Aadukalam (Tamil)

Vetri Maaran’s second venture, Aadukalam, has bagged several national film awards, including best actor, director and screenplay, this year. In the end credits, the director acknowledges the movies that inspired his vision, from Alejandro Inarritu’s Amores Perros to Michael Haneke’s Cache. However, though its tone and style might reflect these classics, Aadukalam is the quintessential commercial entertainer, with its biggest strength being its strong contextualisation.

Its setting is the arena of rooster fights (recall the dog fights in Amores Perros). Maaran presents it in detail, complete with frenzy and colour. The constantly moving camera makes the scenes bristle with energy and urgency. The film’s CGI battles are obvious metaphors for its human wars. The battleground is set and the characters are introduced to us amidst a vigorous chase through the narrow city streets of Madurai.

Pettiakaran and Rathnasamy are rivals in the underworld of rooster fights. Karuppu and Durai are Pettiakaran’s able jockeys. Things come to a head when Karuppu unwittingly challenges Pettiakaran. What follows is a game of one-upmanship in which mentor and pupil turn rivals. The movie’s underlying theme is universal: how pride, honour and ego can lead to distrust and betrayal, make devils of human beings and destroy long-standing, even loving relationships. And the movie leaves you in the end with a tremendous sense of loss and waste.

The omnipresent brutality, bloodshed and aggression is offset by a tender love story that plays out on the side between Karuppu and an Anglo-Indian girl, Irene, played by newcomer Taapsee, who, incidentally, is a Punjabi based in Delhi. That Aadukalam works is testament to its great ensemble show led by Jayapalan in the complex role of Pettiakaran and Dhanush who is spontaneous and effortless as the innocent, betrayed Karuppu. Watch him express the sheer joy of reciprocated love in the song Otha Solla, which, by itself, is worth the price of admission.