Naan Kadavul

This is possibly the most original and astounding Tamil film ever made...Absolute gem of a film...Bala has taken Tamil cinema and its viewers to the next level with this film.

Arya has Rudra has lived in the character,and so is Puja..Every Time you see Arya there is the kind of extra ordinary emotions running through you right from his intro to the last scene in Kasi..Absolutely Mind blowing... No body in Tamil cinema has the guts and clarity like Bala sir,and his directorial abilities would match the best in the world...Raja sir has given the most lively music even after 35 years and has showed what is re-recording...absolutely mid blowing,path breaking movie.

1 extra star for Arya's acting! Throughout the movie i was convinced i was watching an Aghori baba and not Arya. I think he deserved a National Award for this movie. Anyways, coming to the movie it's disturbing, shocking and at the same time it's a naked truth. A truth that we all choose to not look at because it disturbs our lives.

The climax is not something i had expected and it kept me horrified for days. This movie is the reason why i explored Hindu spirituality in more detail and the concepts of Aghoris...it's transformed my way of looking at life.

Philosophically rich and very realistic to those who have seen and dwelt in the social-law defying black hole that is sometimes India. Divine and terrible at once, spiritual and materialistic living hand in hand. Like the beggars around the holy man in the South Indian temple who themselves dress themselves up as great sadhus but are mere men. It takes a trained eye to differentiate the true sadhus from the fake in India.

This is not a brutal movie deifying moral killing. It is a true telling of the beliefs and lives of a sect of people who practice a system of law and order much older than the English language. The court scene punctuates the point further; does a easily corruptible legal system really serve justice better than the judgment of one realised soul? What the movie doesn't perhaps cover too well is that by punishing the unjust/unwilling to live, the Aghori is taking on his/her karma on himself and considers it a task that he is duty bound to do.

The personality of Rudra's mother is a stereotype taken out of vedantic stories of mothers who want the best for their children yet who struggle to release their offspring who wish to dedicate their lives to god. Very similar to a mothers reaction to a child wishing to become a nun or a priest in the western world. The sage Ramana Maharishi's mother struggled similarly to accept his calling.

They say you cannot convert into Hinduism, that you must be born into it. Perhaps more such movies are necessary in this globalised age for the world to breach this misconception and bring the philosophies of the east and west together. There is still so much I can learn from this movie and I intend to watch it often enough to grasp exactly what the writers were trying to say.

"NAAN KADAVUL"

The tag line of the movie is 'Aham Brahmasmi'.The film is based on the Tamil novel 'Yelavathu Ulagam'(meaning Seventh World) by writer Jayamohan. He also penned the dialogs for the film.The movie received rave reviews and critical acclaim, winning two National Film Awards, including the Best Director Award for Bala, and three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.

The film opens with a father in search of his son who he had abandoned 15 years back in Kasi, as per the advice of all astrologers, who predicted that "he was a bad omen". Now the father in remorse finds his son who has become an Aghori ascetic sanyasi Rudran with no human emotions and calls himself as God next to Kalabhirav and always mutters- Bham, Bham Mahadev.People believe that aghori's can give salvation from this birth and Iiberation from rebirth!Rudra leaves his house and takes up residence among sadhus on a hilltop shrine, where physically challenged people are forced to beg by a syndicate run by the devilish Thandavan (Rajendran). The boss of beggars is concerned only about the money collected by his group of supplicants, who he controls, violates and disfigures as he chooses. Because none is able to give any reply to the violence he unleashes on those under his authority.But when Thandavan tries to sell off a blind beggar girl to a disfigured leper, who wants someone to bed him without knowing how ugly he is, their worlds collide. The blind girl comes begging to the aghori for help.Hamsavalli was heavily beaten and disfigured by Thandavan.Rudra saves them by killing Thandavan.Hamsavalli pleads him to relieve from her misery. Rudran who sees only his job as giving 'nirvana' or salvation to those who don't want any more rebirths executes her cutting her throat and provides her salvation. The movie portrays the dark side of the needy physically challenged people.

Bala,the director of the movie showed us the dark realities happening around us, which we had never bothered.

Naan Kadavul is a tale of two extreme groups belonging to the same dark world,where the beggars are depicted as slave workers, Aghoris consider themselves to be super natural - next only to 'Kal Bhairav'.

Naan Kadavul believes that there is No God in the Seventh World. Bala has emphasized this belief throughout the tour in the form of various scenes and dialogs with a tinge of dark humor. A lot of the explicit content has been censored. Jesus and Buddha were supposed to be present as spectators in the scenes where the beggars get beaten up by Rudran & Co. The Gods of the world were supposed to be present when Hamsavalli begs Rudran for death. The objective was to take a dig at ALL religions. To stress the point further, the physically disabled beggars were in the costumes of Lord Sivan, Parvathi and Murugan. This is a subtle way of saying that the gods of the world that we are in, are nothing more than handicapped helpless people in the seventh world. This is brilliant character sketching and symbolism from Bala. The beggars who never go inside the temple, however, consider the 'Mangandi Saami', who is a beggar himself, as their God. Another way of saying that if there is any God in the seventh world, he has to be a beggar too. The character of Hamasavali is sketched in a way to convey that in the dark world, even the people who initially believe in god would eventually be forced by their situation to give up their belief. She surrenders to a nun and gets converted to Christianity but eventually Thandavan manages to buy her. This puts her in a miserable situation and she loses her faith in god and believes that only Rudran can relieve her from this world of misery. She conveys this to Rudran when she gets to meet him and her belief (or the lack of it) is conveyed to us by the dialog where she accuses that no god cared for her miseries.

The movie was much better than the novel. He has shown the lives of helpless beggars and Aghoris very close to reality. He cast the film with 40-50 real life physically handicapped beggars. Arya who portrayed Rudran and Pooja who performed as Hamsavalli gave mind blowing performances. Bala picturised both the parallel tracks that of rudran and beggar mafia beautifully but struggled between the inter linking of the two and lost balance between the tracks.

Jayamohan,the writer of the novel himself admitted,'My novel is simple, but the director has brought in a lovely grandeur in the film,'.

Bala wanted to clear the general misconception that the beggars have a soft corner for people who give alms to them. Beyond a point, they are not concerned much about the money as it doesn't make their sufferings any less and as shown in various sequences, they derive their humor by mocking at the people who visit the temple. The characters dressed like gods, mocking and laughing loud at the people visiting the temple is symbolic to Gods mocking at their superstitious beliefs.

It doesn't preach atheism nor does it say that it is better to die than to lead a miserable life. It leaves the judgmental part to its audience.

Director Bala is notorious for his unique choice of disturbing subjects and Naan kadavul is no different. This time around he comes up with a story down under the hells of reality.

Aarya plays the lead role of an Aghori devotee named 'Rudra' which probably is the least humane character that any actor would dare to do. Shiva is the lord of elimination in Hindu texts, and an Aghori who is an ardent follower of Shiva believes in 'Dushta nigraha' or elimination of the evil. Aarya has done fair justice to the role and Bala has exploited him in his looks and acting potentials. Bala seems to have spent enough time in studying the life style of the Aghori sects and beggars. That reflects in the eventual realism that results.

Cold blooded action and shocking pragmatism may disturb the audience. So you have to prepared for 'anything' and 'everything'. Cinematography is a chilling package of the movie and every face that comes along in the movie appears real and original to the plot. Music by ilayaraja is definitely fitting to the scheme.

Violent imagery is objectionable to minors and women. So it's not any family 'go-watch'. But the movie is well told, and questions the true nature of Kadavul- the God and repeating statements made by Rudra-'Aham brahmasmi' surely keeps you thinking.

If you can appreciate the alternate thinking that the director has convincingly achieved in the movie then go and give it a try.