12/13/09
Peraanmai-Powerful Action
When he directed 'E', the director wasn't known at all though his 'Iyarkai' is a very good movie. 'E' got an initial to this director and with that expectation, leaves him with his third venture 'Peraanmai'. This time, the director again used patriotism in its usual form. Saving the country's pride from terrorists reminds us none other than Vijaykanth, who is known and also done such a plot plenty. Well, there are reason for choosing Jeyam Ravi for the lead role. The Protagonist is seen with 5 lovely girls. Else, our captain would have made it a cakewalk.
That's the plot, saving the country's pride, launching a rocket, from unknown forces is the plot of Peraanmai and the director has written and executed the plot in a power packed action adventure and in a form of travelogue. 5 girls will 1 guy in a deep forest trekking makes us think how the story would have been connected in a justifiable manner. Yes, the director has done a remarkable justification to bring in 5 girls go with a man for a trekking. Jayam Ravi is the in-charge for NCC training camp for girls and he picks 5 girls from the group and take them for a one day trekking where they unleash the unknown forces trying to shatter India's pride and eventually they fight for the country's pride.
The above para is the main plot, but the director also shares a sub plot where he dictates a life of scheduled tribes and their education or rather the interest in education. He has shown how a guy from such caste behaves and also a portion shows their lifestyle. It was a surprise or rather a shock to see Jeyam Ravi in 'komanam'. In the same scene, the NCC girls, teases him. Also, when they hear the same person to be in-charge for them, they show a feeling of sigh because of his caste. A few other scenes were also used to showcase this underestimation of the caste.
First half of the movie focus primarily on the camp and the girls. It shows lifestyle of a women camp and the kind of language they use. Here is where, the censor board played a vital role. It tested the patience of the audience as most of the double meaning dialogues were muted. The director primary intention behind those dialogues are to imply the real lifetime scenario of what used to happen in a women training camp and in their rooms. And these 5 girls were not just picked for the sake of skin show and they have done a reasonable job. Immense focus is given to realism. And the director knows the importance of this realism and whenever he picturizes something, he comes up with an explanation. This is a good learning thing for the audience as they can come to various things about different things told in the movie.
Ponvannan character is shown very well in the first half as it acts as an important piece of justification towards the climax and also the second half where he hunts for Jayan Ravi in the forest. His character is shown as a person who earns popularity and at the same time he makes sure that his respect isn't disturbed. Presence of Vadivelu I would say kinda apt for the movie as it doesn't affect the pace of the movie much and also he did not use a separate track either that spoils the movie.
Moving onto the second half, the story primarily or rather completely shot in the deep forest. This is perhaps the first tamil movie which is shot extensively in forest. When the director called it a trekking, he meant trekking. Even when the team, when the so called trekking turned into a tragedy, uses the same situation as a learning experience for the NCC girls. He explains what to do and what not to do? Their travelogue instances leaves the latter portion of the second half to act as valid evidences.
The action sequences involved between the unknown forces and the NCC team is very realistic. Initially I felt it's gruesome to see some gory stunts but it's needed for this movie and well explained by the director. Again the director connects the first half instances with the second half sequences. It's shown how the girls practise during the training camp, how they shoot, how they react, etc., and accordingly the weapons will be distributed to them. It's a very good move by the director, where Jayam Ravi asks for the senior officer Kalpana's opinion on whom to distribute the weapons. As I said earlier, wherever the director says something, he makes it very logical with substantiating evidences.
With almost half of the movie shot in deep forest, with day/night scenes, it's not an easy job for the cinematographer. Unknown man, Sathishkumar steals the show. Amazing shot sequences. Shooting inside the forest itself is a very tough job and the color correction is used fantastically and more care is taken to enrich the shot especially during the night shots in the deep forest. Man, it's very difficult to shoot the chasing sequence inside the forest, and they have done it very well with the help of crane shots and run along shots.
Editing was real smooth throughout the movie. Again, the forest sequences and the switch over scenes from day/night has been cut brilliantly. Fast motion war game between the terrorist forces and the team has been cut crystal clear by VT Vijayan.
Action sequences again is amazing. Here, it's almost a carnivore strategy being used in all the fight sequences. A carnivore hunts its prey by grabbing the neck first and the prey eventually loses and surrenders. Likewise, in order to hunt a prey that's bigger than it's physical size, it hunts gradually making the prey immobile. Exactly the similar thing is followed in the stunt sequence where Jayam Ravi cuts the opponent's neck so that they don't shout which might alarm others and similarly, he takes a cunning movie with poisoned knife to hunt the giant Roland Kickinger.
Music is not bad and the BGM was OK in places. The songs were used effectively, what I mean effective is that they did not use the entire song. The climax song is really good with the voice of Madhu Balakrishnan giving more energy to the song.
Dialogues and the slang used in the movie is something noteworthy. As I said earlier, censor played a havoc in the first half but good that Sangam cinemas shares the muted dialogues and the reason why they muted. Anyway, they aren't very important though it gives a sigh to the audience when the audio goes mute then and there. Well, now the slang, literature tamil, 'Thooya Tamil' is used mostly in the movie. Another in direct and very good attempt by the director. One must know that, handling a plot where you have ammos, rocket launcher, directions, forest, landmines, rocket, computer, etc., it's quite tough to use literature tamil dialogues but it was done without any slightest glimpse of sighness from the audience. You can also observe, slowly the NCC girls starts speaking proper tamil after communication with Jayam Ravi. Why I am stressing so hard is because, towards the end of the movie, there will be scene where the girls come to know that Jayam Ravi speaks good english and wonder why he didn't speak to them in English. Jayam Ravi replies "Enga Makkaluku naan english pesina puriyaadhu, ungalukku naan english pesinaan pudikaadhu".
One area where the movie fails to the expectations is the CG. But the portions involving CG are minimum and it's negligible. Another thing which I often use for Jayam Ravi movies is his voice. I am still waiting for THE director who wants to experiment dubbing someone for Ravi. I often quote his voice doesn't sound mature. It's acceptable if it's a college boy, lover boy, chocolate boy role, but with a Captain's role, such a voice doesn't give us a complete result. But we have to appreciate the fact that he has done a good homework for the role he has taken.
Verdict : Peraanmai for Tamil Cinema
