POO - Memoirs of Mari.

ந‌ம்முடைய‌ க‌தைக்க‌ள‌ம் பிர‌ப‌ல‌ ந‌டிக‌ர்க‌ளை விடுத்து, ந‌க‌ர‌த்தின் பிர‌ம்மாண்ட‌ம் விடுத்து வாழ்க்கையின் எதார்த்த‌ம் தேடிப் போகும்போது தான் தமிழின் அச‌லான‌ திரைப்ப‌ட‌ம் தோன்றும். -‍ "பேசும் ப‌ட‌ம்" செழிய‌ன்.

None of the 5 star hotels will be able to reproduce the simple irani chai what we have in a simple tea stall [ புத்தி போகுதா பாரு ]. Similarly, a simple movie does the biggest magic, what multi-crore budget movies fail to do. ந‌ல்ல‌ சினிமா த‌ரும் ச‌ந்தோஷ‌மே த‌னி. People who watch cinema beyond entertainment value understands this.

It’s always challenging to capture the minute feelings of a girl in celluloid. What KB did was nothing but gimmicks. In fact, he degraded the value of a girl – his heroes always have 2 or more affairs. Even the very few women directors fail to capture the true girl from life. A serial did that to a great extent – PENN, a tele-serial directed by Suhasini .I liked the episode of Revathy wherein she realizes her relationship with her mother Srividya, after marriage. Anyhow, all the fiction girl’s life is extended until city limits and not beyond.

Though I stopped Balakumaran long back, he was the first one to define love as mutual concern [ mutual fund illainga.. ப‌ர‌ஸ்ப‌ர‌ அக்க‌றை]. When a girl/boy thinks that the other soul has to be happy, be in peace, irrespective of their conditions, that’s the actual affection. All the great world cinemas share the same stuff – unconditional love [ like the mother superior in Anbe Sivam ]. Though I am not a fan of woman oriented films [ not a fan of ‘Aval appadi thaan’ ], POO fascinated me very much. It’s the best ever depiction of a girl’s character in celluloid, so far.

Once, Mysskin asked Naaser that why ‘Anjathey’ is not getting appreciated to its actual level. Naaser replied that if the industry praises your movie as the best in script and direction, what happens to their earlier products. BR asked Ameer – நீ காட்டின‌து தான்யா கிராம‌ம்.. Obviously, we ask what BR showed us then ?! POO makes the same impact – Our heroines in village are shown till now in films, but not a true village girl is shown on screen.

A big bouquet to the director Sasi !

Poo - 2008/Drama/Tamil

Cast : Parvathy menon, Srikanth

Music : SSKumaran

Photography : PGMuthiah

Written & directed by : Sasi

Story : Based on a short story 'Veyilodu poi' by S.Tamilselvan. Came 18 yrs back

Plot

The story is about the magnanimous n deep love of Mari on Thangarasu, right from childhood. She is a daring village girl who just dedicated her entire life thinking about Thangarasu. Even in her class, she tells the teacher that her life time ambition is to "become the best half of Thangarasu"! But Thangarasu goes out of the village to purse engineering studies. It’s the dream of his father ‘penakaarar’ to get his son a degree. Socially there’s a big gap between them, though they are relatives.

She is accompanied by her friend ‘Cheeni’, a co-worker of her age in the fireworks factory. She is the all-in-all for Mari. Mari hesitates to express her unconditional n true love to Thangaraasu. Meanwhile, Thangarasu’s father gets into some other situation. What happens to them in life is to be experienced in the emotional journey.

View

The first credit goes to Dhananjeyan, CEO of Moserbear for boldly coming forward to produce this movie. Of course, it’s purely a director’s movie – simply and poetically portrayed film. Sasi did a fabulous job in maintaining the content and for the brilliant treatment. It’s not so easy to knit a story with a girl’s perspective and her minute thoughts/feelings.

The success of a director is to bring the goodness of the story interestingly in the script. Trust me; this simple story has too many unnoticeable twists. If you expect a character to behave in a pattern, they don’t and exactly the opposite, when you don’t expect. It’s full of surprises. Sasi had never been to those village setup in Rajapalayam/Sivagangai areas – in fact, he was brought up mostly in Salem and Chennai !

Script writer Sigfield says that once you build the character biography of different characters, the incidents automatically falls in the correct places of the script. Especially the character biography of Mari.. Even she cannot tell why she cares for him so much. Mari’s total body shivers, the moment she sees Thangarasu.. Her walk collapses, her eyes become restless, speech becomes blabbering – Stunning expressions.

The script is extraordinary.. As I say, one shouldn’t know the story of any movie, before watching it. Because the director plant so many twists / turns in the simple happenings. No audience would be able to predict what Maari is going to react in every situation. The beauty of the Mari character is : Inspite of knowing all the difficulties, inequalities with Thangarasu, she deeply n madly loves him – unconditional. Her affection is not based on money, beauty, lust but a mere n strongest concern about him. She gets restless in a scene where Thangaraasu just clears his throat. I find it very difficult to digest her characterization. Her varied expressions, dialogue delivery and body language are quite commendable. There’s a scene where she forgets a cell phone number and recollects when seeing Thangaraasu.. Brilliant expressions !

You know what.. till the end, she doesn’t even shed a single drop of tear for whatever the pain she undergoes. She weeps only once in the film.

Thangarasu, his father Penakarar, Cheeni [ excellent character ], School vaadhyaar, Alo tea kadai owner, his wife, Maari’s mother [ I was really shocked to see such an original village mother on screen ], Maari’s brother, supervisor in the fireworks company, oil mill owner – everyone does the justice to their character with neat performances.

Coming to Zhaming Yimou.. I watched a Chinese movie ‘ The road home’ [ ஆர‌ம்பிச்சிட்டாண்டா ! உல‌க‌ சினிமாவை ! ]. The Chinese film had some similar sequences with the girl [ ஆஹா..அது பொண்ணு.] – where she daily waits on the way where hero passes on. She becomes extraordinarily happy just at the sight of him. Finest movie with a fantastic background score. In fact, POO ‘s BGM also carries the same tune. I really admire Sasi’s sincerity to acknowledge the film, from which he got inspirations.

The way the director has used the landscape [ the 2 palm trees in the above photo are used as characters !! ] with the help of cinematographer P.G.Muthiah is noteworthy. Some of the dialogues are perfectly sharp, sensitive, and realistic. He effectively uses silence too. It’s good that Srikanth didn’t do anything in this movie – he just underplayed his role.

Conclusion

Subramaniapuram – violence = POO. The director doesn’t even show a single flower in the movie, though he had this title. The intention is to have the fragrance of the movie, even after the end. There were some flaws but I consider this movie as the finest in this category of movies. Great mistake .. I missed to watch this film in theatre [ க‌ண் அச‌ந்த‌ போது க‌ட‌ந்து போன‌ க‌ட‌வுள்- Effect of Na.Muthukumar’s aana avaana poem collection]. Unfortunately, this movie didn't even run for 100 days.

ம‌ழை நின்ற‌ பின்னும்
ம‌ர‌க்கிளை இன்னும்
மெதுவாய்த் தூறும். - ‍நா.முத்துக்குமார்.

'பூ' இன்னும் என் ம‌ன‌தில் வாச‌னையோடு தூறிக்கொண்டு இருக்கிற‌து.

-Toto.