Coming Soon - Imsai Arasan 23aam Pulikesi

Imsai Arasan 23aam Pulikesi paraak, paraak, paraak! The issue with the Animal Welfare Board has been cleared (thanks to a meeting Shankar and Vadivelu had with Karunanidhi) and the film is finally arriving in theaters(including IMC6) this Friday.

The aspect that makes me really look forward to Imsai Arasan is its genre. Tamil cinema producers and directors have a follow-the-herd mentality when it comes to film themes. When a film clicks, we immediately get a string of films in the same genre (right now it’s the time of the raw and realistic gangster films as evidenced by movies like Pattiyal, Pudhuppettai, Thalainagaram, Naalai, etc.). But here comes a film that is not only breaking the trend but is actually inventing a new genre for Tamil cinema – the historical comedy. Tamil cinema has had a number of historicals (though its been awhile since we’ve seen one hit the screens) but I think this is the first time we’re getting a historical with comedy as its main agenda and a comedian as its hero.

The film marks Vadivelu’s first film as hero and further proves that the comedian’s stock is steadily rising in Tamil cinema. Personally I still prefer Vivek over Vadivelu since the former has had a much better hit ratio in his comedy tracks. But with films like Winner, Giri and Chandramukhi, Vadivelu has definitely grown on me. He now makes me laugh when he first appears on screen and has developed his own, unique style that can get laughs out of otherwise unfunny situations and lines. Vivek made the jump to leading man earlier but his film(Solli Adippen) has been stalled while Vadivelu landed a much bigger banner and a much more talked-about film. And if the film becomes a hit, there’ll be no catching him!

Imsai Arasan is produced by Shankar. With Kaadhal, the director proved that he had an eye for good projects as producer also. The film was a love story(and a tragic one at that) at a time when action films were more popular and the director, Balaji Sakthivel, was someone who had directed an action film(Samurai) earlier. But he went ahead with the film and saw it become both a critical and a commercial superhit. So his taking up production is a good sign for Imsai Arasan. Based on the trailers, he has not skimped on money and the film has an expensive look, which is really important for a historical to work.

While I haven’t read anything about the soundtrack being a hit, the songs are pretty good. They invoke the mood of a historical and with the right kind of picturization, could still become popular. Music director duo Sabesh-Murali have calculatedly made the songs remind us of popular old numbers but without making them seem like rip-offs. So they seem immediately familiar and had me humming them.

There’s little competition now with no big movies in theaters. And with summer vacations, the movie has a good chance of attracting the family audience. Let’s wait and see if Imsai Arasan also becomes the Box-Office Arasan…