"Uthiri Pookkal "(Language -Tamil) (1979) - Movie Classics

The start, the character definitions and the introductions were shown in the style of raw and plain meetings, which were the trends in those days. There were Clichéd moments only due to the reason that many after this movie have depicted those and unfortunately I have seen all those instead of the original, still could not avoid it. The characterizations of each and every person in the movie were given with proper substantiations. No Loose ends. This is Mr. X and he does this. He is someone who believes this and he does this for living. Completely Natural and subtle. Yes, Subtle is the word I would put forward as that of Mr. Mahendran's movie making. Most of the shots were up close the characters mainly to give room to emote properly and to give viewers the stunning reality.

It definitely needs some close watching and enjoyable sluggishness which leads to curiosity and makes you sit through till the end. One of the most interesting details in the movie is that, the director never gives any proper timeline of events for the audience. It is just assumed that so many months or weeks or days have passed. I would guess that the reason is to make the viewers think to adjust themselves to the particular scenario. This was done because the assumed pace of the movie which is required may not suit all the audiences. This intentional misplacement of time frame makes the audience to constantly assume and guess what happened in the past frame cuts makes the movie even more interesting.

Just when the viewers think of getting into a normal routine of events in a village, they are all surprised in an elegant and natural deviance. Take it the scene of "Panchayat" or the sessions with Charuhasan's character or Vijayan's character's subtle thinking. Everyone questions, What is going on in this person's mind? Why is he doing that? What can be done to make him realize all the mistakes he is doing? Hundreds of questions are all generated due to the astonishing and outstanding performance of Vijayan. One would think that Vijayan took away the lime light from all of the other performers but this is one of those movies wherein everyone gave their life to the character. A definite round of applause with standing ovation to all of the Actors/Actresses in the movie.

To be honest, till the last 15 minutes of the movie, the substance of the content never struck me only due to the reason that it is been watched after so many years. So many years of movies and so many years of repetitiveness. Then comes the ending which knocks down the viewers directly hitting their heart. With all those, the final speech is an Elegy to the people. The character is so negative and dark, one would try not to believe his words but there is so much truth in that statement that one cannot deny it. Subtlety in that too, indirectly saying that they are killing their souls. Surpassing that, the intention of the rest of the characters to have a final sympathy even for the dreadful character is the line in which we all live with some peace in this world. And with peace comes the background score of Illaiyaraja, who was kind of missing during the initial parts of the movie. No more to say about this legend.

Even though it looks like a very normal and clichéd movie, viewer can witness the emotions reacting and tumbling all the way to tell you a normal day to day story which happened in a small village. If Director K.Balachander can hit you with Brutal truths in a totally Taboo and unconventional way, Mahendran can tear your inner conscience with soft and soulful voice using a very normal story which can happen to anyone.

(Thanks to Mathi for Proof Reading and Corrections)