A Road less traveled
The most intriguing portions of the movie are the first forty minutes. There are consciously muted, understated, grim and melancholic.
I still wonder, if there could have been a choice of plays which had greater variety and may be the plays should have addressed the 'Navarasas'.
However I infer that the grim choices are more to reflect and observe the sad state of the art form rather than the sad state of the artist.
The resurrection of the artist in the ensuing twenty minutes after the first forty minutes is pure delight.
There was one scene, in the beginning, where there is a reference to the influence of Technology on Art forms. However, the central conflict focuses on the compromise made in Art forms, in the name of commerce, that can potentially kill the artist in anybody.
I guess it is an important debate. Art forms and Artists have not only helped transform societies but also helped us evolve. I am just tempted to observe that Arts has probably helped 'humanize' humans!!!
One has to however reconcile to the fact that, in the name of commerce, Humanity itself is under threat.
This is a directors film aided by some out of the world acting by all the actors.
I visit the first forty minutes again, to dwell on the audacity of the director to conceive something that is completely alien to Tamil Cinema.
I may have differences of opinion on some sequences that may have been contrived, but not only is this film, well intentioned, but brilliantly executed.
Some of the pages of the book went missing, Balaji Dharaneetharan, but you went missing for six years, Sir, We hope you are ready to serve with greater frequency from now on.