Deiva Thirumagal 2011

This should have been posted a week ago…

(The 2 lovable characters in the movie, the mentally challenged Krishna and not willing to give up despite the odds Anuradha. Image source:www.indiaglitz.com/tamil/)

Vikram had always been a good actor and in Anniyan, he showed his prowess by acting in two distinct roles and in the climax, switching between the 2 roles in seconds (that could have damn tough to be executed all in one take).

He is back in Deiva Thirumagal where he plays Krishna who is a mentally challenged adult with the maturity of a six-year-old boy. He plays a father to a young girl, Nila (played by the cute Baby Sarah) who harshly taken away from him through deceit and unfairness. He is helped by lawyers Anuradha (played excellently by the beautiful Anushka Shetty who we last saw in Vanam) and Vinod (played by the funnyman Santhanam).

On the other side of the spectrum, fighting to keep her deceased sister’s daughter away from Krishna is Swetha (played by Amala Paul who I last saw in Mynaa – that was a stupid movie) and her rich, powerful father who thinks that Krishna being mentally challenged will endanger her late sister’ only daughter and a marriage who is disapproved by the family. They deceit Krishna in bringing his daughter to the city and then dumps him by the road side. Leading her in the court case is Bashyam (played by the serious Nassar), a well known senior lawyer who always win his case all the time.

Although the storyline of a father who loses his daughter through someone’s deceit and then being denied his pleading to his daughter again, leaving with him with no other choice but to fight for his case in a court of law is nothing new (in fact, the basic storyline in Deiva Thirumagal is similar to Sean Penn's "I Am Sam" except the twist at the end), the director had kept the storyline simple and engaging at all times.

How would Krishna find his daughter back in a big city? With odds stacked against him, will he win the court case? Will he see his daughter again? Moments like this keep the audience sitting in anticipation, wanting to know what happens next. Thankfully there were no unexpected song scenes to disrupt the storyline.

Despite that, there were also some dull moments such as the time when Vikram and Anushka go to the hotel looking for Vikram’s other mentally challenged friends. The director could have cut short this scene but otherwise there was no other major fault with the movie. Comedy was kept to the minimum but it is very effective - M. S. Bhaskar holding the fort at the beginning and Santhanam thereafter.

The court proceedings and the engagement between junior lawyer Anushka who have not won any case and the more seasoned, senior lawyer Nassar who wins all the time was worth the watch. It was interesting to see how Anushka manages to outfox Nassar despite Nassar coming out with dubious ways to get the court to strike off Krishna’s application to get his daughter returned to him.

It is Vikram’s fine acting and good storyline & direction by its director A.L Vijay from the start to end and there is also the cute Sarah who acts as the daughter of Vikram, Nila to look forward to. My wife admitted having tears in her eyes at certain scenes - something I have to admit was very moving.

We somehow tend to forget that Vikram is only an actor when we were watching this movie. We think of him as truly someone who is mentally challenged and with the maturity of a six-year-old boy. We feel pity for him and when he returns back to Bashyam’s house (where he was kidnapped and was held against his will) with the medicine for Bashyam’s son and then goes back into the room where he was kept captive, we feel humbled by his innocence.

Adding the cream to crucial scenes is G. V. Prakash's music. He had a good job with background music and the songs – my personal favorite is Vizhigalil Oru Vanavil sung by Saindhavi. It was reported that this is the song that made made Anushka, on whom the number was shot, to cry on the sets. The picturisation of this song was good with the shot taken in slow motion and in the rain.

Overall, Deiva Thirumagal is a very well made movie which focused more on human relationaship and the bondage between a father and his daughter and how cruel the world is when it comes to how one sees a mentally challenged person. It is a good watch.

Final Say

Pros: Whilst it is not original, the execution of the storyline was good, the usual good acting from Vikram and there’s a cute Baby Sarah to look for

Cons: Almost none but they could have cut down on some of the non-essential scenes to keep the storyline more focused on the core issue