Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s Aaranya Kaandam is out on JioHotstar, its impact unmistakeable despite the bleeped-out profanity. The Tamil film was notorious before its release because of a lengthy battle with the censor board and then graduated to cult status after it came out in 2011.
Aaranya Kaandam was re-released in Tamil Nadu in cinemas last week, and is simultaneously being streamed.
Kumararaja’s screenplay is set in Chennai during the course of an eventful day, during which the fates of various characters intersect. The actors include Jackie Shroff, in the never-before seen – and never-since-seen – role of a crude gangster. Kumararaja has sly fun sending up various swaggering, trash-talking men who are way in over their heads.
Jackie Shroff plays Singaperumal, whose young mistress Subbu (Yasmin Ponnappa) bears the brunt of his bad manners and impotence. Her miserable face puts me off, Singaperumal complains.
Singaperumal’s deputy Pasupathy (Sampath Raj) wants to steal a cocaine stash from their rival Gajendran, something Singaperumal is reluctant about. The clash that is building up between boss and henchman is spliced with an impoverished father-son-pair trying to raise money through cock-fighting.
Separately, the oppressed Subbu has worked her wiles on the lowly gang member Sappai (Ravi Krishna). A war within the gang and beyond it brews, with the cocaine haul and the money it brings being the ultimate prize.
Among the influences on Aaranya Kaandam are the amoral, wryly funny crime films by Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. Kumararaja’s own nihilism is marked, resulting in blackly comic scenes and unpredictable turns. The only rule in this jungle is that the apex predator will win, but there are surprises along the way.
The movie’s draws include Kumararaja’s ear for dialogue, his focus on characters and their movements, and his refusal to hurry things along. Every one of the actors, regardless of the size of their roles, submits to Kumararaja’s quirky vision. PS Vinod’s cinematography is suitably pulpy and evocative, especially in the indoor scenes.
Unusual for its time, Aaranya Kaandam fits in perfectly with the present trend of films that prefer flavour and texture over exposition. Kumararaja went on to make the equally feted Super Deluxe, another film set in a single day and featuring individuals who have the misfortune of meeting each other.
Also read:
‘The film behaves like its title’: The weird and wacky world of ‘Super Deluxe’
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