Dharani Movie Stills
Dharani is more focused, though. There is neither a comedy track nor a duet, but it is twice as melodramatic.
*****
Three unemployed men – Magesh (Elango Kumaravel), Sekar (Aari), and Kathir (Ajai Krishna) – choose to make a detour in life. While Magesh – an aspiring actor – becomes a koothu artiste, Kathir – an inefficient marketing guy – turns into a fraudulent real estate agent, and Sekar – a poltroon – ironically discovers a ruthless thug in him. A few scenes later, the lives of the three protagonists become separate tales until the very end. It’s perhaps thanks to this fork that Dharani feels more like an omnibus of short stories than a movie.
*****
The premise explored in Dharani is not new to Tamil cinema. As the protagonists battle their own demons, they also wage a war against social issues like unemployment, illegal sand mining and land encroachment.
So, needless to say, Dharani is heavily preachy. An anonymous character often tells Magesh, “Saapta serichidnum. Padhutha, pattunu thoongindnum. Adhu dhaan vaazhkai… Naalu makkal nammala suththi irukkanum,” which apparently is the moral of the film.
To add credence to this lesson, a spiritual guru is also brought in. He conducts a discourse at a prison before the credits roll.
A song of right and wrong.
*****
Dharani tries doing several things at the same time. It wants to make you cry and make you think. But quite like its protagonists, it doesn’t succeed at any of it.
A couple of scenes in Dharani does seem genuine, though. Kathir tries his luck at a marketing agency. Despite being a post graduate, he walks around the streets in formal wear, parroting his manager’s pitch to sell a “glamourous encyclopaedia”.
*****
Amidst the ordinaries, two actors deliver impeccable performances – Elango Kumaravel and renowned therukoothu artiste Purasai Kannappa Sambandham, who plays himself. Their track about a battered actor finding his true calling is beautiful.
It would have made for great cinema, just that little episode.
*****
Recommended
Dharani, I learn, thanks to Wikipedia, is director Guhan’s interpretation of Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
is probably what Guhan tried converting into a two-hour long chapter.
I wish he’d chosen Mending Wall instead.
*****
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