‘Arumbu Meesai Kurumbu Parvai’ (Tamil)
Director: Vetriveeran
Cast: Chandru, Hasini, R Mohanbalu, Ollikumar, Pradip, Deivendran, Ugrapandi
With a meticulously crafted screenplay, clearly defined characters and a deft handling of the theme, writer- director Vetriveeran has etched out a realistic film — ‘Arumbu Meesai Kurumbu Paarvai’. The director, in his first film, displays immense confidence and a firm grip on the medium, steering his plot with total assurance and focus. The flaws are negligible and doesn’t much break the smooth flow of the narration.
The director (apprenticed with Bharatiraja) sets his plot in the backdrop of a co-educational government school in a small town. The dialogues are sharp and meaningful; the fights are well choreographed keeping the ambience authentic.
The classroom scenes are sensible and realistic unlike the usual campus-centered films.
The dingy small hostel room shared by about a dozen students and the unhygienic toilet area, all give the feel of a school with bare minimum facilities. The art director has done his job well.
The hostel students come from low economic strata and the day scholars are from a fairly affluent background. The characters are well fleshed out here. Whether it’s Guna, the ideal gutsy student and the hope of his mother or Moovendran, the funny one who at a crucial time stands up for his friend or Jayanthi the local bigwig’s daughter and Guna’s classmate since childhood or Mannar, the local rowdy who with his three cronies gives a miserable time to the hostel boys, all characters that stay on in the mind.
The most moving scene is where the warden (a mature portrayal by Mohanbalu) is made to pay for complaining against Mannar. Guna’s strategy to take on the gang and pay them back in their own coin is depicted in a convincing way. The director conveys a clear message that injustice and oppression should not be taken lying down. And that a united human endeavour is necessary to fight its perpetrators.
It’s a bunch of debutants, whose performances are realistic and believable. Guna’s raw natural fervour as the adolescent who realises that he had to take a stand if the students had to be protected against Mannar’s savagery, is well brought out by Chandru. Comely Hasini is the only known face here. Her romantic scenes with the hero are a pleasant watch. The romance gets a practical turn as the story reaches its ending. Despite its flippant title, AMKP is an engaging, thought- provoking campus story with a difference.