Eesan

Cast: Samuthirakani, Vaibhav, A L Alagappan, Abhinaya; Music: James Vasanthan; Direction: M Sasikumar 


Most of you would remember those 80s Hindi films. A classic example is Tezab, a film we all remember, thankfully for that infectiously peppy song. From the outset you knew the director didn't start the production with a bound script. In fact he had not so much of a plotline scribbled behind a bus ticket. Almost every second film in the 80s followed this trend.

The film starts obviously with the introduction of the hero, with a fight if he was an action hero or a song if he was a romantic hero. Then the heroine is introduced, either with a song or with an encounter with the hero. Then the villains are introduced, often with a thundering sound and also with some cruel act performed by him. Yes, the villain is always 'him'. Then the hero and heroine clash and then fall in love. Then hero's good associates come in to the picture, his bubbly, cute - but not as cute as the heroine- younger sister. Hero's friend, a good-looking - but not as good looking as the hero - bubbly lad who secretly romances the hero's sister and also provides the comic relief. After about 45 mins to one hour of this, the story begins. No, no, wait. the next part of the story begins.

This usually involves a heart-wrenching event by hero which the heroine witnesses and demands to know the background. The hero opens his heart about a flashback. Then we sit up, thinking well, here's the actual story. Here the hero has a sister and a brother-in-law who was murdered by a gang of robbers during their heist in the bank where the brother-in-law works. That day, the hero swore to avenge the murder.

Then in a twist of fate, he gets entangled in another controversy where, in an attempt to track down the baddies, and he is arrested. He makes a very passionate speech in the court about how a decent young man gets 'corrupted' by society. Well, the judge is not convinced and he is lodged in prison. There's a prison break and he escapes and suddenly he lands in harbour where he rescues his friend from the thugs and then his girlfriend is locked up to be forcibly married off to a rogue by her father and she is now rescued by the hero, who, in a twist of tale, doesn't accept her love because now he has been turned bad and wants nothing but to become rich like every bad guy who has become rich. He gives a lengthy speech about society which nurtures only dishonest people.

If these preceding paragraphs haven't made you grit your teeth and if you haven't already closed this window, Eesan is the film for you. It packs four plots which jump at you with the knack of horror film timing and the crassness of 80s Bollywood. Watching the film is not not just disappointing from the entertainment perspective but is disheartening because of the extent of faith invested in Sasikumar's first venture. Subramaniyapuram is a modern classic. It defied all the rules of the then prevailing trend. It introduced a new genre and reinvented Madurai and redefined period tales. Only Bharatiraaja and Shankar had debut as dashing as that. Unfortunately Sasikumar cannot repair the damage he has already wrought to his image. At some point in the future, he may have to explain why, after pulling off an Ashutosh Gowarikar, he ended up attempting a Subash Ghai.