Dheivathirumagal - That DEAD center !

Deivathirumagal, according to me, is a reviewer's nightmare. The movie is pitched so very well, in an area that I consider as my "blind-spot", that I had to rethink over and over again to even get up my review up and running beyond a couple of sentences.

I have reviewed a bad movie in the past by stepping up the gas, tearing the director's work into smithereens (an act which I believe to be a fairly easy and an enjoyable task). Also, I have found it equally simple to exalt a great movie with unbelievable amounts of respect, deifying the maker beyond the limits of divinity. In both the cases, reviewing was a fairly easy task - thanks to the portions that worked on and off in an extremely distinctive fashion.

DTM is neither too good, nor is it bad- and for this reason I found this to be a challenging piece of work to review. I found the movie at that dreaded *dead centre*, a spot right in between a clap and a boo, where the positives and the negatives of almost every aspect of the script cancel out each other to form a perfect Zero! The sense of inconsistency is persistent throughout the run time. By the time, that you believe that you like a particular portion, the director springs up a scene, on whose end a bit of uncertainty ensues, forcing you to a state of dilemma where you are not sure if you actually liked the portion, which you believed to be really good some time ago(Vice versa is very much true, btw).

Good people are projected as good people void of any taints in the past and even the mistakes that they commit are for a good cause and while there are not many bad people here, the few who are projected with an aura of evil surrounding their heads, realize their mistakes and turn out to be good ones near the end. Criminal lawyers, Pickpockets, Traitors are no exceptions. The subtlety and realism goes for a toss, when everybody turns out to be good at the end, and it is *THIS* over the top candyfloss nature, that prevented me from enjoying, what is an otherwise very well drawn out character sketch.

Another point of concern has to be the way things are offered to the audience, for here too, lies a big deal of inconsistency. I mean, I don’t have a problem if tasty food is offered to me on a plate, or even if the server wants to feed me with a spoon, but in the name of simplicity, I can’t bear with him if he chooses to shove a funnel into my throat pouring the dish right into my stomach ! Let me mind you, DTM offers you all the three above experiences in almost identical proportions. Certain sequences like the one where Sara’s teacher declares “Nammala madhiri periyavanga indha kuzhandhaigal a paathu kathukanum”, or the scene near the end, where Krishna’s (Vikram delivers a solid performance here) lawyer Anuradha addresses the reason for her client’s *victory* to the unconditional love that he had for his daughter, were a tad too naïve and too simplistic for my liking. Those portions would have worked several times better, if the writer mellowed down the narrative with a tinge of subtlety.

Apart from the above mentioned issues, the issue that appeared to me as the problem with the maximum magnitude has to be the debatable practicality of the whole idea - Of a mentally ill father, fighting for a union with his daughter. I mean, I found more sense in the argument of the people who are projected as the evil ones in the movie, than the protagonist himself. How can a guy, who cannot even remember the name of the school that his daughter is currently studying in, be a good parent? His boss was responsible for the schooling of Krishna’s daughter, Nila (An irresistibly cute master Sara whose expressions are instantly love-able). His neighbor was responsible for teaching him how to feed / clean / maintaining his baby. In spite of being projected as a man, who is completely dependent on others’ help, who cannot pass an IQ test all by himself, who cannot even teach his kid a proper story, I found it really hard to believe that neither his lawyer, who is projected as a *good* and a sensible person, nor her sidekick even bothered to think about how good a parent that he will probably make, if at all he manages to re-unite with his daughter.

The stern bad guy portrayal of Bhanu’s dad, who takes Nila away from Krishna does more damage, than good to our senses. We are told that he is rich, powerful and to some extent *bad*, as he just dropped off a mentally disturbed person in the middle of a street without taking a look back. This naturally creates a sense of hatred on that particular character, effectively clouting our judgment regarding the sensibilities of the issue. Just as the climax approaches, after a long, clichéd court scene- the bad guy feels bad for whatever he has done and lets Nila go. ( Thirundhittangalam !! ) And, what makes matters worse has to be a sudden fit of heroism that the protagonist displays right at the climax. Where did that sudden surge of logic come from?! How can a man, with such limited IQ, out-think almost every guy around him?

Having said all these, I don’t want people to think that DTM is bad- It has its moments at a lot of places, thanks to an excellent technical crew, some really well executed portions and a solid performance from the lead cast. I admit that I have been pretty harsh in this review, but let me assure you, that every bit of criticism that I have put forward, is out of the care that I have for the director. He showed a lot of promise with his earlier work, Madhrasapatnam, but with DTM, he has failed to make full use of the potential offered by the script that he had on his hands. I have never considered plagiarism as a problem as long as the magic of the original is captured, but still – with a proven script like “I am Sam” at hand, with a promising director wielding the megaphone, I feel it is not a sin to expect something beyond a mediocre movie that Dheivathirumagal is. Nevertheless, a one-time watch is rewarding, if you are ready to overlook a certain amount of flaws. And Sara – I LOVE YOU!