Lost in the Wilderness

Aaranya Kaandam is a complete,non-stop riot. A gangster flick with a bunch of foul-mouthed low-lifers going about their jobs,but underlying it all,a sense of lives unspooling in the urban jungle: a gang boss looking for his lost mojo,a faithful lieutenant falling out of favour,a young mistress searching for a way out of her put-upon existence,a bunch of baddies chasing a bag of white powder,a little boy and his father finding each other. Quentin Tarantino would be proud.

Like the best gangster films,Aaranya Kaandam is not just a gangster film. It is a film about love,loss and longing,all wrapped up in lines which echo with gun-shot precision in closed spaces,full of wicked invective,and a sense of intelligent fun that never fades even when danger looms. The film promises nothing but entertainment,but leaves a strong residue of its self in our viewing lives: I watched it that first time twice in quick succession,and again this past weekend. And I couldnt tear myself away. I sat through it from start to finish with equal pleasure,remembering some of it,rediscovering the parts Id forgotten.

I had met the films producer SP Charan on that Chennai visit,where he had spoken about how he would like for the film to get an all-India release. It happened only a couple of weeks ago the release was delayed because of a protracted wrangle with the Censors,getting past with eight cuts. Most of them verbal,according to Charan,but the film came and went without any ripples. Therein lies the familiar,sad story of how most of us in the north lose the opportunity to sample good films from the south for two old reasons: a dire lack of publicity,and the paucity of enough subtitled prints only the digital prints of Aaranya Kaandam ran with subtitles,the regular prints had none.

So even if you were one of those manic types that keeps track of non-Hindi releases and fetched up at a show,you may have had to sit through a film minus subtitles. In a film like Sivaji,which I saw without subtitles in a plush Delhi theatre a few years back,it made very little difference. Rajini was not about to rely on any dialogue to do what Rajini does best.

A few weeks back,I managed to catch Aadukalam,a film thats won eight National Awards this year including the best actor,and the best director only because I was determined to: sacrificing a Sunday afternoon,at a ramshackle auditorium with terrible sound and projection,in the heart of Little Tamil Nadu in Delhi. In a sea of maamis and mallipoo,I was the only one who had to rely upon the subtitles,which could barely be seen because the doors kept opening as people streamed in and out.

But in a film like Aaranya Kaandam,if you miss Jackie Shroffs gimlet-eyed gang boss growling in Tamizh,scattering cuss words like curving bullets,you will have missed the key element to enjoying the film. Yes,yes,it is the self same Jackie whos vanished from Bollywood,and rightly so,because he was getting no work worth its name: in this one he gets to do things hes never done,and he reminds you of the actor he once was,and still can be,even in a dubbed voice which sounds very like his own.

While fleeing a murderous horde,Aaranya Kaandams chief hood remarks: a gangster without a chase is like Buddha without nirvana. It is a fitting,biting description of a cinema culture without access to the best and brightest in the country. Like being in the aaranya.

shubhra.gupta expressindia.com