AnbeSivamReview By Kris Raj

'Anbe Sivam' - a story about Anbu and Sivam.

The Story

A simple story with a very big meaning.Two men, Kamal as "Nallasivam" and Madhavan as "Anbuarasu" who likes to be only called "Ars. " Two men in different ends, meet.Thrown together to face various hardships in a misunderstanding encounter. Kamal's face had been disfigured in an accident.At first Kamal gives a wacky appearance to the advertising filmmaker Madhavan who is reluctant to travel with him. Both of them travel on a journey from the flood-hit Orissa to their hometown in Tamil Nadu. This misadventures leads to an interesting journey for Anbarasu who finds himself drawn to Kamal,And realizes that he has much to learn from him.

A flashback of why kamal is disfigured is shown with more interesting characters.In which he is shown as a communist activist Nalla who stages street plays to create awareness among the people.He falls in love with Bala (Kiran), the cunning Boss's (Nasser) daughter.With the support from his companions Nalla plans to elope with Bala for a secret marriage as Nasser not approving it. In the climax, Kamal proves that he also practices what he preaches'Anbe Sivam' and thus earns the appreciation of everybody by making a great sacrifice.

Kamalhaasan

A brilliant portrayal by Kamal Haasan, capturing each and every reaction impressively. Kamal's skills are something we know of very much and yet again he proves that he does have the skills and is not loosing touch.Kamal appears as a pitiful scar-faced funny person with a lot of sorrow in his heart.He limps, as one of his legs is shorter than the other due to the accident. Also with an arm that couldn't be used and with thick glasses.He manages to deliver the dialogues with perfect timing with the twitch in his jaw and also at the same time limping. Kamal Haasan goes through the whole film with such an extra-ordinary acting to be forever named as one of the finest actors we have.

The perfect supporting actor for this film is Madhavan. Pushed against Kamal, an actor of such caliber, Madhavan played a self-centered and a 'man who thinks he knows everything',perfectly. Sometimes he appears helplessly cute. A very good role for him at this stage of his acting career.

Kiran

Kiran is a surprise here. Glamorous, but not in the dresses which would make many raise their eyebrows.Her acting was credible. But i am sure an actress like Reavthy would have done very well even though there isn't much scope for the character.The dubbing voice given for Kiran is the singer Anuradha Sriram, whose voice doesn't fit kiran at all.

Other actors and actress

The actress who acts as Kamal's comrade is from teleseries in cable TV called Uma Riyaz Khan. She hides her love for him. And she finally cries out to him in a surprising nice comic-tragic scene. Nasser is a typecast here again as Bala's bad but not the typical villain father and Santhana Bharathi as his righthand. And through out the film there are all kinds of small interesting characters sprinkled about, like Yugi Sethu (last seen on Panchathathiram) as Uthaman the train thief.Also to mention the nurse called Vanessa with her ever-happy smile makes us appreciate the nurses and doctors out there. Though she appears only for a few minutes, her character has been created very well.

Production

This interesting story and screenplay is by Kamalhaasan, which is inspired by the Steve Martin starrer 'Planes, trains and automobiles'.The film's another strength is Madan's (who appears as himself in the film) punchy, and meaningful dialogue creates a realistic effect to the scenes. Enhancing the effect is Arthur Wilson's camerawork, which is easy for the eyes.Cinematographer deserves credit. K Prabhakar's sets are very authentic and should be appreciated for recreating the Orissa floods and the tragic train accident.

Special Make-up effects byMicheal Westmore who had earlier done make-up for Kamal in Avai Shanmugi,Indian and Hey Ram)

'Yaar yaar Shivam' is a beautiful song perfectly used in the film. Sung by Kamalhaasan superbly. Vidhyasagar has done a good job capturing the mood for this film. Using the song in bits at the right places has added strength to the film. The lyrical talents of the great poet Vairamuthu is another highlight. Lines of fiction and reality laced very well.

Interesting Facts

Kamal had this film for his own film company RaajKamal Films many years ago.In which the singing Legend S.P.Bala was supposed to play the Nallasivam character and Kamal in Madhavan role.Due to certain reasons that didn't work out and Kamal resurfaced it with Arvind Swami of Roja fame to be in the role of Madhavan, and Kamal in Nallasivam character.And that didn't work out either. And there was a time they had the title as Tenali.Madhavan personally went to Kamal and insisted that he have equal scope as Kamal, and Kamal said ok.

Kamalhaasan and Madhavan are now very good friends and are teaming up together again for another movie, which is to be produced by Kamal under his RaajKamal Films.In the film Kamal wears thick glasses through out and even co-star Madhavan was taken aback that Kamal could read the script with such a thick glasses on.But in real Kamal was wearing contact-lens to minus off the thick glasses degree which he claimed to be a very smart move until he took off the lens. "My eyes became 1 1/4 eyes after that", joked Kamal.Gauthmi who acted with Kamal in many films was supposed to act in this movie as Kamal's wife but the idea of Sivam having a wife was trashed later.

Last Words

Sensitive and touching, light-hearted and humorous, it's a film which had the right amount of "Artsy" touch and Masaala Flavour.If either had been more or less the film would have either been a art film or would have ruin it's good film qualtiy.Clich�d scenes are hard to find.

Usually Kamal's film's title is always relevant to the story unlike the other movies out there.Kamal's wonderful character, the new style of comedy and the feeling of compassion that flows throughout the film are very new techniques to Tamil Film Industry.There has never been a road film in Tamil. Nowadays when only commercial movies succeed, there is this daring actor Mr. Kamalhaasan who has to be appreciated for having the nerve to come out with a film like this, which preaches love.

I really salute him. This is a film that was made to touch our hearts. It touched my heart. Review by Raj

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