Gayathri - Revisiting Tamil Cinema 12

Rajarathnam (Rajinikanth) is trying to persuade Gayathri (Sridevi) not to put off the light during their “first night”. The murals on the wall are painted with people looking at the bed. This might be the hint of what is going to come in the film.

I missed the title credits, so I was keen to know on how Panchu Arunachalam (Screen writer) could have conceived this kind of story. Then it struck me that this story is from Sujatha, which was published in a newspaper daily. As usual, critics say the film didn’t stick to Sujatha writing. That’s not exactly true.

Translating letters into visual medium is difficult, most of the Tamil films had failed in this process, but what a filmmaker gets from a novel is a unique kind of story, which stands apart from the usual story-line. (These are observations from film makers, who tried to make films from novels).

Gayathri, the film is one such example of a unique story, which has pornography as a plot! So when the screen writer adjusts and rewrites it for the film, there are certain minor and major adjustments to be made. 

I had to read the actual story after watching the film; I must say the film sustained 50% of the short novel.

The overlooking murals on the bedroom are a visual way of storytelling (This description of the bed room is not in the novel). The film maintains the suspense, at least for Gayathri (Sridevi). The first part of the film is where she connects the dots. 

It was like Abhimanyu breaking into Chakraviyugam- the setup and confrontation is OK, but when it comes to the resolution, the film slips into the conventional story telling. All the gritty narration breaks up loose, with the introduction of Ganesh (Jai Shankar), the lawyer, when he finds the notebook. The film makes a U-turn. It is now more an action-thriller; it must have been a surrealistic-suspense. 

The first half is set with minimal characters and single-location, later it moves to a much wider area of club-song and hotel rooms. Ganesh and Chellapa (Ganesh friend) could have been portrayed bit serious, but instead, the director directly transcribed the naughty and wittiness of Ganesh & Vasanth (Chellapa in the film) from the novel to screen, which sounded like a James Bond film. And, in this whole process, Sridevi is left alone, we don’t even see her on screen for a while!! Maybe the director ran out of her call sheet.

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Other Tamil films you might be interested from this "Revisiting" series- Manal Kayaru, May Madham, Taj Mahal, Baasha, MMKR, Hey Ram, Sabapathy, Raja Paarvai, Vikram, 16 Vayathinile, Veedu