I just finished seeing a movie. There are some things I feel very strongly about the movie and I wanted to write about it here. For many of the Forum members, my sincere apologies. This is a Tamil movie, and hopefully a dubbed Hindi version will be released.
First about the actor - Jayam Ravi. He started acting sometime around 2003. Maybe because of the way he looks, he has always been cast a soft spoken guy who keeps away from violence, too good to even tease girls, and just a goody goody boy next door. He was cast in a number of movies such as Dhaam Dhoom (2008), Santhosh Subramaniyam (2008), Deepavali (2007), Unnakum Ennakum Something Something (2006), M. Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi (2004), and Jayam (2003). In most of these movies Jayam comes across as a soft spoken guy, afraid of his father, and trying to grow up in life.
Suddenly he has been cast in a movie called
Peranmai. The title of the movie is a combination of two words 'per' and 'anmai'. A little difficult to translate, but 'Anmai' means manliness and 'per' mean big. Combined, the word refers to a man who is sure of himself, proud, and completely rules his own world.
Jayam is cast as Dhruvan, a forest guard, who also doubles up as a NCC instructor. He lives lives amongst a set of forest dwellers and spend his spare time teaching science, history, economics and a lot of other subjects to the village children. Dhruvan, BTW, is a member of our famous SC/ST.
One day, a set of college girls arrive at an NCC camp in a nearby college to be trained as NCC cadets. Five of the girls will be chosen at the end of the training to represent the college and the state in Delhi. As part of the training, the 5 girls will spend a complete day trekking in Virgin forests.
Dhruvan starts training the girls. The college team has five girls who are complete brats and will do anything for a lark. They take a dislike to Dhruvan, and are hell bent on teasing him and getting him into trouble. As the training come to a close, Dhruvan chooses the same girls for a day of trekking in the forest. The day of the trek, Dhruvan is supposed to bring the girls back by 1800 hours. Right from the start the trek is jinxed. First one of the girls takes a Jeep for a drive, and drives it off a mountain. As they proceed on foot, the girls think it is all a big joke and enjoy themselves as they continue to harass Dhruvan.
Suddenly one of the girls, who goes to relive herself in night, stumbles across two western mercenaries who are armed to the teeth. From this moment onwards, the movie explodes into non stop action. Dhruvan leads the five girls in a action packed adventure to stop the progress of the mercenaries. He displays an uncanny knowledge of the forest, the ability to disappear, and kill ruthlessly. Using this knowledge, Dhruvan goes about quietly hampering the progress of the mercenaries. For the girls, they suddenly see a committed man who does not even hesitate to kill a person. From a mild mannered person who gets harassed and even slapped by their brothers, they suddenly see a man quietly cornering unsuspecting mercenaries and killing them off in front of them. His logic? That he cannot handle all of them by himself and needs their help. That they must stop being silly girls and start fighting for their country and their lives literally instantly. When Dhruvan speaks to one of the mercenaries in fluent English, they realise he is made of a different kettle than what they thought. Their respect for him goes up and they don't hesitate to put their own lives in danger to fight alongside him.
The movie has no well known heroine. Just five ordinary looking girls who don't even use any make-up. Jayam Ravi has acted extremely well, and seems to have exercised hard to build a body for this movie. From a guy who gets harassed without any retort or objection, to a guy who precisely slices a mercenary as he tries to escape, Jayam carries the transformation well. From quietly accepting the five girls tease him to a commander who makes the girls do his bidding is effortless. Calm and composed all through, Jayam makes the transition from the soft boy to an action hero with ease.
The movie has a lot of technical shortcomings. Irrespective of that, my hats off to the Director - SP Jananathan - who had the guts to make this movie. Completely offbeat, this movie could shake the Tamil film industry even if it breaks even in the box office. None of the running around the tree. None of the 'hero/heroine could never die nor get hurt' nonsense. No duets. Simple harsh reality. Janathanan introduces Vadivelu, but realises that he actually has no role to play. Except for making him recite some of his stock dialogues, Janathanan puts Vadivelu to sleep early in the movie. Thank God for that.
I would urge all who understand Tamil to see this movie. As I said before there are lots of shortcomings, but you will still enjoy it nevertheless.
Cheers