Joker: Unconventional, Ingenious, Brilliant

We live in interesting times, where exercising your freedom of speech, a fundamental constitutional right can land you in a soup. You can be instantly trolled by Bakths and labeled as an “anti-national” and if lucky you may escape a bid on your life and end up behind bars with sedition charges or other false cases. Didn’t we see varying degrees of this in the case of Kanhaiya Kumar, Irom Sharmila, Hardik Patel, Perumal Murugan, Kovan, Piyush Manush and many others in the recent past?

The plot of the movie Joker revolves around how an activist sprouts in our society and how the political system ruthlessly runs over him. The director has used a simple example of building toilets in rural India. The one-line plot may sound unappealing, but against the current political backdrop in the country, the story becomes an interesting script.

Director: Let’s start with Director Raju Murugan. This is his second movie after Cuckoo and he has depicted poverty without making you feel queasy and has used appropriate examples to showcase establishments (Governments and individuals working for them) and how they trespass citizen rights and cut corners to make them look good. Wikipedia says he has got the best out of his cast by making them rehearse 90% of the storyline before putting them in front of the camera.

Cast: This is the 4th movie for the protagonist Guru Somasundaram after his much spoken performance in Aaranya Kandam followed by Paandiya Naadu and Jigarthanda. Guru through his performance has inspired and challenged our stars to choose a meaty role than go for a formula driven scripts. Newcomers Ramya Pandian and Gayathri Krishnaa despite a short screen time in a role devoid of glamour leave a lasting impression as Isai and Malli. This only reiterates what happens when a script chooses the artist more than artist choosing the script and we've repeatedly seen this in early career of movie stars.

Music: Coming to the next portfolio is music, which makes this movie stand on its legs. When I did a bit of research on the music director Sean Roldan, I discovered this is a stage name of Ragavendra, son of Srimushnam Raja Rao (Mridhangist) and Padma, the daughter of famous novelist Sandilyan. He has beautifully brought out pathos in the song Ola Ola Kudisayile, created a lilting lullaby Chellamma with folk tunes from south and north and brought out essence of a Gana in the song Jasmine. He has used folk artist and unknown singers from Dharmapuri to croon and probably this may be the only movie these many new artists have been used for the first time in the movie. Ennga Sir Unga Sattam reminds songs from the 50s. Hadn’t Anirudh backed out of this project, we wouldn’t have discovered the brilliance in Sean Roldan and also new artist featured in the album.

Lyricists: Yugabarathy with over 1000 compositions to his credit is not new to Tamil Film Industry and he has penned numerous hits in his decade long career. Despite so many movies having come with a rural backdrop and many of the lyricists romanticized rural India and its characters there, but still Yugabarathy has managed to bring out uncaptured beauty in his lyrics. The Jasmine song is a great example where he romanticizes the heroin looking at the fungal mark (themal) in her neck and cracks in her feet (pithavadi) and equates her wink to the massage one gets at Hoggenakal. He captures the small pleasures and anguish in storing each other number on their mobile phones to enticing the heroine by promising to place flex banner outside their wedding. Very realistic and at the same time original and imaginative.

Lyricist Ramesh Vaidya must also be credited for penning down the Chellamma song that expresses the longing in the heart of the heroin and how dearly she loves him. Usage of Hindi lyrics in between brings in a different flavor, which is in describable.

Chinnathu manne yen ponne (mud described as gold)

Seravaattu kaasa yen rosa (precious pennies earned from selling dried leaves)

Selavaagi pogaathe (don’t spend yourself)

Chellammaa chellammaa

One can feel the rustic flavors in his lyrics and we are reminded of Vairamuthu’s lyrics in Karuthamma.

Overall: Despite the director using a song to establish the unconventional hero and his fight early on in the movie, we fail to get a grip of his narration until intermission. In the second half the director moves quickly to narrate the conflict and also resolves it. When combined with dialogues oozing of satire, brilliance in acting, lilting music and rustic lyrics it leaves audience and critics speechless and keeps the movie hall full even two weeks after its release.

Sans any marketing fanfare like Kabali (Cut out, airplane, Palaabishegam), this movie has been successful in the box office. Moreover, they've used an ingenious marketing tactic to fight privacy and get to support the movie plot. Soon this movie will be remade in Hindi and Telugu and will win many more hearts across India and bring about much needed change in the nation; which is more precious than awards.