Iruvar

After the super success of BOMBAY, director Mani Ratnam ventures into another controversial film, IRUVAR. It traces the life of two people, Anandan (played by Mohanlal) and Selvam (Prakash Raj). Anandan is a budding actor who wants to make it big on the silver screen. Selvam is a writer with strong affiliations to a political party. Selvam scripts the debut movie of Anandan and this brings the two close together. The film goes on to trace their relationship. Anandan also joins the same political party and in due course of time nurses political ambitions as well.This leads to a rift between the two. Selvam becomes the Chief minister of Tamilnadu and Anandan is thrown out of the party. He forms his starts his own party and captures power .The film ends with Anandan's death.

Though we are told that this is not a true story ,it is obvious that this is fully inspired by the life and times of MGR and K. KARUNANITHI. All the characters in the movie resemble some real life character and it takes some time to identify them. Mohanlal plays MGR while Prakashraj is Karunanithi. Aishwaria plays JJ, Nassar plays Anna, Delhi Ganesh resembles RM.VEERAPPAN and Major Sundarrajan plays DGP.Mohandass.

Whether Mani Ratnam has the right to probe the private lives of these people is a different matter altogether, but as a director, he has done an excellent job of recreating the behind the scenes drama, glamour and glitz. IRUVAR will be very different from most movies that you will see. The director has filled the movie with subtle suggestions, which makes the movie very special. (Will a person unaware of the political history of Tamilnadu understand them?) Mohanlal and Prakashraj have given the performances of their lives. Mohanlal's performance is subtle yet dramatic; a truly memorable performance. Prakashraj gives a very good account of himself in his essay. Since he play's K.K. he has the opportunity to exhibit his dialogue delivery skill's in pure Tamil. For a debut, Aishwaria is truly magnificent. She acts very well, is a very graceful dancer and, needless to say, ravishingly beautiful.

Photographer Santosh Sivan also has done a magnificent job. Sameer Chanda fully exploits the opportunity that a period film offers an art director. A.R.RAHMAN's score is very different from all his other films. The songs fit in well with the film, but on their own, are not very catchy. The background score is also very good.

Then, is this the perfect movie? No!!! The director Mani Ratnam spoils the show with a disjoint screenplay in the final hour of the movie. The part of the movie after Mohanlal comes to power is bumpy and resembles a documentary. One gets the feeling that, after doing all the hard work the director fails in the most important sections of the movie.

A must see for all those who have been following Tamil nadu politics.