Ithaca Fantastik ’16: Miruthan

How about a zombie movie for all the New Yorkers staggering around dazed and confused? We can make it a Tamil one, for extra added un-Trump-ness. Ooty is about to be over-run by the shuffling hordes and they’re not staying put in Shakti Soundar Rajan’s Miruthan (trailer here), which screens during the 2016 Ithaca Fantastik film festival.

Karthik could have been a super cop, but since he is the sole support of his beloved kid sister Vidhya, he transferred to traffic to stay safe. Yet, somehow he managed to show-up the local political boss, while falling hard for his doctor daughter, Renuka. As a form of ill-timed payment, the pol’s followers kidnap Vidhya, just as the zombie apocalypse hits.

This makes things a little awkward when Renuka asked for assistance getting to the Indian CDC in Coimbatore. However, Karthik agrees once Vidhya is safely rescued. Actually, “safe” really isn’t the right word in the context of a zombie uprising.

There is no getting around the broad, schticky humor of the first half hour. Let’s just say Karthik has a portly, incompetent partner and man oh man, can he ever mug. However, when the film settles down the run-and-shoot zombie business, it gets pretty good. These are definitely fast zombies and they are decidedly fierce. They also have a cat-like aversion to water, which gives rise to a cool scene with a fire hose.

Jayam Ravi and Lakshmi Menon have decent star-crossed chemistry as Karthik and Renuka. Anikha Surendran is also rather poised as young Vidhya. However, Kaali Venkat and Sriman wage a pitched battle to see who can be the more annoying goofball, Karthik’s partner Malai or the mall rent-a-cop they pick up along the way.

So, have they called Michigan or Wisconsin yet? Miruthan might be the kind of brainless, brain-eating entertainment New Yorkers could use about now. Still, it pales in comparison to Train to Busan, the new gold standard for zombie cinema. Recommended as some meathead fun, Miruthan screens this Saturday (11/12), as part of this year’s Ithaca Fantastik.

NYIFF ’16: Nila

Vimal is sort of like Bob Hoskins in Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa, except he doesn’t know it yet. The Mumbai cabbie thinks he is just shuttling his old grade school sweetheart to and from her work in various hotels throughout the city. Eventually, he will lose his innocence just like the title character of Selvamani Selvaraj’s Nila (trailer here), which screens as part of the 2016 New York Indian Film Festival.

It rains quite regularly in Mubai (or Bombay, which the B in the BTS taxi service probably still stands for), but Nila usually has no problem getting a cab. Vimal is usually there waiting for her. She briefly attended his provincial school, where she made a lasting impression on the poor but earnest lad. Unfortunately, her wealthy parents moved back to the city before the end of term. Perhaps they shouldn’t have, because it is all too clear Nila has experienced a drastic reversal of fortune.

To survive, Nila now must work a profession—the oldest one. However, Vimal only sees her as the innocent beauty of his youth. Nila also starts to appreciate having someone treat her as she once was, even though she fully understands it is not sustainable. Eventually, he will realize the truth, which is likely to hurt them both very badly.

Nila (meaning Moon) is follows the path less taken in film noir, steeping its characters in nocturnal moodiness, but eschewing an outright thriller narrative. However, the stakes are still quite high. Frankly, we can all guess precisely where it is headed, but Selvaraj still packs a devastating emotional wallop when they get there.

Of course, he gets key assists from his co-leads in what essentially amounts to a two-hander. As Vimal, Vicky R covers just about the entire gamut of expression, from elation to desolation and on to rage. Yet, Sruthi Hariharan is even more devastating as the dignified yet self-loathing Nila. You can tell from her eyes how much life has happened to her character. Many of their scenes together are painful to watch, but in a good, in-touch-with-the-human-condition sort of way.

Nila is a relatively simple story but it is told with style and conviction. Cinematographer Piyush Goswami capitalizes on the constant rain and moonlight to maximize the dark, dreamily noir look. Jhanu’s evocative score further emphasizes the loneliness and foreboding (but still manages to be quite catchy). This is no Bollywood rom com. It is a Tamil tragedy, set amid the marginalized and exploited, but it is a very good one. Recommended for patrons of Parallel Cinema, Nila screens this Tuesday (5/10) at the Village East, as part of this year’s NYIFF.

SAIFF ’14: Jigarthanda

At least he’s not making another indie navel gazer. When an aspiring hipster filmmaker gets an offer to make a violent gangster movie, he decides to do it the hard way. Traveling to Madurai to research a local gangster, Karthik inadvertently attracts the attention of his intended subject. Things will get a bit sticky, but the film must go on in Karthik Subbaraj’s Jigarthanda (trailer here), which screens tonight at the 2014 South Asian International Film Festival.

Karthik should have just remade a Hong Kong gangster movie like Scorsese. Bringing the true story of “Assault” Sethu to the screen is a dangerous proposition. Just ask the muckraking journalist he burns to death. Crashing with his local school chum Oorani, Karthik takes the indirect approach, trying to befriend key henchmen. He also starts romancing Kayal, the daughter of Sethu’s housekeeper. Of course his mercenary motives will eventually cause trouble for Karthik, especially if he ever realizes he might have squandered something good. However, Sethu will be a more pressing problem when he busts the clumsy snoops.

Fortunately, a prospective big screen treatment appeals to Sethu’s vanity. He is more than happy to talk and talk about one horrific crime after another. Inconveniently for Karthik, Sethu soon develops Get Shorty ideas, but he is no Chili Palmer. This is where his filmmaking mettle will really be tested.

Comedy often travels poorly, but Jigarthanda’s dark satire (particularly as manifested in the third act) translates unusually well, sort of like Tarantino adapting O.Henry, but with more restraint. Still, there is enough violence to make it tricky to definitively categorize, while compensating for most of Karthik and Oorani’s early rubber-faced slapstick.

As Karthik, Siddharth is plenty earnest, but rather bland in that comedic leading man sort of way. Conversely, Bobby Simha gives a big, physical performance in just about every way imaginable. His colorful associates also have their moments, especially Sangili Murugan as Petti Kadai, the shopkeeper who knew Sethu back in the day.

Jigarthanda is that rare film that actually becomes more stylish as it progresses, so it is worth sticking with it. At times, it critiques the media glamorization of gangsters quite pointedly, but it is first and foremost a valentine to movies and the artists who are forced to compromise in order to make them. Recommended for fans of Tamil cinema, Jigarthanda screens tonight (11/21) as part of this year’s SAIFF.

SAIFF ’10: Anima and Persona

Evidently, Tamil gangsters are much like those found the world over, measuring their worth by their swagger. Unfortunately, when one aging godfather loses his potency, it indirectly precipitates all sorts of trouble in Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s Anima and Persona (trailer here), which screens this Saturday at the 2010 South Asian International Film Festival.

A captive trophy, Subbu does not want to spend a lot of quality time with Ayya, a big boss in decline. His inability to perform only makes his mistreatment of her worse. Already aware he is losing a step, he resents the goading of his chief henchman Pasupathy. Ostensibly agreeing to Pauspathy’s plan to pull a fast one on their competitors, he intends to dispatch the uppity soldier during the course of the operation. Of course, the disposable henchmen can’t get the job done, which forces them to take Pasupathy’s girlfriend hostage as a consolation prize.

The super bad Pasupathy is a dangerous enemy to have on the loose. Ayya also has to worry about the missing drug shipment he expected to appropriate and the rival gang from which it was swiped. Into this inter-gang skirmish wanders the comic relief, a bumbling villager and his sharp tongued young son, who desperately need a big score themselves, but are way out of their depth when the hot potato lands in their laps.

Anima is a Tamil film, but it features the established Bollywood star Jackie Sheroff as Ayya. Though there are no musical numbers here either, it is closer to the spirit of commercial Bollywood than other Indian films in the festival, particularly in its scenes involving the forbidden romance blossoming between Subbu and the apprentice henchman Sappai, as well as the slapstick of humor of the father and son country bumpkins.

Though the international title oddly invokes Jungian analysis, Anima is best when dramatizing Paupathy’s zen-like theory of gangsterism. Indeed, Sampath Raj emerges as a fantastic anti-hero protagonist, grittily intense and physically imposing throughout the film. Yasmin Ponnappa is also quite interesting to watch as Subbu, the femme fatale-in-distress. However, the low comedy of Somasundaram’s bumbling hick Kaalayan gets old quickly and rather clashes with the Pulp Fiction-like tone of the rest of the film.

Still, Kumararaja proves to be quite adept at juggling story lines, tying them all together rather cleverly. Though often quite cynical, Anima should prove to be a crowd pleaser at SAIFF, largely thanks to the very cool presence of Raj. An engaging gangster film with a few inventive narrative wrinkles, Anima is definitely worth catching when it screens at SAIFF this Saturday (10/30) at the SVA Theatre.