The Rise of Raghuvaran
Reasons behind the success of VIP
Some heavy spoilers in there!
“There are films that cater to the actor, and there are films that cater to the star – in Velayilla Pattathari, Dhanush gets a film where he gets to showcase both sides.” – Baradwaj Rangan
For me, VIP is an honest piece of accessible entertainment factory-made for wide consumption. By far the biggest criticism of the film has been the fact that the story(line) is too clichéd and/or unoriginal. While more “sophisticated” film buffs may prefer to see complex and innovative storytelling on the big screen, the average viewer doesn’t want to think too hard. But the film did not work due to this or any kind of reasons through which other commercial mass-masala films did. It is not only about entertainment. It is more than that.
“Topicality” – The attribute of being of interest at the present time. / A detail or matter of current or local interest. Jobless budding-engineers in case of this film. Though I was not vouching for this USP, it did manage to capture the attention of youngsters. Mind you, this “dedication” aspect of the film was very superficial – a literal eye-wash with numerous logical loopholes. But in the end it still worked. Why? Many external (read: off this issue) reasons!
R Velraj could have easily roped in Anirudh to do a cameo in this (inset) song. But he didn’t. Because the song was not about appealing to the fans, nor was it meant to be. It was not about the star in Dhanush either. It was all about the “philosophy” of Raghuvaran :D And this is why he stands as an honest winner today.
The Rise of Raghuvaran has been unanimous and I am surprised to see how the film is being lapped up by one and all. Phenomenal!
Quoting from my review… “There is one particular scene that travels through a hospital where a large congregation of workers who are the current young generation of “VIPs”. They have been admitted after suffering blows in a literal gangwar at the construction site they were working in. The camera captures their mood and mindset within its few seconds of motion. One gang is discussing about the cricket score, and there is another who have already built a rapport with the nurses. This is exactly what the film wants to do – capture the mindset of the youth and hit the chords accordingly – and is very much successful at it.” This single shot in the hospital was enough to show R.Velraj’s seriousness! The “jobless” tag may have been just another trump card for ringing bells at the BO, but the product on the whole didn’t come to me as something that was made just for the sake of making of money. He has genuinely entertained us, though it may have been in inconsistent chunks.
There are numerous stereotypes thrown at us too – The happy-go-lucky-Amma who gets serious at the most predictable of times, “richest daughter of the Ambani” falling for a literal nobody, social network gathering humongous crowds – to name a few. But surprisingly there was a factor that made us ignore all these clichés. Brangan even went to the extent of saying that “these clichés don’t feel like clichés”. He attributed this to the director. But for me, it was the man who is featuring at the helm of affairs in front of the camera for the 25th film in his career. Dhanush.
He made us cringe even when he was off the frame. He goes into a dark room when his feelings (tears) reach the breaking point. All we can see is Samuthirakani, and Saranya’s portrait – with all the posthumous formalities – smiling at us. But our attention is obviously on him.
There is this scene after Saranya’s death, which is supposedly a “transformation” of Raghuvaran. He steps out of his house, looks up to the sky and we see a drastic change in the colour tone. This moment divides the film visually as well as morally, even better than what the interval block did. The transition was beautiful and added a lot of colour to the character as well! And Dhanush was so convincing in this scene, and asserted the fact that no other actor in the current gen can pull off something of this sort. He is pure magic!
Miniscule moments, like when Dhanush gets to know the price of an iPhone from Amala Paul, stand out in their own way, with even Vadivel’s reaction on TV matching that particular sequence!
And there were scenes where Velraj took a dig at the general consensus by making Vivek mouth a dialogue like “சாரி சார், நானும் general audience மாதிரி react பண்ணிட்டேன்” (Sorry Sir, even I have ended up reacting like one among the general audience) which was accepted by one and all with an absolutely sportive attitude! :D
No matter how copious our exposure to world cinema is, the very experience of watching a good/decent “mindless-mass-masala” in the theatre is on a different level altogether! And I am glad that Dhanush has finally hit the right chords with the audience after luck being against him at the BO for quite some time.
With Regards,
Akilan Nagarajan,
Founder | Reviewpuram
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Originally published at reviewpuram.wordpress.com on July 24, 2014.
