Chapter 2
In the previous blog we’ve discussed the various key elements that separates Vadachennai from other political gangster dramas we’ve discussed about the brilliantly cut trailer and the unique album the creators have created acting as feathers to this cap sitting on this flamboyant film. But the markers didn’t want only feathers in their cap they needed pearls too, because, why not? This film had broken all the South Cinema cliches, so why not an old English saying?
So the two pearls they added to their cap and which is going to be discussing in the chapter 2 of the blood are namely Acting(I’ll write about how this is one of the pearls), and direction.
Acting
The first obvious question that arrives on the readers mind is how can acting be a flaunting feature for the movie. Everyone acts. What’s so special about it? So you see here’s where we get to the role of the intricate screenplay for a good film, the amount of panache it adds to a character and eventually the acting. It is so fascinating to see how each actors transcend us to their world, the range of emotions they get to potray is every actor’s dream. Also since it’s in a non linear fashion, the preceding emotion of the character can be totally opposite to what the character was feeling minutes earlier. Let’s take Anbu (Dhanush) for example. I’ll tell you the plethora of emotions he gets to potray from the first scene to the last.
Anbu’s emotional meter.
Fear – childish/passionate – excited – horny – reluctant/ angry/ anxious/ fearful – Smart/ loyalty – Sad/ guilt – Happy- loyal – confusion – brave – angry – matured
That’s the rollercoaster, Vetrimaaran wanted Anbu to take. That’s too new for Indian cinema offlate and that’s what made me add acting as one of the key feature of the movie. So this is for Anbu’s character. We also have Thambi, Guna, Senthil, Pazhani, Chandra, Kanna, Rajan, Padma, Velu, Siva. And everyone had a character arc providing a huge cannas for acting. In a generation where hyped up characters fell victim of improper writing and disappearing to voidness, seeing none of the characters getting wasted was in a way that we feel the eagerness to know the huge backstory each character has went through, was damn refreshing and reviving hope for Good Cinema.
It’s only when the script is weak, we notice the nuanced cinematic tools like, cinematography, acting, music etc. It’s not something that the human brain does on purpose, but rather it’s designed that way to look good in anything we admire. But a good script can fool this default brain behavior. That’s what Vadachennai does. Keep you so much entangled and engrossed in it’s screenplay that you fail to notice the brilliant performances of the most underrated actors in Tamil Cinema.
But yes, acting is something we can vouch for in the movie, you have a national award winning actor, on board where the actor has won it for his previous collaboration with the same director, and what Dhanush does with his face is truly astounding to watch. What he has portrayed, has to be counted in as history as one of the finest acting pieces of all time. Moreover he does not have to produce a film where he gets kicked on his back(literally), told to clean the toilet, underplayed by literally every person in the movie, given the fact that he is one of the top notches in the industry.
Direction
I don’t know when will people understand that it is the director that needs to be celebrated. No matter the actor writes the script, the actors perform in it, the producer shed in the moolah. The director is the one who provides the soul to the story, he’s the one to be present on field handling everything from banging the clapboard, the one extra peck of a smile conveying different emotion what the cinematographer is capturing, is the string pressed by the composer invoking the intended feeling, managing the expenses in a desired budget in a convinient fashion without going overboard and making the film LOOK rich as well.
This is where he shines bright as a director and how! Vetrimaran’s filmography includes Pollathavan(2007)(Which he stated he regrets making), Aadukalam(2011), Visaranai(2015), and Vadachennai, Of which Visarnai was the official entry for oscars for that year, and Aadukalam was one of the most eyeball grabber that year with 5 national film award including best actor and best director. So, when a person of his caliber is onboard we can expect nothing but proficiency. I would like to discuss some of the scenes from ‘Vadachennai’, layered in a nuanced subtext you’d hardly notice.
The tracking shot, Timestamp- 49:22
This scene occurs when Dhanush enters Senthil’s cell in the jail. The tracking shot that tracks down Dhanush from the behind where one of the Senthil’s henchman is taking Anbu to introduce him to Senthil. A continuous shot of 38 seconds, which gives us the entire, almost exact glimpse of the cell, metaphorically meaning that Anbu had now entered Senthil’s world is cunning.
The Aim, Timestamp- 1:59:26
This scene struck me later in the time after continuously watching the movie, I saw that the Rajan is shot in a way that looks similar like he’s been aimed at like a gunshot with four notches of the aim pointing at him, Metaphorically meaning that he’s been aimed and will be killed by 4 of his so-called-brothers. The voiceovers that are spoken at the time of the shot is also about killing Rajan. The same way, Anbu is shot when Rajan is dead and in his funeral bed, depicting that he is the next aim in the precedings.
In this blog we’ve discussed about the acting and direction of Vadachennai. In the preceding blogs, We’ll be discussing about various cinematic tools used in the films.
Also if you are a cinema enthusiast and like to share an article or write something about any good cinema, You can ping me on Instagram, or twitter I would be joyous to collaborate.
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