Part 93: Dont Judge Me If You Dont Know Me

Nearly after a week my article on the Pithamagan movie was published on a daily and created lot of buzz. I had mentioned a line saying that this movie will fetch national award for Vikram.

My brother raised a question with me that even without having seen a clip or a trailer of the movie how I could can expect it... I replied saying I just followed what my heart said.

Surprisingly I had to travel to Coimbatore a week before the release of Pithamagan. And as I expected the expectations from the movie were sky rocketed. I couldn’t stay there till the movie release. Had to return.

And finally I got a chance to watch the movie in Mangalore. When I was watching I just started to feel what is going on.. The sole purpose of Bala to make Pitamagan seemed to give Vikram a new image. I felt like movie is not up to the level of my expectation. My brother was pulling my leg. Movie was moving and the scene passed where Surya’s role gets murdered. And even the next scene where Chittan’s first reaction after seeing his friend’s dead body also a step below from my actual expectation.. It is just because I was looking for that award winning moment in the movie.. And finally when I watched the scene where he gets afraid after looking at Skull of his friend it was completely beyond my expectation and imagination..

No doubt! Clearly a masterpiece and a cut above the rest among all artiste's performance. He did not utter a dialogue in the film but made each and everyone to talk about his performance worldwide. Bankably the actor willing to experiment in this new role has emerged triumphant. He is first class as Chittan, a role in which any other actor would have looked like a caricature. Without any dialogue to support him he carves a niche for himself in the viewer's mind with his expressions and excellent body language. When you are looking at the screen, its only Chittan that you could see, Vikram just doesn’t exist in the film.

My brother said I think this movie will get him national award... I was just quite.

Films are a medium of entertainment ,are they not, I see life every day, therefore if I pay money and sit in one dark corner of a theater , I prefer to isolate my self from the rest of the world for next 3 hrs and watch something that , I will never get to watch in real life.. that’s exactly how I used to feel, isn’t that what a film is suppose to do to you, weave a fairytale around you and take away your worries for those 3 blissful hours – Wrong!! that’s entertaining cinema at best, responsible cinema- I guess not, if that film has not changed you in anyway by the time it gets over, its pointless and a wasted medium.. entertaining, definitely but Value Driven –absolutely not.. its not that I have something against the escapist cinema, I have been bought up on a staple diet of such films, but once in a while I love watching the multi layered film with a social message , because they are reassuring , telling me-“Son! all is not lost we still exist, outnumbered and lurking in shadows of so called mainstream film, but we are alive.. so have some faith!!” Films communicate to me and I have learned to listen to them.

PithaMagan was a film which very cleverly walks a razors edge between the thinking mans Cinema and film for the masses, and succeeds in doing so.

Moreover it also reminded one more beautiful lesson of my life.. That is

Dont Judge Me If You Dont Know Me!