Film Review: Chekka Chivantha Vaanam 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Watched another Tamil film, a Mani Ratnam film with an AR Rahman soundtrack. I think I have found a new world of films to follow. We are on a Silverbird WhatsApp group and, the cinema managers post the daily film schedules. When I saw the big names, I immediately instructed Haresh and Kavita to get ready. "Chekka Chivantha Vaanam" was as good as it gets. The plot was as thick as a stew and, our heads reeled as we grappled with the mystery of whodunnit. This was a masterpiece of a thriller, a fast-paced desi Godfather, but the pace was grandly tuned and, revealed. Gangsters have never looked so good and ruthless. Every character was beautifully crafted and, given choice acid-laced dialogues. I've seen some of these actors in Hindi films and, I vaguely remember them in docile, meek roles but here they had powerful roles and I got to see them in a very different light. Arvind Swami, for example, I remember from Sapnay and Bombay and, here he is a beefed-up strong man, the eldest son of the ageging don, bitter, angry, vehement, and quick-tempered. Jyothika I remember from a very very lame romantic film with Akshay Khana, the only sister of a 7-8 brothers who boss her around. Here she is as beautiful as ever but a mature wife and mother, who puts up with her husband's deviations and stands by him. Speaking of the main women,"Chekka Chivantha Vaanam" 's women exist in relation to their men but still, they exert power and screen presence. Hearing Tamil spoken in this slick gangster film was a wholly new experience in terms of hearing another desi language and, made me realise how much of a Urdu-Hindu bubble I am in terms of my limited experience of South Asian films and music. If I remember correctly, mocking South Indian accents was part of Omar Sharif's comedic routine and, I think I remember him mimicking Tamil in one of his stage shows (which we used to watch on VHS). It's good to hear another language in an authoritative manner, with punch, with beauty and poise and, let it be transformed in your mind. At least one word I did recognise was 'dost' - a word that the suspended police officer Rasool (who lives with chemistry professors, uncle and aunt) uses for his gangster friend. Tamil is apparently a classical language, in continuous existence for a couple thousand years. Anyway, what a good film. It's a heady feeling to watch such a masterfully crafted film.