VIDIYUM MUNN

THRILLER OR FILLER! - VIDIYUM MUN

Wikipedia says “It's about four formidable men, who, for three different reasons are chasing after two women in one day…“ The plot is about child sex trafficking and vigilante justice. It is what I call a ‘ding dong’ thriller! It has moments where the debutant director Balaji Kumar does manage to bring you to the edge of your seat but there are moments when he slackens and lets you relax back into the comfort of your seat.

Back Story

Balaji is full of effusive praise for his producer Javed Khayum – ‘My producer is a director’s dream come true’. The producer it appears extended his utmost cooperation and assistance in successfully completing the film in 68 days. He adds that he did not bat an eyelid when the budget exceeded the original estimates. In fact it appears he even opened a state of the art studio just in time to finish the post production of the film. WOW! The film is the first Tamil release of PVR pictures. All this is a definite plus to the debutant director. Has he managed to use all the initial impetus he got to bring out a good product? The director claims that he has achieved nearly 85% in the visual capture of his script. Is that really true? Does it show on screen? Read on!

Technical Presentation

The director and his team it appears burnt the mid night oil for nearly nine months and after 35 rough drafts they finalized the script.

In my opinion the narrative style is definitely different and has some enjoyable and taut moments but it also slackens in pace and tends to lag especially in the first half. I would give it a 55 percentage for script to visual translation. All in all it is very good attempt by a debutant director which has some distinctive narrative points. The screen play peps up the tempo but the dialogues bring it down especially Pooja’s dialogue delivery. The exception to this being John Vijay as Lankesh. He is a class apart! Malavika as Nandhini stands out, Vinoth Krishnan hardly speaks but he shows intensity in the few lines he delivers. The screen play is fairly engaging but could have been better.  For small budget films like this one, most of the roles I’ve mentioned below have to be performed by just one or two people. Therefore, more work is necessary on these basic issues to make the film visually memorable.

Casting

Vidiyum Munn would have been better served if a professional casting director had been in place. The casting director, usually with the input of the producer and director, chooses the actors who will best bring the characters to life - something more than a portrayal of characters.

Acting

Pooja as Rekha plays her role effectively and has really matured as an actor since I last met her. A very pretty and spirited girl with a lot of potential, her biggest minus in this film is her dialogue delivery.

Malavika as Nandhini is definitely a find and has played her part well and if used well will go places.

John Vijay as Lankesh fits this role to the tee! He is a class apart and outscores and outshines everyone else in this film. Kudos to the director for having cast him in this role. His dialogue delivery and voice modulation a big plus indeed.

Vinoth Kishan as Chinniah deserves a mention as he shows the intensity required for the role.

The others I feel can be tolerated and somehow I am unable to digest these Hollywood type of villains who are disfigured, breathe through a mask and speak in and hoarse and  barely decipherable undertones and villains like Chinniah who barely speak but use their eyebrows and eye blinks to communicate their wishes to their ‘Adiyaal’.

Cinematography

Shivakumar Vijayan the D.O.P of the film is a debutant. According to the director the major part of the film was shot in 35mm using an Arriflex camera (first camera was designed in 1937). The director was filled with sadness and his voice cracked when he said that his film will probably be among the last ones to be shot using film as even Kodak a major producer of raw stock has literally closed shop. He also claims that different types of digital cameras including 5D, 7D etc was also in play to shoot a fair amount of footage. Was all the different camera footage properly matched by way of colour etc? Shivakumar has definitely put in his heart and soul in this film and has managed to visually translate the director’s idea to a great extent. The matching and DI work has meshed and matched quite well.

Lighting

The DOP must be commended for using lighting to create natural and pleasing effects which complements the subject of the film

Costume design

Ms.Jayalakshmi the costumer has no major role to play in this film. Though I felt that a little more attention could have given especially in the scene where after a long tiring travel on the floor of a train Pooja’s sari looks new and unsoiled.

The costume designer selects apparel which enhances the director's vision and the actor's characterization, plus reflects time period and situation.

Direction

PROS: The director has definitely scored on certain fronts and found wanting in certain areas. Overall, he should be congratulated for making a decent thriller film which is devoid of the usual Tamil cinemas’ pet themes, love, lust, songs, item numbers, unwarranted comedy track, hero bashing, car chases etc. He has experimented and trusted a new and untested team of technicians with a few experienced artistes. He has also hit upon a novel idea in the portrayal of a ‘vigilante’ Villain! Usage of R.D. Burmans’ classic number at the right place. The action portions especially some of the techniques used by Chinniah were definitely a plus!

CONS: The stereo typed disfigured oxygen sucking (Hollywood) villain and the silent eyebrow raising (Kollywood) villain as depicted in this film is becoming quite repetitive. Lankesh, the third villain was a refreshing change though.  Dialogues and their delivery were not up to the mark.  Absence of humour quotient is a minus. Unnecessary CG work escalating production cost. BG at times mutes the dialogues.  Some of the artiste’s lacked clarity in dialogue delivery. John Vijay and Pooja were somehow well aware of the geography of a place they have never been to. The climax could have been shortened a tad bit. Lack of makeup continuity was visible in parts. The chemistry between Rekha and Malavika could have been portrayed better. Rekha and Devanayagi’s background lacked clarity. The agraharam humor was bland and rather in bad taste.

Editing

Good editing is seamless and unnoticed. Sathyaraj is an upcoming young editor who is presently working on many projects. Vidiyum Mun is his first Tamil film to be released. By the way, Sathya has worked on my Hindi telefilm. He is by nature a very dedicated, innovative and a quick learner. He has a very bright future in Tamil cinema. In this film too he has done a good job but I somehow felt that some of the unwanted scenes were a lag and a tad too long. Was it the directors’ call or a joint call to retain these scenes in their totality I wonder!

Makeup

The famous Anil Da from bollywood did the prosthetic make up. The process involves of taking a mold of a body part (often the face) to use as a base and normally skin safe silicon rubber is used for sculpting the prosthetic. (Dasavatharam)

In this film the prosthetic make up was totally wasted and did not have any major role to play in enhancing the quality of the film.

Music

The Music Director Girishh Gopalakrishnan scored the music and the BG for the film. It appears that a London based Indian singer Ms.Susheela Raman has sung a number and the BBC philharmonic orchestra was also used to infuse life and grandeur to the music for the film. The recording was completed at the A.R.Rehman music studio which is probably one of the best in the country and a tad expensive.

Girishh has again played his part in the composition of music for this film though at times the BG appeared to mute the dialogue making it rather difficult to understand what the actor was conveying. The BBC philharmonic orchestra blended quite well wherever it was used. Ms.Susheela Raman somehow did not live up to the hype created by the director and producer. In fact I felt she was off key in many places in the song she rendered.

Production design

The film was shot mainly in Poonamalee, Mahabalipuram, Sri Rangam and Pondy not necessarily in that order. The director handpicked the locations after an extensive tour of Chennai and other places and was ably assisted by his assistant directors.

The production designer takes the vision of the director and creates an environment. I call this communication the "third character."  Well! The locations served its purpose in this film and nothing more nothing less as they say.

Sound

It appears that Edward & Kailmamamai have infused life to the film by innovative sound recording techniques used 3 mics (i.e.) one for the short range, one for the mid and 1one for long range sound capture.

The sound crew has adequately played their part in capturing the dialogue, mixing the music, sound, sound effects, and additional background sounds to make the production better.

Special effects

The director has used quite of computer graphics which would have escalated production values. He says that extensive roto work was involved at times 15 to 20 layers of roto work was involved, as he claims the night by day shots were for the first time (probably for world cinema) was shot during forenoon.

I somehow felt that the Roto process used in this film was not justified in terms of value for money Vis a Vis the visual effects that it managed to create in the closing scenes of Vidiyum Munn. It appeared painted, muggy and artificial and probably the director could have put in more thought into making the climax scenes even more visually exciting and vibrant. Anyway it is Balaji Kumar’s call and he did what he thought was best. Somehow animation films like Snow White and a few other films were served better with this age old technology.

BOTTOM LINE:  Please watch the movie at least once. It will encourage more directors to make better films.

FOOTNOTE: I would just like to sum it up by stating I will be using this column to air my views as a director/producer but I will never forsake my primary right as an average viewer’s (Rs.120/-) right to like or dislike a film. As a director/producer I will attempt to highlight the technical pros & cons of Tamil cinema in particular and on cinema as a whole. I shall try to do so without any emotional bias or prejudice. My intention is definitely not to hurt the ardent and passionate Tamil cinema fans or for that matter anybody in the film industry. It is basically a miniscule effort on my part to help the average viewer to understand the language of cinema better. In short I will attempt to enhance the viewing pleasure of the interested film buff.

Until next time,

Haricharan