Talk:Iruvar

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[edit] Review of Iruvar

Iruvar (The Twosome — The Duo) (1997) is a Tamil film directed by Mani Ratnam. The film's score and soundtrack is composed by A. R. Rahman.

Considered by some as one of the best Indian movies every made, the film traces the lives of 1980's Tamil Nadu political rivals M. G. Ramachandran and M. Karunanidhi. "Iruvar" is, in equal measure, a vibrant entertainment, a superbly realized character drama and a dramatically-liberated biopic. At its core, it is the story of a friendship between two men; one, an actor (Anandan, played by Mohanlal) and the other a politician (Selvam, played by Prakash Raj). Their common, hard-fought dream of success gradually gives way to a rivalry within the political arena that lasts decades.

Superficially, this is a fictionalized account of the real-life friendship (and subsequent enmity) between two idols of Tamil dravidian culture; the film superstar MGR and the former DMK Chief Minister Karunanidi. But "Iruvar" is more interested in the spirit of history than history itself; it is more interested in relationships under the influence of history and politics, than in the minutae of political movements and historical events. Ratnam has neither the mind nor inclination to wrestle with politics in any serious or overt way; and that is why this film is such a flying success, because in understanding that his strengths primarily lie in creating human beings and not events, Ratnam has created a picture of great strength, resonance and relevance.

It helps that at the core of this massive film, there is a screen performance of such care and natural grace as what Mohanlal gives us. Mohanlal has long been one of the great actors in Indian cinema history, and this film definitely represents a career best. It gives him a range of emotions to explore, and a lifetime's worth of relationships to foster. The weight of time and experience grows on the actor's heavy shoulders and baritone, avuncular voice, and the man we see at the end is a familiar ghost of the person we met in the beginning. Lending the wonderful actor able support is the talented Prakash Raj and, in her screen debut, Aishwarya Rai, who has yet to really keep the (minor) promise she made with this film. Both Mohanlal and Prakash Raj deliver a performance worthy of a National Award, but in the end, it was Prakash Raj who walked away with the Best Supporting Actor award that year. Such is the brilliance of Mani Ratnam's abilities as a director that even noted commercial film artistes like Gauthami, Nasser and Madhoo deliver the performance of their lifetime, blending seamlessly with actors like Tabu and Revathi Menon known for their acting ability.

Mani Ratnam's work with the cinematographer Santosh Sivan (a brilliant filmmaker in his own right) and the magnificent composer A. R. Rahman meets the high standards that this team has set in the past. Sivan and Rahman have a ball exploring the musical and visual past, keeping up step by step as Ratnam explores the cinematic history of Tamil Nadu. Often, Sivan's shots are clearly informed by moments in Tamil cinema (particularly the cinema of MGR and Sivaji Ganeshan) and Rahman exquisitely captures the spirit of the songs of MGR's times, complementing them brilliantly with a stellar score that is a blend of Dravidian machismo and the sensitivity of Bach. This is probably Rahman's most intelligent work, even if the individual songs aren't palatable pop songs worthy of a listen on the car radio. That isn't the point here.

This is the only Indian mainstream picture that I think is also a thoughtful (ingenious, really) experiment in narrative. Just as the gulf between the two main characters grows and grows, so does the narrative integrity of this film splinter into vignettes; strewn across the decades like so many lost moments in a friendship turned awry. Ratnam is in full control here, and for the first time since Roja, we see him having a blast with film form. The result is riveting in every way. The sonic and visual bounds of the musical melodrama are redefined and raised to a level of high art.

The film, not surprisingly, was a box-office disaster. Aside from lacking the elements typical in a commercial film such as romance and glamour, fight scenes and melodrama, simply put, the film may have been too cerebral for the general populace fed on Rajnikanth's mindless dishum dishum films, Bhagyaraj's senseless potboilers and Kamalahaasan's over-melodramatic tearjerkers. A noted film critic, reviewing this in a leading Tamil publication, even wondered why Ratnam alternated between black and white and colour scenes in the film! (Ratnam depicted scenes that were meant to be movie reels of MGR in black and white since colour films weren't common prior to 1975).

In summary, whether you are a movie buff or an average moviegoer, a historian or a casual listener, a lover of arts or someone oblivious to arts, a Tamilian or a Punjabi, you must watch this film... for masterpieces don't come along that often!

(Inspired by and borrowed from rnair's great review on IMDB)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 01:39, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Iruvar1.jpg

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BetacommandBot (talk) 23:42, 13 February 2008 (UTC)