Long delayed Vasantha Balan’s movie ‘அங்காடித் தெரு’ (Commercial Street) was released yesterday. The songs of this movie which were released over a year ago was a huge hit. Three out of the six songs in the movie are my personal favourites. One of the best music that came out in 2009, music composed by GV Prakash and Vijay Anthony.

 

 

The core of the story is about the people who come from villages and work as sales boy / sales girl in metro cities to overcome poverty. They come to cities with a lot of dreams and they are happy that they got a job to support their family. But what happens next forms the story of this movie.

From the starting to the end, the movie portrays the ugly face of poverty and the sad plight of the poor. One after one, scene after scene, the director moves the hearts of the viewers. A sad story all in all. People should have such a patience to sit and watch these kind of movies. Not all the audience would prefer this kind of movies.

Most of the story happens inside one of the largest Textile showroom in Ranganathan street (one of the busiest streets in Chennai, India.)

They show how they recruit the salesboys/girls carefully. Just the destitute and the poor who has no support at all in life and are in a dire need of  a job and who will be willing to accept even the worst kind of hard-labour for their daily bread.

All the sales boys and girls are in their early twenties or below. They get slaps, punches and kicks to get the work done. Horribly they beat and abuse girls too and they suffer the humiliation quietly just to survive.

One boy from a village near Tirunelveli, is our hero (the main actor) played by Magesh. And Anjali is a sales girl who has lost her mother and works to support her ailing father. They quarrel a lot in the beginning and then a situation comes where they fall in love.

Now their cruel boss is against any romantic relationship between the workers for reasons unknown (maybe productivity will decrease?).

This couple is in a dilemma whether to go on with their love relationship or to sacrifice it for their job. Go watch the movie to know what happens in the end.

 

 

My Review:

Not all the scenes were realistic. I felt that some of the scenes were overdone just to evoke pity among the viewers and filmy. The story that they lead a life worse than that of prisoners in jail does not look believable. It might be true, but I would say it is overdone.

They tried some comedy scenes in the movie too. But that did not work. Nobody in the audience laughed except for the cast themselves. Esp. There is a scene where Magesh narrates how his first attraction for a girl broke because of her gastric problems For how many days can people laugh at a joke like that! Tamil Cinema has to wake up.

The songs in between were definitely a consolation.  The music was melodious and bold but the picturisation was a let down.

One song towards the end of  the movie ‘உன் பேரை சொல்லும்போதே’  (when I just mention your name) was beautiful and gave a cheerful mood among the audience. The whole song is shot inside the closed textile shop. Our couple just lives out their dreams by wearing various costumes and dancing for the tunes.

About the performances, Magesh suited the role pretty easily. A young lad who has a huge responsibility weighing down on him. The frustration, anger, sadness and courage are well expressed in his face and body language.

Anjali (Kani) looks cute and bold. She plays a bubbly girl and the romantic scenes looks quite natural. She is ok but I felt that somebody else could have done the voice for her. Their onscreen chemistry is great and the director has done a good job in selecting the lead pair. Rest of the cast looks pitiful.

 

 

The busiest Ranganathan street and the lives of roadside vendors is well pictured. We can give the director an applause for that.

The shop owner plays his role typically as a shrewd businessman who does not care about his workers and will use his money to jeopardize them.

Sneha comes in for a special role where she does some Ad Shoot for the store. Nothing much from her expect the dance scenes which was like actually seeing a television commercial.

Finally its worth a watch for Anjali and the Music. And as I said one should have patience and time to sit through the movie.

Its a pity that these kind of movies will not attract masses. In the end when I came out, I was just humming the songs. And remembered nothing else.

Trivia: This is the first^* movie I saw this year and fortieth overall (like the sixth movie for ‘Jessi’ in VTV).

 

^* in theatres.