Guna vs Kadhal kondaen

I always hated myself to be late in thinking or late in putting this out. One of such recent incidents is when i posted this in my other blog before hearing "Kana Kaanum kaalangal".When I finished enjoying GUNA for the first time, (without any channel changes or any friend’s accusations பைத்தியக்கார படம் டா) I found to have invented a lot to brag in my blog. Only after visiting this blog, I found that I’ve only discovered it. Be it the BGM of the chasing scenes which raja has borrowed from his previous masterpieces MMKR and Apoorva sagotharargal or be it the information regarding ananthu, sabjaan or be it the climax full moon day concept, “THE MOVIE LANE” has left me no credits.

Yet, Since I somehow was pushed to blog about GUNA, I found Guna should've been the spark for Selvaraghavan’s “Kadhal Kondaen”. Let me try to analyse why the previous classic was a flop and the later crap was a run-away hit (such a hit that almost brought Tamil cinema a new mass-hero).So, you mean to say Guna is a flawless movie and KK a movie with nothing but flaws?No. Not at all. Nor do I accuse Selva to be a copy-cat director or compare Kamalhasan with dhanush. (A disclamier)

To start with, I’ve nothing left to comment about GUNA after reading this. Many of my friends and bloggers feel that given the new genre of multiplex audience, if re-released Guna will be a hit. When it was asked to Kamal, he said he did not think so. It was released in the early nineties where film-goers never understood the word “Off-beat film". To make things worse, it was released along with “Thalapathi”- an almost commercial movie from Manirathnam.

Most of the readers should be in the standard fourth or fifth while Guna got released. I remember one of my friend’s narrations about the movie in the school bus. Kamal is a powerful man. He cannot be killed even with revolvers or daggers. He loves a girl and she dies. Since he knows that nothing can kill him, he jumps from the mountain and kills himself. Note that the friend who narrated this to me was studying tenth standard. How do you expect some-one to understand such a classic that is so blatant about a madman, his mentality and his love? So, is there no film that is both off-beat and hit? Yes, there are. But, those films will have at least an iota of commercial element to sooth the masses and some compromises to appease the audience and to make them feel comfortable with the storyline. Guna should have had more of those compromises for it to be hit like KK.

Remember the scene where Rohini asks guna when he is eating “நீ சின்ன வயசுல யாரையாவது காதலிச்சியா? அந்த பொண்ணு உன்ன விட்டுட்டு ஓடி போய்டாளா ? யார் இந்த அபிராமி ? “? This is what the viewer should be thinking about the movie and should be expecting a flash-back from kamal. The response from kamal is one of the reasons of why he is regarded as one of the best actors in India. He stares at rohini and says “நீ தான் அபிராமி.”. He then goggles and spits and says “வேற யாராவதாமே.”. After this scene, those who expected a flash-back should’ve wiped their faces.

But in KK, selva has found what was missing in Guna and added it to fit-perfection in KK. The film revolves around Vinodh who though doesn’t have any medical mental terms to define his abnormality, he has his child-hood life to support him. He develops a good-rapport with divya and after a period of time falls in love with her. When he comes to know about that divya loves someone else, his perverted mind cunningly plans to have her.

Here, the anticipations of the audience are met with a perfect flash-back. A poor girl helps another innocent, poor boy who is otherwise very helpless and hapless. There develops a beautiful bonding between those two and vinodh sees a brighter world with the help of his new friend. The girl is brutally murdered and hence he has changed into this case. ( One of my friends shouted like Run-vivek “போ ! போ ! இதெல்லாம் நாங்க "சிவப்பு ரோஜாக்கள்" லயே பாத்தாச்சு.”).

Also, in KK, the viewer gets answer for all the hidden questions. Even when the viewer gets confused about whether it is lust or love? , selva explains with the help of Yuvan in the song “nenjodu kalanthidu".( though i'm still confused about it.) The film has another advantage of bragging it to be a youth film(just because the cast is youth and some portion is taken in an engineering college). The film has another advantage over the masses. It touches some of the dark thoughts hidden in the viewers’ hearts (Like ‘Vaali’.). Such films gets acclaimed and appreciated for its so-called openness.(Though this shouldn’t be confused with the selva’s good control over the speed of the screenplay.) The black-humor also amuses the masses though it couldn’t match the wits in Guna.

The resemblances between the two films lie open. The mountain-top home lighted with candles is an epitome of it. Vinodh had an advantage that the audience are not forced to see him as some rare species. They have already met guna.Also the film got released when the mass-heroes rule in kollywood was it’s height. Every film had hero speak meaningless punch dialogues and in certain films the heroes scolded his rival hero through disastrous punch dialogues. (How stupid the producer should’ve felt? Why waste my money to scold each other while you could call each other through phone?). The audience wanted a fresh face, a down to earth hero. And, then came Dhanush. The situation is so bad that just because KK lacked punch dialogues, it was called an off-beat film.

On the whole, I strongly believe the no. of homes that have got V.C.Ds or D.V.Ds of Guna should be more than those having KK, making the previous one an all-time classic while the later a hit only for a certain period.