Angadi Theru is touching and true…

Angadi Theru Movie Review (4/5).

Angadi Theru means a Market.

And a heavily crowded market in Chennai means Ranganathan Street. And that’s where most of the movie unfolds. Many would have gone inside Saravana Stores. And how many of us would have thought about the uniformed sales people working there? Vasanthabalan just has not visited Ranganathan street. But paused and thought about it and made this touching script mixing some hard reality too.

The movie shows the lives of Kanni and Jothilingam for a period of roughly 1 year. And that happens to be the first year after they meet. They gain many things but loose many too.

There is no hard lined story in this film. This movie can be taken as a chapter in a very big novel. But this chapter seems to be the touching one in the whole novel.

Jothilangam a 12^th standard school topper from a village is forced to work for his family due to the sudden death of his father. He comes to Chennai and joins as a sales person at Senthil Muguran Store (S@r@v@n@ Stores). He meets Kanni who is also working there. What starts of as a fight soon turns into love due to trust which the pair develop on each other. But life is not easy. The hard reality is shown.. From the heavily crowded living area and the long and hard working hours to the strict, abusive and molesting floor supervisors. Although some things are over done in a cinematic way. Like the inhumane eating area where the workers have their lunch.

The movie progresses forward showing the lead pair’s lives, difficulties they face and then end with a real touching and inspirational climax. There is no big suspense, action or any commercial ingredient in the movie. It is just like traveling on smooth road without any speed breakers. But the road is also not so very smooth that we fall asleep. So the director has maintained that balance beautifully.

             Realistically shot at the Ranganathan Street. Where even taking a picture in your cell phone would be a tough task during the peak time. The camera man does deserve a huge applause for showing Ranganathan Street as it is. Then comes the songs and BGM department. The songs are all very well written with real good lyrics. Vasanthabalan has picked the best from his 2 music directors.

“aval appadi ondrum alagillai

avalukku yaarum yinai illai

Aval appadi ondrum colour illai

Aanaal athu oru kurai illai

Aval perithaai ondrum padikka villai
Avalai paditheen mudikavillai
Aval uduthum udaigal pidikavillai

Irunthum gavanikka marukka villai”

            Let’s talk about acting. The real appreciation would go to Anjali who portrays Kanni. She has done a superb job from the bubbly naughty girl to the face she portrays soon after getting trashed by the supervisor. She does a job which is very close to reality. And her acting is sure awarded with numerous future Tamil releases. The surprise package is Director A Venkatesh. Venkatesh hails from Tuticorin and his Tuticorin accent is quite authentic and sure his teeth and glasses make him a real frightening supervisor. He has done a good job and I think he would become a villain material in future movies. Mahesh as Jothilingam has done a decent job and supported Anjali throughout the film.

The editing could have been slightly better which would have increased the speed of the movie.

One interesting fact I noticed in the movie is it has quite a number of beating scenes where literally every character beat each other.  

This movie is strictly for people who are against commercial ingredients and who really love good cinema. So if you are the kind of hard core Vijay fan then give this movie a miss. Other wise if you skip this then you miss out seeing a good movie.

My rating for this movie is a 4 out of 5. Vasanthabalan scores..

Cast: Magesh as Jothilingam, Anjali as Kanni , Sneha (cameo), Block Pondy as  Marimuthu, Director A.Venkatesh as Karungali

Director: G.Vasanthabalan
Producers: K.Karunamurthy & C.Arun Pandiyan
Music Director: Vijay Antony & G.V.Prakash Kumar
Cinematographer: Riched M.Nathan
Lyrics: Na. Muthukumar
Dialogue: Jayamohan
Editor: Srikar Prasad
Art: G.K T.Muhtukumar
Stunts: Selva
P.R.O. : Diamond Babu


I had posted the same review on Behindwoods.com website and this review has been published by Behind woods on its Visitors Column. The Link for it is 
http://www.behindwoods.com/features/visitors-1/angadi-theru-anjali-vasanthabalan-03-04-10.html
Thanks Behindwoods.
Sabha
Update on 07th April 2010.