Aaranya Kaandam (2011)

English translation: Jungle Chapter

Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Story: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sampath Raj, Yasmin Ponnappa

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Time: 113 minutes

Bottom-line: Violent, avant-garde and immensely entertaining

Edhu dharumam?
Edhu thavayo, adhuve dharumam.  
Newcomer Thiagarajan Kumararaja stuns the Tamil film-going crowd with his gangster flick, Aaranya Kaandam. Starring Jackie Shroff, Sampath Raj and Yasmin Ponnappa in the lead roles, with Ravi Krishna, Master Vasanth and Guru Somasundaram in the supporting roles, this is a story of how the lives of six people change within a day. Far more violent than most Tamil films, Aaranya Kaandam had a tough time with the censor board, ultimately getting an A certificate after 52 cuts.

 

Krishna as Sappai (left) and Shroff as Singaperumal

Singaperumal (Shroff) is an ageing gangster in Chennai. He has kept a young girl, Subbu (Ponnappa) as a prisoner in his house, hoping to have sex with her, but he finds himself impotent. Having had enough of Singaperumal’s abuse, one of his men, Sappai (Krishna) and Subbu, plan to rob him and escape. Another of Singaperumal’s henchmen is Pasupathi (Sampath), who proposes that they take on a risky deal involving cocaine worth 2 crores. When Singaperumal refuses, Pasupathi mocks his old age and offers to handle the deal himself. The stash actually belongs to Singaperumal’s arch-rival, Gajendran, another gangster. En route to the pickup spot, Singaperumal orders his men to kill Pasupathi, but the latter escapes. Meanwhile, the person actually delivering the drugs drinks too much and dies, and the cocaine comes into the possession of a poor father-son duo, Kalaya (Guru) and Kodukapuli (Vasanth). As the tales of Singaperumal, Gajendran, Sappai, Subbu, Pasupathi, Kalaya and Kodukapuli get intertwined, the result is a bloody fight for survival.

 

Sampath as Pasupathi

The title is the name of one of the chapters of the epic, Ramayana. Here, the reference is that everyone involved in the movie "turns into an animal", in the sense that they forget all emotions and only focus on survival. Also, notice how the characters have the names of animals – Singam is "lion", Pasu is "cow", and Gajendran is "elephant." The script moves at a breakneck pace, with every scene and dialogue fitting into the story, smoothly leading from one act to the next (in particular, the whole speaker phone scene is so well-written that it's impossible to expect what's coming). The shift from one track to another and the way Kumararaja ties everything together in the end again is superb. In Subbu’s tale, I felt the ending wasn’t “karma”-tic enough, but that would be the only fault I find in the story.

 

Vasanth as Kodukapuli (left) and Guru as Kalaya (right)

With plenty of violence, there are a number of scenes which are blurred out, as well as a lot of swear words that are bleeped out. Kumararaja expressed his dissatisfaction over the censoring, saying that it would make the film “less natural”. Nevertheless, hats off to him for making a film this bold, breaking several taboos of Tamil cinema. The use of slow-motion and other cinematographic techniques is also new. The film went on to win the National Awards for Best Editing and Best Debut. The performances of most actors are top notch. Yasmin Ponnappa’s acting is really good but I feel the voice artist could have done better. At times it seems too childish (not sure if that was the intention, though).  

 

Yasmin Ponnappa as Subbu

Overall, Aaranya Kaandam is a thorough entertainer, albeit not a family movie. If you are looking for an unconventional film, this should definitely be on your list.

My Rating: 4/5