30 January,2009 06:58 AM IST | | S Suresh Kumar
Director Bala took five years to complete Naan Kadavul and going by his record, it could all add up to a memorable movie experience
With the completion, Bala's reputation as an uncompromising director has soared.
His first movie Sethu (1999) was a hit, although initially it had no takers. Sethu gave actor Vikram a big break, and many producers wanted Bala to direct their projects. He took two years to give his second film Nanda, and it made Surya a star.
Three years later he came up with Pithamagan, which he shot in interior Tamil Nadu. In this film, he used both his heroes, and Vikram and Surya did a great job.
Vikram lived for eight months on the location, and his performance won him a national award for best actor. The movie got six Filmfare awards.
Bala has worked with sensitive director Balu Mahendra. He has never reacted to criticism that he is slow.
Naan Kadavul actually took five long years, three years of which were spent for production. The producer changed, and actors changed. Bala tried to get one actor to go begging on the streets to make the character realistic.
Meera Jasmine, Parvathy, Neetu Chandra, Bhavana were considered for the lead role, but Bala finally settled on Pooja, who plays a blind beggar.
For the male lead he approached Ajith but when he couldn't get dates, he zeroed in on Arya, who has been in the industry for five years.
Arya grew his hair for a year and hasn't taken up any other project in the last three years. All the hard work could now pay off.
The story is said to be about Agoris who live in Varanasi. The entire crew stayed for more than two years on the banks of the river Ganga.
Macabre sect
Agoris are a Shiva-worshipping sect. They believe Shiva is the God who creates and kills. They follow the look of the angry Shiva. They go naked and cover themselves in the ash of the cremation ground.
They meditate, perform rituals on corpses and eat human flesh. Many outside the sect are shocked and consider this cannibalism, but the Agoris say they are using what is useless. They believe that eating corpses gives them supernatural powers.
Arya, who plays an Agori, falls in love with a blind beggar. After her death, he eats her body. Bala has portrayed situations that would be completely new to Tamil film-goers, so this scene could be something the audiences will digest.
Offbeat tunes
The film has six songs. The score by Ilaiayaraja defies current trends. Vaali's lyrics don't much care about current trends either. This film will be a big milestone for Ilaiyaraja after his Malayalam film Guru.
