Ganesh_reviews_in_detail : Modern Love (Chennai)
For the uninitiated, Modern Love is a column in the New York Times. Quoting NYT, core idea of this column is to publish honest personal essays about contemporary relationships. Owing to its popularity, it has evolved into other art forms like books, podcasts, TV shows etc. Coming to India, it had already gone for a ride across Mumbai and Hyderabad. Now the train (of thoughts and stories) have arrived at namma Chennai (our Chennai).
Elusive filmmaker Thiagarajan Kumararaja had been roped in as the creative producer, and he was asked to choose 5-6 stories from some N number of stories (N probably being more than 100, as per his interview), decide directors, and supervise the entire project with the goal being that the final product feels Chennai enough AND honest to the concept of Modern Love.
This was one good ride for me and I will be talking about the segments in the order I watched
Margazhi (December)
This short is about two teenagers who seek warmth and love during a cold phase in their lives. Well, thats pretty much what Chennaites seek in the month of December. Nice touch with the title! Written by Balaji Tharaneetharan (Director of Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (2012), Seethakaathi (2018)), this segment starts off well but meanders a little in between, and later ends it on a neat note.
Debutant Sanjula gives a very souful performance under the direction of (yet another debutant) Akshay Sundher. Ilayaraja’s music makes their debuts a dream debut and accentuates the impact of dialogue-less scenes so much that these feel better than a few verbose scenes. Though the ending seems convincing, it seemed low-key predictable since the movie followed the beats of teenage love right from the start. Nevertheless, this was a good watch and good addition to this collection! Again, that’s a cute title!!
Paravai Kootil Vaazhum Maangal (Deers living in a bird’s nest)
Raja X Raja. The veteran director Bharathiraja and ace musician Ilayaraja join hands nearly after 30 years (as per history) to hit the ball out of the park with this one. Good cinema. Written by debutant Pratheep Kumar, this segment probably has the most radical idea of love at its core. It deals with a mature transition from an expired marriage to a new one. The complexity is multiplied by the situation that the this love is not affecting the new/old couple alone, but kids too.
While divorce is the answer to expired marriages, this short goes one step ahead and explores something else. Kishore, Ramya Nambeesan and Vijayalakshmi carry this wonderfully with such finesse. There comes a place where the viewer feels Ramya is talking too much but the undercurrents make it necessary and it all works out beautifully when the situation gets resolved! This is the best I can do without spoilers and I urge you to watch it!
How the audiences interpret this short is hugely subjective. With all things said, I repeat, this is good cinema. Had there been even the slightest of the hiccups in any department, this short would have been a misfire. Bharathiraja said he felt challenged by the script and wanted to test if he still has “it” in him. Well, he sure does and he can go -
Ninaivo Oru Paravai (Memory is, but a bird)
For someone who has Super Deluxe (2019) in his all time top 5 Tamil movies list, this was a mild disappointment. I was excited when I saw that the segment directed and written by Thiagarajan Kumararaja is the longest one at 69 minutes (no, I don’t think he intended anything here despite this work being so liberal and vocal about sex w.r.t Tamil Cinema Standards). However, it ended up being a tiring watch except for handful of positives which kept me going - Ilayaraja, enthralling cinematography by Nirav Shah and Jeeva Shankar, few scenes which work enormously.
Wamiqa being just fine and debutant PB being a lil off in some places was taken care (again) by Ilayaraja’s peppy and electrifying music. I may be right , may be wrong, may not know to appreciate art - but come whatever - I feel this work of TK lacked a punch. Probably because I am not a fan of prioritizing style over substance. Further, there were a good number of meta references, which at one point felt like TK Universe?!? Who knows? Even TK doesn’t! (atleast as per his interviews!!)
Kaadhal Enbathu Kannula Heart Irukkura Emoji (Love = that emoji with heart in eyes)
You come back from work/college/school and you are scrolling through your phone in this social media era. The algorithms keep throwing memes, shorts, reels one after the another that are so rife with pop culture references. Make that into a short film with some semblance of story here and there, and this is the kind of product you will probably get.
I feel bad for this segment as I feel a good idea has been wasted due to execution which makes you wince and cringe at places. For example - Ritu Verma school portions should have definitely gone to a junior artist than having a full grown adult dress up in a weird way to play a girl half the age! And there was something which I found funny in a meta way and made me go why not brooo .. meme aave potten :D
Translation - the short laments that Tamil Cinema lacks breakup songs from a female POV (which is true AF). In this movie - female protagonist, has a breakup, there is an in-form GVP but they didn’t even take the opportunity to try one!
Lalagunda Bommaigal (Dolls of Lalagunda)
Written and directed by Cuckoo (2014) fame Raju Murugan (who has Karthi’s Japan in the pipeline), this short reminded of Mehandi Circus (2019) in the way the romance was treated. I wasn’t surprised when I found out he had written the latter. The feel was simple yet tantalizing. However, the similary ends there (fortunately) and he deals this short in a way you feel wowed by the end of it. The shock factor, followed by another pleasant twist work organically well and I almost don’t remember when was the last time I felt this.
Had Vikram team kept Rolex cameo as a proper secret, it would have been a GREAT experience given Tamil Cinema’s general apathy to multistarrers. But these tracker peoples and social media “hype”, ugghh!! Anyways, back to the topic, this is a solid work from all departments - right from Sean Roldan’s music to Gouri and Vasudevan’s (debut) acting performances. Further, I believe this short captures Chennai the most and not use it as a mere backdrop.
Imaigal (Eyelids)
Written by Balaji Tharaneetharan and directed by Balaji Sakthivel, this short features Ashok Selvan and debutant TJ Bhanu in the lead roles. While other shorts talked about finding love or falling in love, this talked about how love evolves post the homeymoon phase. One which involves patience, tolerance and care. I was curious as to why only 1 of 6 dealt with this core perspective of love. However, with just 1 in this genre, it does hit the bulls eye. Cute and sweet one. Yeah, we have one more winner.
Okay, that brings us to the end of this review. I am happy that Tamil Cinema got a kickass anthology where each short carries something special and will definitely work for a section of audience or many sections. Last time we got a banger anthology was Sillu Karupatti (2019) by Halitha Shameem in which all 4 shorts worked to an extent.
One another trend I noticed was the storytelling from female POV - margazhi, ninaivo .. , kaadhal enbathu .. - 3 out of 6 - that is a good ratio given how Tamil Cinema has very few stories from the other side. The rest 3 were from a neutral standpoint and had their women having good agency on the proceedings. Welcome this trend! Welcome writing such women!!
Last but not the least, this anthology’s album is a CRACKER. Its going to be quite tough to compete with it this year. Sean, Yuvan and GVP delivered good stuff. Ilayaraja delivered 3 - one each for teenage love, youth love, middle age love with tense sitation - at the age of 79. Let that sink in! The range, I tell you! G.O.A.T for a reason. Okay, lemme sign off before I start to annoy you with my fanboyism. But please do hear those tracks here, byeeeeee!!!
Hello reader! In case, we have not met ..
I am Ganesh and I love talking, reading and writing about cinema. You can read more about me here.
Nailed it again. 👌