Originally Posted by
mappi
Moodar Koodam (Tamil : 2013 : 2h15m)
Written & Directed by Naveen
Produced by Pandiraj
Music by Natarajan Sankaran
Cinematography by Tony Chan
Editing by Athiyappan Siva
Banner : Pasanga Productions
Starring Naveen, Jayaprakash, Senrayan, Rajaj, Kuberan, Oviya & others
Feeling cheated & disheartened by the way he was treated by his rich uncle & family, Vellaisami (White) plots to rob them by teaming up with 3 "a-minute-before-met" friends. These 3 too have similar "cheated" feelings after undergoing several hurdles in their respective lives. Rather than giving it all up, their motive is to quench their anger by using this robbery as the holy water. But fate, as usual, has a Pandora box full of surprises for them. As soon as they are all set, they find that White's uncle family are still home, then, after subduing them, they have various visitors becoming hurdles for their operation. Even though they tackle these situations by ending up increasing the hostage count, the truth behind why they did not find a single penny in the house, comes as a big blow. And there is more to that, as they are quickly becoming the most wanted by international & local mafia gangs, not to mention the local Police too. Not having so many backup plans, nor, an intelligent approach to the robbery plan, how these 4 escape this situation as well as how all the various characters that crossed their life are stuck with the situation created by these 4 are handled quite hilariously in Moodar Koodam.
Well, well, what did I just watch ! A fabulous narrative styled movie. Of coarse all Guy Ritchie's movie haters calling it "half-baked narration with roadside-actors" will trash this movie - but for the rest its a jewel that automatically takes its highest place in their collection under favourite movie. All kinds of genres and sub genres are talked about these days, notably - black comedy, neo-noir, noir, light comedy but they have mostly given us only "bulb" comedy so far. So lets not categorise this movie, but just sit and enjoy it.
This film seems to be simple, but no. First lets see why its simple. Its filmed such a way that you are an eye overlooking the happening. Now that does not mean its realistic, its just the ambience that Naveen has created, moreover, presented. Take the bar discussion scene for instance - here you have to note the RR too - a wonderful work by Natarajan Sankaran. When each character talks you hear the noise from their POV - for instance a song playing, bottle noises, plat noises and other miscellaneous kitchen sounds. Where the speaker is facing, that’s the sound that you hear. And with the circular camera movement, puts you globally through the scene. Likewise, each scene and the way the shots are kept certainly has a POV version imbedded in it. Naveen scored high in his narration format where he has indexed all the needed story telling and added them between necessary scenes, filling up the whole presentation as a single block. The last sentence is not complicated, here is how you read it - you have 4 main characters and their stories - now the audience have to be educated with all the basic fives Ws - why, who, what, when & which - so during the hostage handling, Naveen has created situations that permits him to tell the part of their story (funny thing is that even a Dog has a story). So several short-stories are woven into a grand motion picture.
Secondly its not simple because - bringing in a social concept in the story flow. For instance, the part where the 2 don's exchange flame to light up their cigarette is a high indication of Smoking Kills (even though everyone in the movie smokes but after this scene its no smoking movie). Towards the end of the same scene where the bloody cigarette bud with falling ash is shown, its another indication if you have still not got it. Similarly, you have psychological angle on the treatment shown towards kids, harassment and discrimination in the educational system, medical, mixed marriage (In lotus 5 star DVD, this portion is not there - you can see it on Youtube - I mean the whole song Kannodu Kangal), social discrimination etc. And then there is answers to all this shown parallelly. Oviya's marriage happening in front of the punished parents etc. There are more like “ipod-fixed-kids”, animals “breeding-selling”, junk food, supremacy, globalisation, capitalism, culture, exploitation - well you name it and its there.
Again Naveen has to be appreciated for the characters he has created. Also for the wonderful team he has assembled for filming the movie. On the backstage Nararajan Sankaran takes all the limelight. Wish not talk about it here as I have already spoken about him in the Music review. A joy to watch all you favourite score in bits and pieces in the movie. A very Prompt attempt by the team which includes the camera & editing works.
On the performance front, everyone has lived the character. Can't really say who stole the show even though Senrayan, Jayaprakash, the Mafia don, 2nd daughter of Jayaprakash comes to our mind. Senrayan’s funny faces, Jayaprakash’s sunken mischievous eyes, Oviya's irritation, little girl answering the phone - there are so many to watch out for.
Naveen has tried to give an intelligent movie - the problem is that he had scripted it intelligently, but the story is not that much appealing. The weakness lies basically on the motives behind each character as it was rather rushed or not elaborated. The whole Chaos theory situation was clumsy and also a bit rushed. Apologies for the comparison - in the recent movie Itharku Thaane Aasai Pattai Balakumara, the whole plot revolves around several character and each character is a piece and in the end they are all stuck in one way or the other making it a complete picture – just like in a picture puzzle. But in Moodar Koodam, they are quite forced as though the story has/had to be finished that way. The dialogues gets passed, esp. how the colloquial phrases are mistook in serious situations - gives a Crazy Mohan touch, but not largely successful, but still enjoyable. Humour too is also quite European. For example, Senrayan getting monkey caps for face masks or Vellaisami being called White are quite a bit of laughable movements, but how much it was enjoyed is a big doubt. The song for the dog and the doll were excellent - again how many understood the impact is a big question. So Naveen felt that he is responsible to put it up, but where he failed is in choosing the right audience.
Moodar Koodam : Fun Ride
