Movie Review: Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (Tamil)

Mani Ratnam's Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (Crimson Red Sky), in many ways, is a subversion of his own critically acclaimed gangster drama Nayagan which came out 31 years ago, while building off a sprawling multi-character story that recalls to mind Aaytha Ezhuthu. Only this time it's the blood ties that bind them together. At its core it's a story of sibling rivalry in a family who seem to be involved in everything shady and illegal, the thirst for power and an overarching theme about how destruction breeds destruction and that when push comes to shove, they are more than trigger-happy to bay for each other's blood. Hardly a novel subject for the movies, but unlike Nayagan, where he explored the good, the bad and all the grey in between, Mani Ratnam rids them of all shades, unequivocally classifying them as bad, as some sort of menace to the society who need to be taken out by any means possible.

Thus when an attempt is made on the family patriarch's (aptly named Senapathi, the supreme commander) life, it sets the ball rolling for what's a thrilling high-stakes game of crime and punishment that wastes no time cutting to the chase. It's incisive, lean, taut and devoid of any clichéd cinematic tropes that could hamper the narrative (even A. R. Rahman's music is relegated to the background, with Mazhai Kuruvi interestingly shifting in tone from love to lament), and this is what makes it immensely watchable, despite its connect-the-dots approach that leaves gaping holes in logic and lacking in well-defined character arcs (you end up wanting to know so much about Rasool and Chitra, and what goes on in their minds, or was the apathy intentional, because they are all so uniformly bad they don't deserve our emotional investment?) and deeper nuances. Those looking a perfect mix of style and substance, production gloss and narrative depth may be in for a slight disappointment, but as an urban thriller about fratricidal violence and internecine struggle, it's polished, efficient and ruthless. After all, isn't revenge a dish best served cold?