"Chennai 600028" (Language - Tamil) (2007) - Movie Review

More than the international game of cricket, the nativity and zeal come in for street or gully cricket. The competition in a child or a grown up child are imminent when it comes to the game of cricket. While Aamir Khan went to the roots of fiction through period in “Lagaan”, this form of cricket which originates with rules of getting out if some one hits on the window of a neighbour is where director Venkat Prabhu has found “Chennai 600028”. The cricket played in the film is a little above gully cricket and grounds below the professional cricket. Asides the rival nature among teams, this form is cornerstone for comedy because end of day it becomes a fun game mingling among the obsession of winning.

As the title says the pin code area for Visalakshi Thottam in the city of Chennai is the “Sharks” trying hard to win their arch nemesis “Rockers” from Raayapuram. With a year left for the grand gala tournament which Sharks have always lost to Rockers, we see the lives of these young men with a fun very new to the tamil films and an unnecessary drama and romance sequences routine for the same film industry. But even after a forty five minutes of a compromise made by the director for the term of “commercial” running among the film makers in the industry for years and years, it is a film made of comedy effortless but effective in its execution.

The film builds up on the characters which can be identified by almost every one who has played gully cricket in India. And those are every one. It has the funny guy who is poor in fielding, a confident batsman overconfident in his attitude and many other elements which would float around the memory lanes of the streets we have grown up. Even among the breaking of glass windows, the people in the neighbourhood represent themselves through their children in these games. Especially when it comes to the clash of teams, the anger becomes pride to support and cheer for their kids. And among those always lives a middle aged man Manohar (Ilavarasu) using his authority of age over the youngsters for a chance to play which he never was able to in his old times. These people become the symbol of a neighbourhood in pure aspect of cricket.

If Venkat Prabhu had the option of using sepia colour tone all through the film, then he would have relished that opportunity, but the duty of presentation withheld him from the very minimal scenes he decided to use normal tone of colour. While it suited the songs and some shots, a considerate decision of it would have spared eye strain a lot. The film’s sub plots of whatever (for lack of better term) are the “love” and “friendship” sequences in the middle holding the banner of “entertainment”. But if some one can had a hard time composing back ground score for a comedy film that had to be Yuvan Shankar Raja who in the thought of adding the mood for a joke spoils it with his score overacting. The songs while survives its tenure does not linger long enough for a repeat play except of course a jolly song “Jalsa” which has been choreographed playfully and cheerfully.

End of everything is how the tight rope walk of parody and simplicity in the humour the team brings in which makes it a good fun ride. In the initial hour of the film, it is all over the screen of how much the director had a passion for fun than for the making. In those honest moments it transpired that into a film of passion. The characters that bring those deliver it with the same sense of accomplishment but astonishingly go back into a bad acting in the next scene of drama. Hence the level of liking is a sinusoidal wave which evens out in the end.

In tamil film industry “attempts” are considered great than a good film. I have talked about the automatic forgiveness to a film compromising it for business factors but the current term for it is the “attempt” I have mentioned. “Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi” if not a good movie is a good attempt and for that people flag it high and proud. “Chennai 600028” is a good attempt and contrary to “Imsai Arasan…”, it is genuinely good movie only that it takes a tough route. As many say about Indian Cricket team and the character of Manohar says in the film, “Easy aah win panna vendiya match aah, kadaisi varaikkum vetti kku izhuthu jeyichaanuga”, which means “A game which should have been won quite easily was stretched unnecessarily till the end”, it runs for “Chennai 600028” too.