to Sarah “Thoppukaranam” literally becomes some kind of
ritual or tool rather than punishment! The
director also adds a bit of romance quotient of adolescent love between Senthil
(Nasser’s son Bashaa) and Malathi (mora ponnu) which actually works in this
film. The cock fight scene reminds you of “Aadukalam” and the song sung by Baby
Sara reminds you of the film “Indira”. The humor initially works while the
family begins the search for the rooster in but after a while becomes
repetitive and boring. The local Mandaravadhi/Magician using the betel leaf and
Mai (soot) is rather long drawn and becomes a drag and nonsensical after a
while. The age old Wi-Fi joke may work for some as the rest of the film lacks
any kind of credible wit or humor. The boy from Dubai has performed to his
potential which does add some spice to an otherwise insipid fare from most
others. The English speaking servant Raja is probably the one among the very
few who brings a kind of smile to your face and a few laughs. All other
artistes other than those mentioned in my review can be likened to stand in TV
soap artistes. The rooster being silent most of the time probably suffers from
partial laryngitis and crows only when the director though it fit!
Sp Mention:- The English speaking Sara pitted against the
city bred boy and the lack of Farming dialogue delivered by Nasser is worthy of mention.
and the climax: - The forced climax would have been equally
effective in the house as soon as the rooster was found! The final scene full
of “Thopukaranam” and Nasser’s dramatic act just fell flat and did not have the
desired impact as conceived by the director.
Acting: - Nasser as
Kathiresan, Good performance from the actor, very subdued and underplayed.
Similar to Shivaji’s performance in Kamal’s Deiva Magan. Though I got the feeling
that Nasser was trying a tad bit too hard to excel and perform! In fact at
times I could see a sense of desperation in his performance in probably trying
to make the film work all on his own!
Sara
Arjun: - Has essayed a very effective and endearing performance.
I wish the director had used more of her talent to essay this film to a much
higher level.
Malathi as the servant, Ray
Paul as the angry city bred boy, George the servant definitely worth a mention.
D.O.P:-
Nirav Shah’s lighting, framing and camera angles works exceedingly well for this
premise. The D.O.P has not exceeded the brief and his clarity of thought takes
the visualization to its desired climax.
Music:
-
The B.G score of having a combination of western music in the first half and
traditional music in the second half baffled me but probably the MD had some
idea in conceiving such a score. Uthara Unnikrishnan’s voice a big plus. It
matched Sara Arjun’s age, even though the song took us straight to the film
Indira. Gana song looks like a commercial add on.
Edit by
Antony is more than adequate. The movie length definitely helps!
Finally
to sum it all up, a quote: “Such films will get rave reviews, probably receive awards
and accolades but can never be termed as a great film! Few may love it but many
will not like it”
Bottom
Line:
- Cannot say OW! Neither cant say WOW! You simply end up saying AW! Could have been better!
My
Rating:- 1.5 for performance 1 for the premise & .25 Devoid of usual Masala
Total 2.75/5 with the thought - if only the director had put in more effort!
Until next time,
Director Haricharan
Chennai
29/06/2014
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