11/6/2022 0 Comments Imsai arasan 23am pulikesi raaga![]() ![]() There is a dire need to stop projecting the ‘song-fight-message-screechy melodrama’ template as ‘family-friendly.’ Our families have moved on. ( Annaththe is another film that was marketed similarly.) Some of our biggest commercial stars are experimenting with genres and forms and to great success. And I have begun to wonder why Tamil cinema fashions these family entertainers as time warp portals. (HipHop Aadhi gets the credits for Anbarivu’s story.)Īnbarivu is being marketed as a ‘family entertainer’. Lesser can be said about the other female lead, Yaazhini (Kayal), who seems to be there only because Anbu needed a love interest. At times of necessity though, like a road accident or a fight, she is content to be a crying bystander. It has a heroine, Kalai (Kashmira) who seems to remember she is a doctor only when she is in the hospital. He seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly.) The conversations, the emotions, feel contrived. (Watching the nice-guy Vidhaarth playing a baddie was fun. Pasupathy is a minister, but he seems to have no other job than to shadow the Muniyandi family. Nobody else apart from him has an accent though. Everything feels stilted, especially the Canadian portions, which have Arivu lapsing into accented English once in a while to remind us that he is an NRI. The film breaks cinema’s cardinal rule of ‘show, not tell.’ After Arivu’s fina Anbu and Arivu’s idea of mass/cool is to wear sunglasses - doesn’t matter if it's raining or they are at home. Women, however, are excluded.Īnbarivu also suffers from issues of execution. Even in the end, in a ‘love conquers all’ moment, men from both villages share a gesture of honour at the village festival. People of Andipatti, who were repeatedly humiliated, are expected to forget all they faced instantaneously because Muniyandi realised his ‘folly’. The good Dalit Prakasam even ‘thanks’ Muniyandi for letting him marry Lakshmi, considering his ‘background’. Above all, the caste tussle is presented as a 'family problem'. On the other hand, it makes teddy bears out of Muniyandi, Anbu, and Lakshmi, only mildly reprimanding them for all their problematic behaviour. I am all for grey characters, but Anbarivu reserves it only for the villain Pasupathy. The word ' jaathi' (caste) comes just once in the film on several occasions, it is referred to as 'kolgai' (idealogy). In the end, an infuriated Prakasam leaves with Baby Arivu, leaving his wife and Baby Anbu behind.Īnbarivu tries to question casteist practises but lacks the nuance and sophistication to make a compelling argument. Pasupathy (Vidhaarth), also from Andipatti, further fuels the hostility between the men. Even his wife Lakshmi seems to peg him like her father. But he decides to be ‘gregarious’ and lets the couple marry. So when his daughter Lakshmi decides to marry Prakasam (Saikumar) from Andipatti, Muniyandi is miffed. And power belonged to Arasapatti, or more specifically to Muniyandi’s (Napoleon) family. As the names suggest, Arasapatti (the land of kings) belongs to the privileged caste while Andipatti (the land of paupers) houses the oppressed. The film is set in two fictional villages - Arasapatti and Andipatti - near Madurai. It’s like how VS Raghavan hilariously observes in the Vadivelu-starrer, Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi (another estranged twins film), “ Rettai kozhandhaigal pirandhu vittaal, thiraikadhiyil veru enna dhan seyya mudiyum? (if there are twins, what else can you do with the screenplay?”Īnbarivu attempts to match the lack of novelty in its narrative with its setting. At some point, they will switch places to ‘act’ like the other person. The twins are diametrically opposite in character. From MGR’s Engal Veetu Pillai to Suriya’s Vel, several films have defined the formula for this ‘genre’. But Tamil cinema is no stranger to family drama with estranged twins. ![]() He plays twin brothers named - take a wild guess - yes, Anbu and Arivu. HipHop Tamizha takes on a dual role for the first time in Aswin Raam’s debut directorial Anbarivu. ![]()
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