Now, it might come as a surprise to a lot of aspiring Malaysian filmmakers out there, but what if we were to tell you the one most important aspect of filmmaking is the STORY. We have had 6 Malaysian Tamil movies released so far this year (2018) and none of it had a good story. Is a movie with good story too much to ask for?
"All great stories start with an idea, but not all ideas are great stories."
That is the first thing that comes to mind once you bare through almost 150 minutes of Vedigundu Pasanga in the theatre. In what starts off with an almost amateurish attempt to project Denes Kumar as a Sivakarthikeyan (the Varthapadathe Valibar Sangam similarities are there), to a storyline that could well be said in a 5 minute short film, VP is an example of what happens when you start shooting a film with an idea in mind, rather than a full screenplay.
More than that, the lack of cohesion in the scenes to get the message across stands out like a sore thumb.
The movie starts off with the story of Theva (Denes Kumar), a regular happy go lucky guy who wanders around in his village playing Urumi with his 'Vedigundu Pasanga' team (Talk about character depth, this is as much as you get). He falls in love with Sangeeta Krishnasamy and decides to chase after her to KL.
At the same time, we have another story told at the same time about Magen who is a snatch thief (OH NO! Spoiler ALERT) and is seen visiting the village Theva is in from time to time.
The conflict in the story appears 15 minutes from the end of the movie (Yes, you CANT make this up) and ends with a Public Service Announcement message.
Another spoiler alert, the main twist of the movie is shown when Theva goes looking for Vidya with Magen as a pillion rider. Little did Theva know that Magen is a snatch thief that desperately needs money (the desperation lacked scenes).
While riding, Magen asks Theva to take a right and he sees Vidya. Magen then proceeds to snatch her chain, causing her to fall on the ground. The scene ends with Theva turning to see what happened and realising that it's Vidya.
Fast forward to the end of the movie, Vidya realises that Theva did nothing wrong and was merely friends with the snatch thief. The end shows she joking about the scar she had while falling down. The movie ends without getting Vidya to address the issue at hand and continues to love Theva.
Dear (DR.) Vimala Perumal, what were you thinking The movie feels like a confusion that never got sorted.
For all that it's worth, VP does have it's heart at the right place. For starters, it LOOKS like a film and not a college class assignment project (No offense 33km from KL). The colors of the frame, visual composition and cinematography is by far the best work in a Malaysian Tamil movie in a long time. The editing work by Anand Geraldin is commendable considering there's pretty much no cohesion between the scenes.
BUT...
Our local filmmakers continue to forget the most important part for any story (if there were any) to work is the scenes you put together in the narrative. The movie barely shows any interest in wanting to tell the story on the snatch thieves, deciding to show the odd scenes about snatch thieves at irregular intervals in the movie, while deciding to use the conversations between Denes and his friends as the main plot. BUT IS THAT THE STORY? The core story only gets rolling in the last 15 minutes of the movie, making you feel as if you were watching a stretched out advertisement for a short film.
Basic film school lessons will teach you that for every scene, there is a lead (scenes which leads up to that particular scene) and there is an end scene (scenes which comes after the particular scene). This technique allows the director to 'set the stage' for the story to flow forward.
With VP, the scenes are a series of conversations by Denes and his friends talking about cutting banana trees, eating expired biscuits, on KL boys being good at flirting, his dad eating stale food etc, without ANY context to the core story - being SNATCH THIEVES. This makes even the most patient audience in the crowd to scream GET TO THE FREAKING POINT.
The comedy generally works, with the language, slang and the humor used is highly relatable to a Malaysian audience. But it is still a content that is sold at a Thaipusam event on a DVD rather than 'theatre worthy'.
All said and done, Vedigundu Pasanga's single biggest saving grace has to be Vivek-Mervin's songs which lift the burden of watching a long draggy movie off your shoulders (I wish the songs were longer so that we did not need to go back into the movie). "Vizhiye Kalangathe' is the pick of the lot if you ignore the fact that Denes Kumar is seen singing the song in the movie because Sangeetha fell on the floor while being snatched. SHE FELL ON THE FLOOR!
At over 150 minutes of footage (where almost 149 minutes is dedicated to showing Denes having 'banters' with his friends), the movie is played out like a draggy soap opera without any complete interest in wanting to narrate the story.
Positive: Malaysian movies have learned the art of coloring, cinematography, and music.
Negative: Malaysian movies still haven't' learned the art of storytelling.
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