I agree it’s too quickly to repair a mode, a label, an intent on a filmmaker who has made simply two movies, however I’ve a sense these two movies are primarily who Prem Kumar is as a creator.
As I discussed in my evaluation, each 96 and Meiyazhagan comply with the identical construction:
- A troubled man (a person with some sort of unresolved trauma) finds himself at a social occasion with acquainted faces.
- In these occasions, one individual (a identified lady in 96, an unknown man in Meiyazhagan) will get singled out.
- And this individual leads the troubled man out of his trauma.
I don’t imagine within the three-act construction, however these three “acts” kind the construction of Prem Kumar’s two movies. Now, this isn’t concerning the specifics. As an illustration, in 96, the troubled man himself organised the get-together – as in, he made the calls that bought the momentum going. In Meiyazhagan, the troubled man is compelled to attend the get-together. Additionally, in a single case, the person willingly talks to the “singled-out individual” (his ex), whereas within the new movie, the person is compelled to speak to this individual.
However these specifics aside, the final “Level A to Level B” arc is similar.
Level A: A person has learnt to deal with loss: the lack of a cherished one in 96, the lack of a cherished home/city in Meiyazhagan. He’s semi-functional – as in, he isn’t paralysed by this loss. In 96, he is ready to perform as a photographer. In Meiyazhagan, he is ready to perform as a husband, father, cricket coach. However deep inside, these males are dysfunctional. They’ve unresolved points.
Level B: These males are “cured” after a protracted collection of talks, which is the equal of remedy. In 96, the person will get closure. He could not get the woman, however he will get closure about plenty of issues (like why she refused to fulfill him when he went to her faculty). Whether or not he strikes on or not, whether or not he loves once more or not, at the least this chapter is closed. In Meiyazhagan, the person will get one other sort of closure. He forgives the kinfolk he held a grudge in opposition to. He overcomes his worry/hatred of the city/home – slightly, his worry about how he’ll face that city/home, which could be very very similar to the anxiousness which may happen while you got down to meet an ex after a very long time.
That is the primary time, we’re seeing this type of ‘remedy’ in Tamil cinema. Sure, there have been earlier situations of males who have been broken items, and who learnt to beat their points (for example, a poisonous upbringing in Kaatru Veliyidai, a sense of failure in Mayakkam Enna). However the “treatment” in these movies got here via harsher means. In Kaatru Veliyidai, the person needed to be remoted from the girl (in jail) in order that he can start to understand her goodness, her kindness. In Mayakkam Enna, the alcoholic, abusive man has to face his spouse’s “silence” to be able to turn into complete once more.
[Only Anbe Sivam, I guess, comes close to Prem Kumar’s cinema – but in that film, the man is not exactly troubled to begin with. It’s just that he learns to be a better human being, with a better perspective about life. He doesn’t need to be “cured”.]
All these different movies (Kaatru Veliyidai, Mayakkam Enna, Anbe Sivam) use drama to result in transformation: seize by Pakistani military, or a miscarriage, or an enormous prepare accident and somewhat boy who dies. Prem Kumar’s cinema doesn’t contain this type of drama. I believe he’s a mild soul, and his gentleness comes via the mild means by which the minds of his protagonists are “mended”. These minds are mended via discuss that proves therapeutic. Now, a few of us could have points with a number of the content material of this discuss, however nobody can deny that the kind is crucial to those movies: that’s, the conversational kind.
The conversations between Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha in 96, between Karthi and Arvind Swami in Meiyazhagan – these are the closest we now have gotten to seeing remedy on the Tamil display screen. As a result of, within the broadest sense, what’s remedy? Whether or not it happens in a locked room with a licensed therapist or with an ex or with a lovable pest of a person whose identify stays unknown, it’s about unlocking your internal self and opening up about emotions and feelings.
The defining second of Prem Kumar’s cinema — for me — comes within the scene after Vijay Sethupathi drops Trisha off at her lodge. She goes inside, somewhat stunned. She needed extra of him. However at the moment, she accepts that possibly that is all she goes to get. And solely after processing this in her thoughts, contained in the lodge room, does she sprint to the cellphone and name Vijay Sethupathi and ask him the place he’s. Word the incremental nature of Trisha’s “processing”. When he dropped her off, she may have stated, “Is that every one?”. However once we are assembly individuals after a very long time, it’s typically awkward, and it takes time to get conversant in them once more. She want time to be alone, time to suppose, time to determine what to do subsequent. This behaviour is so correct, as is Vijay Sethupathi’s response to Trisha’s query: “The place are you Ram? Have you ever gone far-off…?” He says, “I’m precisely the place I left you.”
In different phrases, he’s nonetheless at Level A. In 96, Trisha is the “therapist” who will treatment his trauma and transfer him to Level B. In Meiyazhagan, Karthi is the “therapist”. I’ve heard of 96 being described as a romance, and Meiyazhagan being referred to as a bromance. However, IMO, nothing might be farther from the reality. These are mild, relaxed, prolonged remedy periods – and will we see extra of them.