ScreenArt

There is such a stark difference between the performances of the Nagesh / Baliah duo and the rest of the cast in 'Kadhalikka Neramillai'. Consider a scene between V.S.Raghavan & Muthuraman: the son comes home, the father asks him a few questions, the son answers, the mother interrupts, cut. The transaction of words is governed by a rule, rather than spontaneity or naturalism. On close observation a viewer can clearly see that one actor is waiting for the other to complete his line so that he can begin his line. This is the same with body language - there are many shots where an actor walks upto a certain point and stops right at a point where the director has instructed him to for the best focus or frame symmetry or whatever behind-the-camera reason.

In real life, people don't conduct conversations that way; one guy starts his response well before the other is finished resulting in an overlap-dialogue. And there are pauses where either parties don't have anything to say after a round of dialogues. The threads of Nagesh & Baliah in this movie are solid examples of dialogue delivery. In an era where the emotions associated with dialogues came from shower heads, these guys opened up like Niagara. The classic scene where Nagesh narrates a thriller-horror scene to Baliah has been very well dissected that I have nothing to add other than express my awe at their vocal chord modulations & facial muscle contortions.

Nagesh's interactions with Sachu are terrific in the sense that how a director of Sridhar's calibre might have had a tough time with a new face like Ravichandran. Of course, Ravichandran's performance is artificial at the worst and ultra-bland at the best. When ever Nagesh, the budding director here, bangs his head at Sachu's acting disability, I wonder what went through Sridhar's mind. Baliah's reactions in the presence of the older Muthuraman is supremely enjoyable. The slide from the authoritative estate owner to someone like a petty businessman is extreme. Like the cartoons, there are no subtleties for the viewer to discern - the expressions are out in the open for everyone to see. His transition from a proud, authoritative figure to a submissive, controllable man is just binary - there are no in-between expressions.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter who the hero was or who got paid better. People still remember Baliah, Nagesh, K.V.Thangavelu, Chandrababu.... It's fun to watch these guys repeatedly as opposed to somebody like S.S.R or A.M.Raja. Action comes not only from an understanding of the screenplay but from an element that is twined with the inherent personality of the actor. These actors can transform some of the boring lines into funny snippets because they express themselves in those lines. Coming back to 'Kadhalikka Neramillai', this is a funny movie because it stars a couple of good comedians and has a script filled with funny lines. Replace Ravichandran & Muthuraman with Tom & Jerry and the movie will do just as well.

Labels: Baliah, Kadhalikka Neramillai, Nagesh