Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu Part I: The Kindling is the most underrated film of the year

Gautham Vasudev Menon is a filmmaker of diverse interests. His films can be intensely romantic when he wants them to be or they can be emphatically violent, like his latest, hugely underrated near-masterpiece (it misses the mark by a few steps).

This time, there are long shootouts in seedy settings with a style and elan that I normally find very disturbing. Where does the indictment of violence end and its glorification begin in gangster dramas? This question does not arise in any vital way in Menon’s film. It is a pain-lashed passionate indictment of internecine gang wars in Mumbai.

I have to admit at least two of the shootout– one during an ambush of a Tamil eatery where our hero’s journey into gangsterism begins– by a Malayali gang in Mumbai, and the other when the hero’s wife is attacked by a reptilian assassin who jumps from wall to ground like a lizard—had me riveted to the screen, gratuitous aggression be damned.

This is a high-octane film about the criminalization of migrants from the South in Mumbai. The hero, if we may call him that, goes from impoverished innocence in his native village to his initiation into a world of crime in Mumbai, with tremendous velocity.

It is as if the actor playing Muthu, Silambarasan is one of those craftsmen from the Mughal era whose hands were chopped off after they built the Taj Mahal: I can’t imagine Silambarasan playing anything else but Muthu ever again. His age leaps for the character are so authentic I wondered if Gautham Menon had shot with the actor over a period of many years (he had not).

The screenplay follows the familiar weatherworn tropes and prototypes of gangster dramas. But Menon’s screenplay, based on a story by P Jeyamohan, constantly ferrets out some unexpected twist, a coiling-recoiling of shock episodes that makes us wonder where that came from!

Other than the story of Muthu’s migratory experiences, Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu is also the story of Sridharan, played by Neeraj Madhav, a sensitive gentle Malayali migrant who is unspeakably abused by his gangster boss. Sridharan’s furtive kitchen romance with a vulnerable househelp in the crime hub, is among the most powerful and haunting interludes in this sinewy if somewhat scattered crime drama.

Muthu’s romantic interest in a pretty salesgirl in a saree shop works in spite of being inorganic to the plot, largely for the debutant actress Siddhi Idnani who is an agreeable find.

I wish Muthu’s heart had more of a say in the plot. Quite often, I found Menon to be sacrificing the ruminative plot points for the sweaty action.

The guns often overpower the roses in this borderline milestone of the gangster genre. But the brutal power of the storytelling never becomes diluted, at least not to the extent of diminishing the narrative’s impact. The characters, though many, don’t seem to crowd the screenplay. This is largely due to Gautham Menon’s firm grip over his sordid universe swarming with scumbags who don’t seem to know why they are where and what they are, and for whom.

A R Rahman ’s songs are another problem. Although it is a joy to see the lead pair lip-syncing the songs these concessions to cinematic fantasy scarcely fit into the scheme of things. The thorns, like the ones that carpet Muthu’s back in the prelude, do get in the way. But the plot plucks the pricks and gallantly sprints into the victory zone with blazing guns. I can’t wait for the sequel which is ready.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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