Azhagarsamiyin Kudhirai Review

 Tamil cinema has evolved a lot coming out of cliched themes. It's no more hero running around trees romancing heroines or an angry young man bashing a bunch of anti-socials.

A young breed of filmmakers has come laying hands on unexplored themes and dwelling on sensitive and emotional ideas, taking leaf out of our daily life. Director Suseenthiran is one among them, who has proved his mettle with `Vennila Kabbadi Kuzhu' and `Nan Mahan Alla' before.

`Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai' by Suseenthiran is more a children's tale narrated with utmost maturity capturing the emotions and sentiments of rural people with all sincerity.

The story is wafer-thin, but the screenplay and dialogues are its life and blood giving a fresh feel. Two horses are found missing in two different places. Their disappearance leaves a big impact on the lives of many.

What happens if the lost horses are found forms the story. There are no familiar faces and the hero is no suave-looking or a smart fellow. But what makes the movie count is the way Suseenthiran has handled the story.

Perumal (Azhagan Thamizhmani), a village president, along with his men wants to conduct the temple festival of Lord Azhagarsami. The general belief in the village is that if the deity is taken out on a wooden horse, they would receive copious rain and all things would go well.

But due to various reasons the festival could not be conducted for many years. As it happens, the village reels under drought. Amidst great difficulty, Perumal arranges for the festival.

But to his horror, he finds the wooden horse missing. A police complaint is lodged and a couple of constables are posted in the village to investigate the incident.

An innocent cop (Suri) enters the village disguised as an ordinary man to trace the horse. Meanwhile there is Ramakrishnan (Prabhakaran), the atheist son of Perumal, who is in love with Devi (Advaitha), belonging to a lower caste.

Enters a white horse and all villagers gets convinced that it is Lord Azhagarsami's horse and it has come alive. Things change in the village and all good things start to happen.

When they decide to conduct the festival with the white horse, comes to the village a youth Azhagarsami (Appukutty), claiming that it is his horse. He even lodges a complaint with police.

Azhagarsami is all set to get married to one Rani (Saranya Mohan) and the wedding is halted because the horse owned by him has gone missing. It is eventually agreed that the horse would be handed over back to Azhagarsami after the festival. But fate has other plans.

Appukutty is tailor-made for the role. His caring and sharing for his horse, his desperate search for his four-legged friend are brought out well. Saranya Mohan in a breezy role walks away with applause.

Azhagan Thamizhmani as Panchayat president brings out his best, while debutant Prabhakaran as rural youth is impressive. Devaraj, who played Ameer's father in `Yogi', is Saranya Mohan's dad and is apt for the role.

If Suseenthiran is the captain of the ship, cinematography by Theni Eashwar, dialogues by Baskar Sakthi and re-recording by Ilayaraja are its guiding force. The three combine well.

At many places, the innocence of village life is brought out well by the maestro's background score, with cinematography and dialogues providing enough support.

A major eyesore may be the movie's pace in the first half, but due credit should be given to Suseenthiran for compensating it in the latter part, which goes fast and furious without losing its nativity.

Produced by Escape Artistes Motion Pictures and presented by Cloud Nine Movies, `Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai' is a movie to cherish and celebrate.