Anjathe (2008)

English translation: Do not fear

Director: Mysskin

Story: Mysskin

Cast: Narain, Ajmal, Prasanna, Vijaylakshmi

Music: Sundar C Babu

Time: 192 minutes

Bottom-line: A superbly acted cop drama

Mysskin’s second directorial feature, Anjathe, is a cop drama film starring Narain, Vijaylakshmi, Prasanna and Ajmal (in his debut film). The film would set the standards for several of Mysskin’s trademark techniques, and was highly praised for its technical expertise at the time of release.

Sathyavan (Narain) and Kiruba (Ajmal) are neighbours in the police quarters. The former is a rogue, involving in fights and spending time at the bar while the latter puts heart and soul into preparing for the IAS exam to become a police officer himself. Just before the exam, Sathyavan decides to show up as well; he uses malpractice to get selected, but Kiruba doesn’t get through. This has a drastic effect on their friendship. Months later, Sathyavan has matured into a sincere officer, while Kiruba has become an unemployed drunkard. In a parallel track, Deena (Prasanna) and Logu (Pandiarajan) extort money from businessmen by kidnapping and raping their daughters. When Deena realises Kiruba is vulnerable, he takes Kiruba under his wing, even though, unbeknownst to Kiruba, Deena had earlier attempted to molest Kiruba’s sister (Vijaylakshmi). While Kiruba is caught between guilt and desperation for money, Sathyavan has to choose between friendship and justice.

 

Narain as Sathyavan, and
Vijaylakshmi as Kiruba's sister, Udhra

The film runs over 3 hours, but it puts a lot of emphasis on the initial friendship between Sathyavan and Kiruba, and its slow but eventual deterioration into enmity. I like the way Mysskin developed the story on the fact that a good guy becomes a criminal and a rowdy becomes a good cop. Throughout the film, we see how the friendship becomes toxic, and even affects both families. Deena also talks about people who start their lives determined to “make things right” eventually end up in corrupt practices because no one values morals anymore. The other themes explored in the film are honour, desperation and sacrifice.

Narain, after his successful debut in Mysskin’s Chithiram Pesudhadi, takes on a similar bad-guy-turned-good role, and delivers it with justice. From the drunk rogue to the saviour of many, his acting is of a high quality till the end. Ajmal’s debut performance is highly impressive, especially the way he portrays his mental conflicts. The best of the lot, is Prasanna, in one of his most iconic roles. The main antagonist, the way his character’s mind works is pretty disturbing (look out for the scene where he convinces Kiruba to turn to corrupt ways), but with minimal lines, and using body language, and with a sadistic mind-set, this is one type of villain you will wish never existed in reality.

Prasanna as Deena (left) and Ajmal as Kiruba (right)

The film has several “Mysskin touches”, like I said. The cinematography is one: a number of long takes and a lot of shots focussing only on the people’s legs/feet. The staccato background score is another trait. One scene I found interesting is when Deena’s watch stops working; throughout the film, Deena is often shown seeing the time on his watch, and this scene symbolically indicates that "his time is up". I fail to see how the songs in this film became so popular though; I, for one, hated them. I think Mysskin did a good thing by removing song sequences from his later films. Anjathe, however, has a lot of other plus points that should make it worth your time, even though 192 minutes is a tad too long.

My Rating: 3.5/5