So, everyone here knows what an FRS is right? Right?
At the outset, Team FRS would like to wish everyone a Happy Deepavali.
May this festival of lights…
Editor: Enough, I’m done with festival greetings
Writer group: we haven’t even started and also can we add the now popular phrase “from us to you or from ours to yours, chief?
Editor: No! (shouts)
Let’s just stick with the FRS, okay? Already our brand is too weak, we haven’t done an FRS in months.
Just begin.
-101: Annaatthe begins with a voice over. Always beware of narration boys! Funnily enough this narration is never followed through again the movie. It is only used as a lead in to take us six months back.
-45: People of Kolkata are eager to know who is Annaatthe, they are also using the hashtag #whoisannaatthe, but we know that Annaatthe beats up gangs who hold black money of the rich and famous, so pretty much an underground operation, why would the media be covering this and why would people on the street want to know who Annaatthe is?
Cut to Soorakottai.
+52: Obviously hero is village president, but he is also arbiter of local fights, deliverer of pearls of wisdom and doer of kurumbu, singer of songs and dancers of the (omkaara) koothu
No need to mention that everyone from 6 to 60 love him, because he is hero.
Do villagers really love this kurumbu doing hero or is this a Kollywood based reality?
Also also innocent and cheerful villagers are innocent and cheerful.
<Idea Moment>
How about a story where the villagers are actually irritated by the doings of the kurumbukaara hero types because their innocence and mischievousness always come in the way of you know, farming and they send him to Kolkata which is actually a place where the kurumbukara hero learns reality of life, work etc.
</Idea Moment >
+31: Rajni’s hair for being the representation of bounce, at times it seems like it is a separate organism with its own thoughts, wants, needs and ideas.
Did someone say idea?
<Idea Moment>
Rajni’s hair develops its own consciousness and starts to pick up radio signals whenever there are wrong doers around him, it’s mostly like a on the body travelling sidekick cum guide which helps him clean up crime.
</Idea Moment>
+155: Rajni himself for being the embodiment of enthusiasm, he does so much in this movie, more than all the rest of the cast, more than all the list of writers credited, more than what he is supposed to be doing.
It’s a pain to watch, but also at the same time painfully admirable that someone has so much spirit in trying to retain an audience.
But can he do it alone?
Umm
–400: Paasakara Psychos
If you popped in (your mouth) popcorn every time someone says Paasam (affection?) in this movie, then you will run out of popcorn within the first few minutes, if you want to continue with eating popcorn and counting the word paasam be ready to break your FDs, because Popcorn is costly bhais.
Also, this family is full of Paasakara psychos that it is literally their affection which brings out the main conflict between Kaalaiyan (Rajni) and his sister Thanga Meenatchi (Keerthi Suresh).
Paasam is above everything and controls everything, it’s almost like Kaalaiyan and Thangam are possessed like in a horror film, also people around them are enablers, except the comedian who as usual sees the inanity of this situation?
Would you shower affection so much that they break themselves?
Disturbing to say the least.
Editor: please order more coffee, our writers need it.
Owner: no money, just publish and get done with it.
+19: But the ensuing drama for about five minutes is one of the best, Rajni also has a brilliant Siva conflict moment earlier in the movie where he needs to get his sister married but does not really want to.
As the saying goes, obstacles are good but conflict is always better.
Obstacle is when the hero needs to overcome something to accomplish something, conflict is when hero has to overcome something but doesn’t really feel like doing this.
Siva really does conflicts really well and Viswasam is one of the best mainstream movies which did this well in the last decade and we can keep typing away on the conflicts in Viswasam, but this is not that blogpost, that is a different one.
Here the conflict is small and it hardly registers. Siva has shown he could do it, but not always past experience leads to similar performance in the future.
<Cut back to Kolkata>
Editor: Wait a minute! Did you mention about how Meena ma’am and Khushboo ma’am brought in the nostalgia element and how people were transported to the 90s etc.
Writer group: were we?
Editor: get on with it.
<Cut again to Kolkata>
Kolkata the city where it is always Durga Puja.
-103: To reinstate that we are indeed in Kolata, Keerthy Suresh is asked to run on Howrah bridge and Victoria Memorial.
We mean…
-67: Something something happens and we find ourselves with our first major villain.
-50: something something happens and we find ourselves with the second major villain.
The something something here refers to the designed action sequences which technically should be fun to watch, but since we don’t have any real stakes here and since both the villains are no match for Rajni, there is no swarasyam left with us the audience.
Swarasyam, there’s a good title for the next Siva and Team movie.
Editor: Do put in a word about the villainous roles of Jagapathy Babu, the audience will like it.
Writer group (in unison): we write for ourselves, who cares what the audience like.
Editor: Waiddaminit! Something struck me, you guys were telling about the paasakara psychos right? Where affection itself becomes deadly to those involved?
Writer group (in unison): Yes!
Editor: So it could be like Siva’s reading of the Rajni phenomenon itself, so many people love him and the pressure just gets to him every time he makes the movie, the love they have for him could be a deterrent to what he could do on screen, it almost becomes a controlling force.
Maybe Siva and Team did experience this deadly affection pressure when they were writing the film and thus he put all that into the movie?
How is this interpretation?
What do you all think?
Writer group (in unison): We are not film companion, sir.
Subam
Team FRS
The Lowly Laureate 