Madurai-Noir

Aadukalam(2011)

Dir: Vetrimaran

I don’t think I’m right in saying that it all began with a small brilliant 1992 film called Devar Magan, but perhaps the statement is quite true, at least from the way I see it. Devar Magan can be seen as the father of this genre which can be called simply and sufficiently ‘Madurai’, the place of its origin. Devar Magan set in one of the villages around Madurai starred thespian Sivaji Ganeshan and Kamal Hassan, which again draws inspiration from Godfather and in some ways better than the renowned ‘Nayagan’. There might have been films before and there surely have been films shot extensively in the region, but this was special; the birth of a genre which can be claimed as Tamil Cinema’s own and be seen on parallels with the ‘Western’

But then there is never one single baby, population grows; sometimes we are left with undesirable children; there is also the case where the child wants to emulate the elder and there is the black sheep who goes on to create something on his own.

But we must not forget the underdog, the underappreciated middle son; who is not the younger black sheep or the elder traditionalist but something of a middle man. He takes the best of both and adds a new branch to his family and waits for the leaves to come.

Vetrimaran is one such, a rare middle son or taking the above comparison to a higher level, Aadukalam is one such rare film.

In age where every Friday there is a ‘Madurai’ film or an ‘City’ film releasing and these genres purely defined by the local slang in the former and superficial English and tightly attired models posing as ‘city’ girls/heroines.

Aadukalam, starting from the title; the film could have hoped for no better name and it perfectly fits is based on the rooster fights in the Madurai District being led by two parties Pettaikaran and a police officer Ratnaswamy, Dhanush plays karuppu who works on the side of veteran Pettaikaran along with brother -like Durai. The first half mainly deals with the preparation for the big fight and a love track between an Anglo Indian girl and Karuppu, somewhere towards the end of the first half the big fight happens.

This by itself is highly unusual for mainstream Tamil cinema, where normal and even certain divergent directors might have saved the big fight for the climax, Vetrimaran however chooses to go beyond the normal climax and explores into what really happens after an event, which gives more scope to explore the minds of the characters.

Full credit to all the actors especially Dhanush who not only gets every slang right but also every scene and so do the actors who played Pettaikaran(jayabalan), Durai(Kishore) and Ratnaswamy(Naren).

I did not like much of the music, which might because of my prejudices with the music director; the setting of the film is brilliant, after a few shots we are quite accustomed to the twists and turns in the alleyways or the space(or lack of) in Karuppu’s home.

Aadukalam is a luminary example of the Madurai genre, but it is not the typical one, the film works on two levels one being the actual rooster fight and that of the metaphor: life by itself is a rooster fight for its protagonist.

This film is perhaps Sun Pictures’ greatest contribution to Tamil Cinema and we can hope that this isn’t Vetrimaran’s last.