Vetrimaran is a man of commendable commitment towards his subject. Watching Aadukalam reminded us of the saying, read somewhere, that the genius of an oeuvre is measured by the breadth of its message. Aadukalam is a sprawling, multilayered drama that oozes of earthy inventiveness native only to the region Vetrimaran chooses for his story. He employs rooster fight, to bring the movie its narrative strength and builds the movie further, slowly departing from the concept and delving into the depth of the many characters he fleshes out with his mighty sword of a pen.
Reading between the movie’s finely crafted lines, the beautifully etched out message becomes visible. The roosters fight and die for the sake of human beings and their bloated egos (or to bloat their egos further), all the while without knowing who they are dying for. In the same manner, when ego blinds human beings they know very little of what they do. Or the consequences their actions will bring about.
Dhanush and Kishore are the unswerving aides to Pettaikaarar (a role done to marvelous perfection by Jayabalan despite a borrowed voice; more about that later), whose business is to rear roosters for fights. He rules the fights, commanding impressive success rates. Rathinam, the cop, is his rival in the fights. As the movie revolves around these characters and their lives, Dhanush almost accidentally wins a fight against Rathinam’s gang, although Jayabalan advises him against fighting for fear of losing. Dhanush goes on to win a huge cash prize, much to the chagrin of Jayabalan’s clandestine ego.
This is where the movie moves away from the rooster fight scenario and thickens into a delicious plot of twists and turns of unpredicted events, setting its tone. A brilliantly written screenplay and immaculate research about the rooster fight in detail has helped Vetrimaran execute the movie perfectly. Another aspect that shows Vetrimaran’s painstaking effort is the casting. For instance, the roles of Dhanush, Jayabalan, Kishore and Tapasee could just not have been performed by anyone else to the same effect. It is Vetrimaran’s success even to bring us to think so.
It wouldn’t be a cliché to say that Aadukalam is another landmark in Dhanush’s career. He suffuses life into the Karuppu character and never once during the course of the entire movie does the actor Dhanush peeps out of the character Karuppu even furtively. That is the success of the character, and the actor. Next in line is the noted Sri Lankan Tamil poet Jayabalan, who is nothing sort of a revelation. He underplays the emotions subtly and gives you the goosebumps quite often. Although it was Radharavi’s voice his character uses, it never comes across jarringly. Tapasee couldn’t have had a better debut in Tamil. As an Anglo Indian girl, she proves that she can emote and adapt to the prerequisites of her character. But then that could be Vetrimaran’s ability to bring her to that level of precision. Kishore is another actor whose role as a brother like figure in Karuppu’s life is unnerving at times.
Faithful representation of romantic sequences between Dhanush and Tapasee are delightful and enable the first half to fly in a jiffy. G V Prakash proves that he has come of age with his unsettling background score and the selection of singers for the songs ‘Ayyayyo’ and ‘Yathe Yathe’.
Everything about the movie is inventive, except for the tacky rooster fight sequences in graphics that Vetrimaran could not pull off with real roosters owing to the limitations drawn by the Animal Welfare Board. Also, the movie becomes a little too self-indulgent during the first half. Not to mention, it has a very unconventional, non-conclusive climax that is left to the viewer’s discretion. But those downsides are paltry. Aadukalam is a saga and a brilliant study of human emotions portrayed magnificently with the able help of Vetrimaran’s deftly written screenplay.
