Sunday, February 11, 2007

Anbe Sivam - Movie Review


I saw this Tamil movie Anbe Sivam (Love is God) starring Kamal Hassan and Madhavan again on TV. This movie is a 2003er directed by Sundar C. The movie is loosely based on Planes, Trains and Automobiles. This must be the 4th or 5th time I have seen this.

This movie is about how two guys Nallasivam (Kamal Hassan) and Anbarasu (Madhavan) who were supposed to come from Bhubaneshwar to Chennai by plane get stuck due at the airport due to a storm and then try other modes of transport. They are unable to take the train and then try taking the bus and then train to reach Chennai. This is where the similarity between Anbe Sivam and Planes, Trains and Automobiles ends.

The movie is more about the clash of the characters of Nallasivam and Anbarasu. Nallasivam is an idealist/communist while Anbarasu is brought up in a capitalist environment and talks about money, credit cards and the like. The movie is more about how these two get along or forced to rather to reach their main goal of reaching Chennai on time.

I dont want to sound like another normal movie review, but I just wanted to talk about a few things which were striking in the movie.


Kamal Hassan's acting. About 80% of the movie he plays a victim of an accident. The accident has left him with one leg shorter than the other, bad looking scars on his face and a continuous twitch on his cheek. All through this part of the movie he has this limping walk and the twitch which he generates once every 30 seconds on his face. It is a stellar performance just to keep this kind of thing going all through the movie. He also has an ugly looking spectacles on him. It makes him look so ugly. I always used to wonder, very few heroes, let themselves be portrayed in such an ugly manner. But Kamal does not care I guess. He lets his acting speak. Surely it has spoken volumes in this movie.


The other thing I want to talk about is the dialogues in the movie. The dialogues all through the movie has both the element of comedy and constant conflict between the two protagonists. The timing of the dialogues is another hallmark. Both Kamal and Madhavan have done very well in this aspect. There many instances which is worthy of quoting. Lot of them makes sense only when it is told in Tamil but then some can be told. One of them is after Madhavan would have tried to save the life of a child by donating blood, but then the child dies.

Madhavan : Not sure whether you beleive in God, but I am sure why God would do this and kill the boy. (Then he realises that he is abusing God). But God is great. BTW, you dont believe in God do you?

Kamal: Yes I do.

Madhavan: Oh Really, who is your God?

Kamal : (Gestures in the direction of Madhavan)

Madhavan: (Preplexed)

Kamal: You. You tried to save the child. I see God in your love. You are a good man.

Madhavan: Hmm.. (smiles) You know, you are a good man too.

Kamal: (immediately) I know (smiles)

Madhavan: (chuckles) Ah, You are amazing. You are last word freak.
This expression of Madhavan is towards the end of the movie as all through the movie he has at the receiving end of the such comments where Kamal always ends with the last word. In a seemingly simple sequence of dialog would have normally ended with what Madhavan would have said or may be a "Thank you" from Kamal but "I Know". The movie is strewn all over with such situations.

The other most striking factor of the movie is the screenplay itself. It is very clean knit movie with no pieces of drags in between where we would think of stepping out. All the actors also have underplayed most of their parts as their characters demanded. This makes for a very entertaining and also a soul searching movie.

13 comments:

Rambler said...

This must be one of the best movie of kamal, the background score and his acting are two amazing things of this movie, forced even a non tamil guy like me to watch twice

Anonymous said...

i don't know how many times i had seen this movie.. its really excellent.this movie influence me in lot ways.i simply love this movie.

Anonymous said...

i don't know how many times i had seen this movie.. its really excellent.this movie influence me in lot ways.i simply love this movie.

Anonymous said...

i don't know how many times i had seen this movie.. its really excellent.this movie influence me in lot ways.i simply love this movie.

07 March, 2009 11:50

arunmdevan said...

Definitely, it's a great movie.. Everytime i watch this movie, i used to keep my TV remote away.
Marvellous performance by whole team..

Joseph David said...

Undoubtedly Anbe Sivam is one of Kamal's best movies. I can't get enough of this movie.

Anbe Sivam stands tall simply on Kamal's acting. To say it was great would be an understatement.

His post-accident performance and make-up and the minute gestures he makes are simply awesome.

After watching this movie I have always wished that at some point of our lives, we all should have the honour of meeting a person like Sivam. With freaky looks and a loud mouth, Sivam showed us all what love is all about.

Amazing, absolutely amazing movie. If you haven't watched Anbe Sivam, you have missed a huge thing in life.

Nayaz said...

hi my name is Nayaz from bangalore, after i read your Anbe sivam review. i feel some more informative about the movie thanks. When ever i think about kamal hassan movie first i remeber this movie. Because i'm a Communist too.

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