Merku Thodarchi Malai Review
Star Cast : Rangasamy, Abu Valayangulam, Anthony Vaathiyaar, Gayathri Krishna
Director : Lenin Bharathi
In Merku Thodarchi Malai, director Lenin Bharathi has actually transported us to the western ghats...makes us travel along with his characters who are landless labors and how the advent of industrialization shatters their peaceful life.
The film begins in a tiny house, an old lady in her half sleep awakens Rangasamy (Antony) in the wee hours of a rainy day. Rangasamy gets up sheepishly, he goes to a tea shop filled with a bunch of old men, gets tea for him and his mom. Over a cup of tea, they speak about a land registration, the son wants the land to be registered in the name of her old mom. Later, he travels along with a group of people to a small town and visits his boss who gives him a chit and money.
Rangasamy then climbs up to a hilly village in western ghats, gives the chit to a businessman and the money to an accountant. On his way, Rangasamy and the other workers meet a communist labor activist Chako (Abu Valayangulam), we get to see how workers are being treated in the cardamon estate, their day-to-day lifestyle, the small tea and eatery shops, their love for the hill, trees, and honesty. Rangasamy also gets married to a girl in the village and they have a son!
Lenin spends almost the entire first half of the film to establish his characters and what is more special is that he strongly registers that for the folks living in the hilly village, relationship and love are better than everything else in the world, money only comes secondary. Rangasamy’s biggest aim is to buy a land for him and settle down in life. All these things happen only before the industrialization and advent of technology. There is a particular scene in which Rangasamy’s lifetime aim gets shattered accidentally because of his friend but it doesn’t affect their relationship much.
In another scene, labor activist Chacko says that the arrival of roads will bring machines which would affect the workers and as we think that he is just another old-school guy, a greedy businessman and his love for money turns everyone’s life upside down. Sadly, what Chacko tells his people and warn them also becomes true.
Merku Thodarchi Malai is not the typical commercial film, it’s a pure artistic movie that one needs the patience to watch. It is painfully slow in the first half and you will need immense patience to watch this one. The actors are very real, even the dialogues often get overlapped just like another real-world conversation. But performance wise, no one actually stands out because Lenin Bharathi has made this film in such a way that there is no specific importance given for one character, we get to see them just as one of the people in the village. Even the frames were not focused to capture the emotions of one specific actor or actress, everything has been captured as if our eyes are placed somewhere near them.
Merku Thodarchi Malai’s biggest strength is undoubtedly cinematographer Theni Eshwar, his frames and camera angle effortlessly travel with the characters. Music by Ilaiyaraaja is just functional and nothing extraordinary which is quite unusual for Isaignani’s standards. In various places, Eshwar has used the aerial shots and each time it gives different emotions. In one top shot, we get to see the passion and faith of a hard-working old man and the climax aerial shot leave you speechless, we are just get sorryed by the emotions and grief of Rangasamy who lost all his hope, watches all the merciless things happened to him without even saying anything justifying his watchman job.
