Mardaani

An early scene in Mardaani has Rani Mukherjee flipping through sunglasses, as a hawker compares her to present day Bollywood hunks - John Abhraham and Salmaan Khan, but only in an effort to make a quick buck. This plays out like a twist on the classic hero build up scenes that are essential to the action movie genre. In the very next scene, Rani Mukherjee get her own action hero moment, as she roughs up a hooligan, but such moments are rare in Pradeep Sarkar's Mardaani.

Mardaani plays out like a Vettaiyadu Vilayadu made with a younger, junior female cop as the protagonist, and with a straight and suave villain, with lesser investigation and more confrontation; sans a love interest and all the gore. The investigation is not milked for drama or edginess, at least early on, as the cop sits back and waits for things to happen, even though her niece does not find this to be an appropriate response. The villain is such a revelation (with a homage to Breaking Bad?), and the supporting characters chime in well. All that the cop's assistant Kabir does in investigations, is to play a good cop and follow it up immediately with a bad cop, but he does it effectively every time.


There are glimpses of the divergence from the usual action hero, when the husband interrupts a workout routine, or when Shivaani unlike an upright cop, is willing to bargain for Pyaari's release, or when she foul mouths like a boss, (what's up, Tamil censor board?). There is a little gem, when Shivaani is unable to save here husband's face, as she is kept away, not by devious plans, but just because she has dozed off after a late night investigation. There is also a role reversal of sorts, when before the interval, the husband asks the cop wife to stand up and fight it.

I was largely reliant on English sub-titles, and at times the subtleties of the dialogue were lost on me. But it was not easy to miss the plant/animal imagery that shows up, here and there. There is a chameleon view shot, that leads to the captives inside a truck. Coming after the hasty introduction (the movie's weakest bit, apart from the run up to the ending) given to Pyaari, it seemed pretentious and unconvincing. The other attempts come off really well. The film's opening scene, is a good example where Shivani uses a mouse trap to arrest a small time thug (The Mouse). There is also an imagery of a sunken bloomed flower, adorns the frame where we find Pyaari perched low after a rape. And thankfully, this not over explained (unlike Onaanum Aatukuttiyum) - Shivani references The Mouse type and The Snake type casually in one of the many one-on-one's with the villain.

The film does not show any Mumbai landmark, but creates a believable atmosphere. But for all that authentic portrayal, when the scenes move to Delhi, it leaves no opportunity to show us the landmarks, to indicate the shift in geography. And two thirds into the movie, it tries to add another eve-teasing layer to the deftly created villian's character, to re-establish this Delhiness!

While the film carefully eschews the standard action movie tropes, it could not resist manufacturing some drama and serve up a twist before the ending. I could not suppress a laugh when Shivaani plays it up to the gallery, and references the Lokpal bill.  The movie jogs to a predicable end, and the only thing that redeems the climax is that the villain is duly stomped to meet a Snake's end.

Jigarthanda

There is something about making a lot of short films that makes you grow into a better director of feature films, in an extremely short interval of time. Nothing else explains how Karthik Subburaj (like Balaji Mohan and Nalan Kumarasamy, who appears in a cameo here) keeps the audience engaged without resorting to any time tested Tamil cinema gimmick, and does it with consummate ease. Finally after 75 years of Tamil Cinema, you get to see a hero, friend zoning a heroine (who comes up with a quick reposte to restore the world order).

Subburaj takes us to his home turf of short films and weaves a story around Karthik (Siddharth) who moves to Madurai to collect material for his debut feature film, based on the life of local gangster Sethu (Bobby Simha). Quickly a bunch of supporting characters take over, from Karthik's friend Karunakaran, to the left (a booze addict), the right (a porn addict), a story teller, a saree thief, a son of an ex-don, a newbee gangster eager to lay his first kill and a strict acting coaching, major or minor - all fantastically etched. If Nan Irukka Bayamae saw Karunakaran shine in a comedic role in a horror movie, he shines in a similar prominent role in a gangster flick here.

Subburaj quickly and effectively establishes the stakes, and the gangsters loom large at the back of  your mind, even as the contours shift. As soon as Karthik breaks down the characters of the gang members, the film turns into a laugh riot. Subburaj sets up a short gag about the porn addict, with a few quick 'exchanges', goes for the money shot and just simply moves on to the next joke. The film has its gripping moment though. (Spoiler alert!) The lead up to the interval is just brilliant. The literal pause at the interval point is just as effective as the scenes that unfold before it.

After under selling himself in Chashme Baddoor and Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru, Siddharth returns to form, and holds himself ad mist an array of strong performances. He is brilliant when he breaks down under the weight of Simha's threat. And with each set back, his character turns more resolute and ruthless and few actors can exhibit this transition with a balance of conviction and subtlety. Simha is effective as the don, and like Siddharth is the only character with a varying character trajectory and does well at every point. Lakshmi Menon's saree puller starts of with much promise, but then is angle is not explored further than a heroine introduction (though Menon is very likeable as the enga ooru super figure).  Casting Vijay Sethupathi as Sethu in Karthik's reconstruction of the film scenes seems like a touch of genius! (A lot of people from the cast of Pudhupettai make an appearance here. I could count upto 4).

The best thing about Jigarthanda is how less distracting it is. You know you are completely in, when the gang makes a head count, you could second guess the next dialogue about, how if things had turned out differently they would be celebrating a half-century. Despite the tightness, Subburaj reuses the pause artifact at more than one places, especially towards the end, and it is no good if you can half second guess a change of heart in either of the lead characters, and lesser actors may not have held up till the end, [Spoiler alert!] so much that I was worried about the relative demerits of engaging in a long conversation with petrol all over your body. But by this time, Subburaj has left me with an impression that this is a great film, and hedging for a safe ending would not have made me change it. That's probably why he even lets Karunakaran question the lack wisdom in venturing from the hideout and ends the scene with a rationalizationz (and yet another joke)! The epilogue is a bonus! [Mega Spoiler alert!] Simha as a struggling actor in a film's epilogue? How many times!

 The cinematography stands out in one scene as Karthik contemplates before the conversation with the Kuruvamma story teller. And so does the music, at the start of Pradeep's vocal during a theme song. In a movie as engaging as this one, they just flicker brightly, whereas in a drab act like Thalaivaa, the cinematography is distracting because how it is so good, compared to the other aspects of the film. Apart from these moments, music and cinematography jell perfectly with the rest of the film. Songs cut in so seemlessly (kudos, Santosh Narayanan!) that I can not recollect the order of the songs. And when Subburaj wanders briefly, it is sheer Tarantino like brilliance, like when a self aware Karunakaran waves at his hallucination of Sivanesan!

Except for the gripping gangster build up scenes and Karthik's edginess, Jigarthanda is more a comedy film like "Boss Engira Baskaran" than a gangster flick like "Nayakan" or "Thalapathy". To me Jigarthanda works well both as a comedy and as a gangster film. [Spoiler alert] But I suspect there is more than one Karthik tricking us into believing that we are in for a gangster flick!