Chennai: Raising some serious questions about the aftermath of decisions made in haste, filmmaker Rajeshwar’s pilot film ‘Nagarum Nodiyil’ set off a debate as it saw its premiere screening at Rohini Cinemas Sunday.
Almost 90 per cent of this 17-minute film is set inside a taxi where a conversation happens between the ‘cool-dude’ driver Kali Venkat and his ‘tensed’ passenger Balaji Venugopal. The conversation initially starts in a very lame way as Kali, who is very talkative, irritates Balaji who is already in a confused state.
Later, the dialogue portion gets sharper and deeper as Balaji tries to make a suicide attempt. At a crucial point of their chat, Balaji says he has already taken the extreme decision once, during which we can see the comical Kali replying, “Oh! Have you already attempted suicide? Was that a success?” – the entire cinema hall rolled on the floor. The entire conversation is set in this format where Balaji is serious about his marital and extramarital life while Kali is the opposite.
At another point, Balaji shares about his illicit affair and ‘bed-rose’, Kali metaphorically mocks him, saying, “You elitist guys who have a desk job in AC rooms, have a cook at home and separate meals at the workplace. But, daily wage labourers like us need to struggle a lot even to leading a normal life.”
The ultimate essence of the conversation is conveyed at this juncture when the director wants to establish the difference between a white collar job and “dirty collar” work.
Very hardly we see a figurative flashback narration in movies. The style predominantly adopted by T Rajendhar who tells backstories with characters like ‘roja’ and ‘kuruvi’.
We have also seen a similar flashback disclosure in Mysskin’s ‘Onaayum Aattukuttiyum’. We see a similar sequence in this pilot film when Kali narrates a story to his son. The way he ends the story shocks us and creates a split second of suspense.
The movie and its narration is something that is rarely seen in cinema halls these days. Performance-wise, Kali scores easily, while Balaji is a little amateur in emoting. The place where Kali hold the tears in his eyes is something we rarely see in actors nowadays. This man is shows his professional skills. Also, Kali’s dialogue delivery is commendable at many places.
Rajeshwar, towards the end, puts forth a big question, leaving the audience to answer it.
In an era when short films have better independent space, filmmakers like Rajeshwar bringing that to cinema halls to discuss some untouched social issues is a good sign for the visual art’s evolution.