21 Grams (2003)

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Story: Guillermo Arriaga

Cast: Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio del Toro

Music: Gustavo Santaolalla

Time: 124 minutes

Bottom-line: Melancholic and dramatic, filled with excellent performances  

How much does life weigh?

How much does love weigh?

How much does revenge weigh?

The second instalment in the “Death trilogy” of Mexican director Alejandro Iñárritu takes its title from an experiment conducted in the early 20^th century, which attempted to prove that the human soul has a weight of its own… 21 grams, being the approximate numerical value. Iñárritu names his film accordingly to illustrate how much importance is given to abstract things like life and love; what if they each had a weight of their own?

The story is told in a hyperlink format, with three different storylines coalescing into one as the story progresses. Non-linear narrative is also used, which I felt was unnecessary; for films like Memento or Mullholland Drive it made sense to use this structure to make the narration effective, but to use it here only makes the story more difficult to follow. The film begins with Paul Rivers (Penn), a mathematics professor who is in a critical condition; he will not last more than a month unless he gets a new heart. Paul’s wife wants him to donate his sperm so that she can have his baby even after he dies. He agrees, until he finds out she has had an abortion without his knowledge…

 

Penn as Paul 

The second track talks about Cristina Peck (Watts), a recovering drug addict and active swimmer. She is now leading a normal family life with her husband and two girl children. Everything goes well till one evening when her husband and children are run over in a hit and run incident, leading to both the girls dying on the spot. The culprit is the third lead character: a convict-turned-priest, Jack Jordan (del Toro), who, after the incident, is deeply troubled with guilt. He decides to turn himself in, believing it is his “duty to God”. Cristina’s husband’s heart is donated to Paul, thereby linking all the storylines. How do the lives of the characters transform after the accident?

21 Grams gives us a lot to think about. Iñárritu brings together three very different characters, each of whom realise the value of life in a new way. Was Jack right in blaming God for all his actions? Was Paul right in tracking down and stalking Cristina? Was Cristina right in plotting revenge against Jack? These questions make us realise how every life affects the lives of so many others around them. Maybe one person loses his life, but in the big picture, does it lead to a new life springing forth somewhere, somehow? The last line of the film keeps echoing within my mind: They say we all lose 21 grams at the exact moment of our death. How much is gained? How much is gained?

 

Watts as Cristina

There are so many character transformations throughout the course of the film: Paul’s gradual infatuation towards Cristina, Jack becoming suicidal, Cristina taking on a pledge to avenge her family...and these play a major role in the theme of the film. Sean Penn and del Toro have done a decent job in acting, with subtle expressions of anger, and depression. Penn carries that air of charm around him too, with catchy lines like (to Cristina), “You can trust me; I have a good heart!”. Naomi Watts is the highlight amongst the actors; look out for the scenes where she realises that Paul has her husband’s heart and screams her heart out asking to get out of her house, and the scene when she cajoles Paul into killing Jack.

 

del Toro as Jack 

The cinematography is not as good as his later films… the shaky-cam technique is used a lot here, but the editing is quite good: all the quick cuts as the narrative structure/timeframe changes are clean. There are other recurring themes of Iñárritu in the film, like loneliness, human conscience, and as the name says, death. The tone of the film, the acting, and the storyline all weave a melancholic tale, with its own distinctive style. 21 Grams has a pretty decent “remake”: a Tamil film Chennaiyil Oru Naal, which also links the tales of 4 characters, following a road accident. It is equally dramatic, but made more in favour of the local audiences. Make it a point to watch both films!

My Rating: 4/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 80%

Amores Perros (2000)

English translation: Love is a Bitch

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Story: Guillermo Arriaga

Cast: Gael García Bernal, Vanessa Bauche, Álvaro Guerrero, Goya Toledo, Emilio Echevarría

Music: Gustavo Santaolalla

Time: 154 minutes

Bottom-line: Interesting storyline and themes; a powerful debut film

Iñárritu’s first film kicks off his career with dogfights, gunfights, hitmen, models and robberies, in this drama filled with violence: Amores Perros. The film is considered to be an “anthology” film, meaning it interlinks several (in this case, three) unrelated storylines with one single incident. Just to be clear, films like 21 Grams, Chennaiyil Oru Naal are said to have a “hyperlink narrative”, where all the different tracks coalesce into one; films like Neram and Pulp Fiction connect different storylines with different incidents, but not necessarily all. Amores Perros and Soderbergh’s Traffic have unrelated tracks, connected by a single incident or theme (the theme being drugs/drug usage in Traffic).

 

Bauche as Susana and Bernal as Octavio 

The first track is about Octavio (Bernal), his brother Ramiro, and his sister-in-law, Susana (Bauche). Octavio uses his Rottweiler, Cofi, to win (illegal) dog fights, and collects the money, hoping to escape with Susana when he notices his brother abusing her. Ramiro, apart from working in a shop, also commits heists. The second track talks about a Spanish model, Valeria (Toledo), and successful magazine publisher, Daniel (Guerrero), who leaves his family to live with her. The third track is the story of a vagrant/hitman El Chivo (Echevarría), who is hired by a client to kill his half-brother. All three storylines have one common point: a car accident between Octavio’s car and Valeria’s, that gravely injures the former, and almost permanently damages the leg of the latter.

 

Toledo as Valeria and Guerrero as Daniel 

Apart from the main storylines, the underlying themes are of more interest here. The use of dogs in all three tracks symbolises loyalty (and probably is the reason for the title too!); Octavio’s track features infidelity, as does the second, and the last one talks about trust issues between father and daughter, but the common thing being the dogs are always loyal to their owner, very much unlike humans. Another theme is related to the different classes of people in Mexico: the elite class (Valeria), the working class (Ramiro and Octavio) and the lower class (Chivo), and of course, the underworld. All of whom would have never met if not for the accident. Each of their lifestyles are also explored in a little detail, giving rise to many contrasting aspects.

 

Echevarría as El Chivo 

Iñárritu leaves a lot of things to interpretation; none of the fates of the characters are shown: be it the future between Susana and Octavio, the fate of the two brothers in the third track, or the fate of the relationship between Valeria and Daniel. There is a lot of graphic violence, particularly in the dog fights. The actors have all done well, especially Bernal and Toledo; Octavio’s encounters with his rival in dogfighting, and with his brother are the scenes where Bernal does his best. Echevarría plays the creepy character; he pops up now and then from the start, but the truth behind him is known only in the last half hour; the way his character transforms towards the very end makes you realise how skilled Echevarría is to play both roles equally well.

Amores Perros brings out themes that recur in the later Iñárritu films, but this film also talks a lot about the Mexican lifestyle. The stories are aptly chosen, and the car accident provides the best connection point. The film might drag a lot at times, and you may not like the open-ended climaxes, but overall, the presentation is superb. This film provided a highly successful start to Iñárritu’s film career, earning an Academy Award nomination for the Best Foreign film, and winning the BAFTA award for the same.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 92%

Maanagaram (2017)

English translation: Metropolis

Director: Lokesh Kanagaraj

Story: Lokesh Kanagaraj

Cast: Shri, Sundeep Kishan, Regina Cassandra, Charle

Music: Javed Riaz

Time: 137 minutes

Bottom-line: Easily the most exhilarating Indian film in a long time

When Maanagaram first hit the screens, everyone who saw the film was raving about it. A new director, with a new cast, pulls off one of the most thrilling films of the decade, the best part being that it all happens here in Chennai, where I live. This is the story of four unnamed characters (hence I will refer to them using the actors’ names) in Chennai, whose lives change over a period of 48 hours, in a tale full of coincidences and mistaken identities.

A young man from Trichy (Shri) comes to Chennai in search of a job at an IT company. His boss (Cassandra) hires him, and asks him to bring his original certificates the next day. Another man (Kishan), who loves Regina, decides to apply to the same company just to be with her. Meanwhile, a third guy (Charle) takes on a job as a taxi driver for the same IT company. He rents a taxi from PKP – a notorious gangster in the area. Their tales clash when a gang of ruffians beat up Shri instead of Kishan, steal his certificates, and drop them in Charle’s car. The same ruffians also hatch a plan to kidnap a boy, but they end up with the wrong child: PKP’s son. With Shri on the hunt for his documents, the ruffians desperate to escape from PKP, and Kishan trying to make Regina fall for him, how each of their lives change over the next night is what Maanagaram is about.

 

Shri and Cassandra

The first thing that intrigued me about the film is the hyperlink narrative structure used, a device also employed in films like Neram, 21 Grams and Babel. The difference is that instead of creating one or two common points for the various tracks to intersect, in Maanagaram, the tales intersect again and again, at different instances. At one point, you think there are too many coincidences, but heck, it’s called a coincidence for a reason, isn’t it? What’s ingenious is the way the story is so masterfully written that all the links between the tracks – and the plot twists – are solid: no incident seems unrealistic, and the timing of the twists is impeccable – and of course, the way they are shown on screen: just when you know something is going to happen, the track shifts to another one, leaving you in suspense. The near real-time experience makes it more interesting.

Charle 

Maanagaram portrays the darker side of the Chennai metropolis, starting from the simple, innocent person coming to Chennai in search of employment, to the underworld. The conversation between Shri and Charle is a memorable moment in the film, when the former questions why the city is so great. Shri complains that no one even wants to bat an eye when a human is beat up in the middle of the road, and everyone wants their bit of satisfaction, even it is at the cost of others’ suffering, to which Charle replies that no matter how much we drone on about the negative aspects of the city, we never want to leave Chennai either (applause from Chennaites!!). The fact that none of the main characters have names – and the fact that most of the acting crew is new – could imply that these incidents can happen to anyone in the city, and indeed, everyday there are people in search of employment, innocent people getting beat up, people in search of love and what not. The only thing that is exaggerated is probably the violence – every five minutes there is someone getting beaten up, and while that certainly adds masala to the plot, it doesn’t seem realistic.

 

Kishan

Shri has done extremely well in the lead role; I was amazed by the way he portrayed innocence through his character. The others have done decently well too. The technical aspects were a delight: from the stylish opening sequence, to the funky, electric background score, to the cinematography – again, maybe a tad too violent for a Tamil film – everything was superb. Of course, I liked the way humour was also incorporated into the plot. The climax ties almost all the loose ends up, and considering that there were so many plot twists, giving such a clean climax is a commendable achievement. Maanagaram is a must watch, and even more so for the locals.

My Rating: 4.5/5

Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum (2013)

English translation: The Wolf and the Lamb

Director: Mysskin

Story: Mysskin

Cast: Sri, Mysskin, Shaji, Raj Bharath

Music: Ilayaraaja

Time: 143 minutes

Bottom-line: A pulse-racing thriller; highly recommended

Dimly lit settings, a chilling background score, dialogues kept to a minimum, and of course, a lot of violence…you know it’s a Mysskin film when all these elements are present. This 2013 crime thriller is unique in a number of ways; for starters, it has no heroine or songs, and that, for a Tamil movie, is a big thing! Mysskin himself stars in the lead role, with several other not-so-famous actors forming the rest of the cast.

In the dead of the night, Chandru (Sri), a final year medical student, finds a man dying from a bullet wound on the road. With no one offering him help, he decides to take the man home and perform the operation himself. The next morning, he wakes up to find the man gone, with no evidence of last night’s events. Later, two cops arrest Chandru, accusing him of letting a criminal escape; we come to know that the dying man, code-named “Wolf” (Mysskin), is a criminal on the run for the past two years. Meanwhile, we also see another man, Thamba (Bharath), hatching a plan to capture the Wolf alive before the cops do. When the Wolf contacts Chandru and asks him to visit him one night, everyone is on their feet ready to kill the Wolf on sight... but then again, the Wolf has seen this coming too. The events taking place till dawn form the plot of the film.

Sri as Chandru

Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum has so many elements that you can find in Mysskin films. A mysterious beginning – seemingly unrelated to the plot – an almost real time story, complex characters, superb cinematography… I like the fact that he writes proper thriller stories without deviating from the crux with unnecessary comedy/romance tracks. The plot twists are really good, and all of them hit you with a bang. The action sequences are choreographed superbly. There are so many scenes to look out for: the sword/knife fight in the basement, the Wolf’s “countdown” of bullets being fired, to name a few. One reason why the story is much more exciting than an average thriller is because of the time frame; all the events happen over just one night so the viewers can feel seconds ticking away with every scene.

 

Mysskin as the Wolf

Ilayaraaja might be famous for several hit songs in his past, but in this film, he shows a whole new level of expertise with his background music composition. As such, the characters rarely talk; most of the time the music keeps playing in the background as we follow the action on screen, and having seen films like Jaws, Inception, and Psycho, I know how much an apt score can contribute the effectiveness of the thrill. The actors, despite being relatively new to Tamil cinema, have given amazing performances. Mysskin leads from the front, playing the perplexing character of the “Wolf”, and is aptly supported by Sri, who plays the Lamb. I like the way the tension is created, as the two of them play psychological games with each other. Just when you think Chandru has planned something, the Wolf has a counter-measure ready. In the end, it becomes a matter of human sympathy and conscience that brings about a change in both their characters. In the closing credits, we see how Mysskin considers the whole setting to be a forest, with different characters playing the role of different animals, with we the viewers, being the leaves, noticing everything silently.

Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum has only a few drawbacks in my view; I felt that the ending did not tie up all loose ends. Leaving things up to interpretation is one thing but in this case, some issues like the fate of Chandru’s family should have been sorted out. Another issue is, while I liked the use of violence in the film, I found the innumerable murders a bit overboard; Mysskin killing off characters like Tarantino made it a tad unrealistic. That aside, the remainder of the film is one hell of a roller-coaster ride, filled with all-round entertainment! Don’t miss it.

My Rating: 4/5