Aaranya Kaandam

Aaranya Kaandam (2011) : Brief Review -

The Biggest Achievement of Tamil Cinema and Indian Cinema in Neo-Noir-Crime-Thriller Genre. Equally Classy as those Famous British Crime-Dramas. This crime thriller genre was mixed into anthology by British Cinema and all those known films from 90s and 2000s decade enjoy cult following. Many Filmmakers from different film industries in India have tried to adapt the those Classics but could only manage to make sort of watchable films. I remember watching 'Ludo' recently, which recieved overwhelming praise but actually the film was nothing great. It's just that the mass audience in India haven't seen classy crime dramas made in foreign cinema so even mediocre stuff sounds great to them. I experienced the same with extremely popular 'Vada Channai' but i don't understand so special about that film. Maybe the same reason again. So, basically my point was these overrated films have recieved immense praise undeserving and then we have film like 'Aaranya Kaandam' which isn't even watched by sensible audience, forget mass audience. What the heck is wrong with our audience? It's not just about this film but there are so many low budget films which are far better than those so called big budget classics. Watch Aaranya Kaandam and you'll forget all the crime anthologies/noirs made in India, i guarantee that. It is such a brilliant piece of filmmaking. What an intelligent crafting and top quality execution it has. All the actors have done their best, the theme dark and interesting, the screenplay is engaging, cinematography and editing is top class and there are few unpredictable turnarounds too. What else do want from one film in 115 minutes? Kudos to Thiagarajan Kumararaja for proving that even Indian cinema can make high quality crime thrillers like British Cinema. Don't Miss It!

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest.

The director said in an interview that he is a huge fan of Godfather movie. He succeeded in making a gangster movie of such class in Tamil movie industry. A noir film in Tamil language and its first of its kind. The movie has a screenplay neatly written of sheer class added dialogs with profane languages as in real underworld. It has no songs but the bgm fits like a glove to the pace of the movie. You listen to lot of 80's sensual/party Tamil songs playing as FM Radio in the background added a page to the novelty in script/screenplay.

I'd give a full 10/10 for the movie except for few spoofs like a scene in which a bike's head lamps and mirrors unbroken after the rider gets hit. Also, I find some of the Tarantino's flavor in this movie with scenes like the don asking one of his trusted men to babysit (date) his girlfriend (as in Pulp Fiction)and another scene in which many characters sit around a table discussing about celebrities (from Reservoir dogs first scene). The whole ambiance reminded me of Pulp Fiction, yet I love this movie because am a Tamilian.

The bottom lines : (1) Get the unrated version and Do watch it (Cuz , the rated version edits all the good scenes) (2) MOVIE NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN/SENSITIVE Audience.

I have seen many gangster movies in Tamil and other languages. Some of the good movies i watched so far is Nayagan, Pudhupettai,God father series, City of God.

But this movie is something different from others. How it differs? By making? or by acting? or By Screen play. No.. No... No.. It differ by its nature of theme. It deals different kind of persons attitude in this film. Director hardly worked for the very good outcome of the product.Each and every character in the film lives its own. They are real.. Still Such a kind of peoples lives with us.

I don't want explain much about this movie. Go and Watch.. or Buy the DVD. Feel the Every character described in this movie...

My Rating 10/10

A bizarre trailer, a debut director, award-winner of an international film festival, a battle with the censor board and a college dropout- these elements being attached to the film made me hope for nothing short of great. If a person believed so much in his craft, he was probably an anarchist who followed his own set of rules and that kind of a person obviously wouldn't be restricted by the boundaries of Tamil Cinema.

Aaranya Kaandam's director Thiagarajan Kumararaja uses his technical crew in all possible ways. Being the competent crew that they are, they comply. The film is so unconventional that despite the excellent work of the cinematographer (Vinod), editors (Praveen K L and N B Srikanth) and the music director (Yuvan Shankar Raja), none of their individual contributions stand out. It was teamwork and you praise the man who has directed them into completion. Thiagarajan has a clear-cut vision- the characters, their quirks, their looks and their distinct speech styles. Lacing terror with scornful humour, Aaranya Kaandam leaves its viewers with mixed emotions. The gang wars that are shot in stop-motion have classical music playing in the background giving them the poetic touch intended and bring out the beauty of the scenes, even though they're blood lusted. The low-key lighting and the dubious backdrop make Aaranya Kandam the morbid labyrinth it wants to be.

Full review- http://www.nowrunning.com/movie/6425/tamil/aaranya- kandam/3150/review.htm

I stopped short of giving this movie a 10/10 rating solely because of it's somewhat glorified portrayal of violence, other than that this is one heck of a movie which should have ideally been a milestone in modern Tamil cinema but fell short of achieving that landmark solely because it didn't have 1. Big stars in the movie 2. Big production house 3. Promotions (This movie virtually had no promotions at all) 4. Big technical Crew (Apart from Yuvan Shankar Raja of course)

Here by BIG i imply established popular personnel. This movie had excellent technical values compared to the garbage dished out in the name of commercial cinema every other day and you have to see the movie for yourself to believe what a movie you have missed. The techniques used by the director to portray certain intense situations, the way the characterization is done, the way the movie is kept moving at a break-neck speed, The way the director makes us anticipate even clichéd scenes by smart editing techniques and many more should be watched by yourself to believe it and appraise the excellence! People should endorse such HONEST and INTELLIGENT attempts so that others too would come out and try new things or at least director Thiagarajan Kumararaja would come up with a new project (as of now he is not committed to any new project even after crafting a masterpiece like Aaranya Kaandam!).