Last week I noticed a book in one of my classroom tables and it pleasantly surprised me for two reasons. One, It was a tamil story book and I never thought that my friends still have some good habits like reading tamil books other than kungumam and Anandha Vikatan. Second reason was name of the book: ‘Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai’ by Baskar Sakthi. I was really keen to watch this movie for the past few weeks but couldn’t get the opportunity, since I’m in Mysore for my internship. So instantly I borrowed the book from my friend and started reading it. When I opened the index page, I was little disappointed because that book was a collection of stories by Baskar Sakthi and ‘Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai’ covered only the last 50 pages. But when I read through that short novel (I hope this is the proper English word for ‘kurunovel') I got more fulfillment than I expected. It satisfies my long time regret of not visiting a village by .
So when I came home this weekend, I finally got the chance to watch it. And after watching this film, I can assure you that this is one of the very few films which give you the fulfillment of reading a whole novel. Whenever a film is based on a book, the story of the book will be shortened, modified and patched up for the screenplay which almost crucifies the true essence of the story (e.g. Harry Potter series). It’s always like you are stitching a shirt from the cloth which is enough for two shirts and still it’s short for you. But this film is like you are buying a shirt in a buy 1 get 1 offer. The main reason for this is, the story and the dialogues for the movie is written by the author of the novel, Baskar Sakthi himself. So the scenes added in the movie to make it as a full feature film doesn’t give you any hindrance while watching the film. Especially the scene where the village committee collects tax for the festival is very humorous and worth mentioning.
The other important aspect of this movie, which should be definitely mentioned is the music composed by Ilaiyaraja. Whether it is the songs or the background score, it burnishes the film more. Especially the ‘kuthikara kuthikara’ song sung by Ilaiyaraja himself is splendid. The actors acted in this film like Appukutty, Saranya Mohan, etc., also did their job perfectly to make this film more pleasurable. The major appreciation in this movie should go to the director of the film, Susindran, who got enough nerves to come again to make a movie like this after directing the big movie ‘Naan Mahaan Alla’, and the producer of this film, Gautham Vasudev Menon, for encouraging directors to make different movies like this.
So if you haven’t watched this film yet and if this film is still screened in your city, don’t miss the chance, watch it before they take this movie out (Because last week itself, it got a very few viewers here in Coimbatore). But unfortunately if you couldn’t catch this movie in theaters, don’t worry. Soon it’ll be telecasted in some channel as ‘Indhiya/ Ulaga tholakatchigalil muthal muraiyaga..’. So totally this is a movie which you shouldn’t miss it.
