Fresh out of Gautham Menon’s lab

I don’t remember the last time a  film teaser made me look forward to the whole movie with as much promise! Gautham Menon’s Dhruva Natchathiram’s photo campaign online which led to the big reveal two nights ago was one of the best campaigns for a film in recent times. I’ve always wondered why most of our movies have only ‘knee-jerk’ publicity campaigns and seldom do we have films announcing the release month even while shoot is in progress.

Kamal Haasan, Mani Ratnam, Shankar have had a plan with regard to film titles, ad-campaigns and release timelines but in general, despite the professionalism that abounds in the south film industry in various departments of film-making, print and publicity is almost always an after-thought. It is something we think of when the master CD of the audio track is ready and posters and advertisements have to be given. Usually the announcement of a film has a poster or print ad, then the ads appear after a gap, during audio launch and then about a week prior to release, all media is on high-alert! In this context, it was heartening to watch each character from Dhruva Natchathiram (which is one of the most interesting titles for an espionage film) wave out to you every day at 6pm for a week ahead of the teaser release.

Coming to the teaser itself — it was time to rejoice again — because one of my favourite actors shines bright in every frame. My eyes didn’t move from his polished looks — he appears dapper in his suits and snappy as the New York snow. Vikram just fits in to play a RAW agent and how! The blue-grey tones and falling snowflakes transport you into a film whose angles and shots (Cameraman Joemon is one of the brightest talents around) look like Gautham is making a Bond film right from the Tamil heartland.

The teaser talks about a hero, who in a series of Menon movies, is in public service (cop/army/special agent bring them on!). Vikram, who can be anything a role demands, seems so much at ease here. The director-actor team have struck gold at that word which is usually reserved for heroes and heroines — ‘chemistry’. Whatever formula is being cooked up in Gautham’s lab for this magnum opus looks fresh and the ‘pursuit of Mr K’ is the agenda. I liked that aspect of revealing the storyline in the teaser. Gautham has set us up for what we are going to watch and then goes about showing us how he will take us there.

This teaser also has a vibrant background score from Harris Jeyaraj (yes, that cliché word springs up here too — chemistry) Some comments on social media have lines that echo my thoughts on how Dhruva Natchathiramis perhaps Vikram’s best big project yet. A neat aesthetically mounted thriller which captures his good-looks (yup the salt and pepper look works big time!) his immensely appealing screen-presence and the superlative action and acting from him which we await to see on-screen.

Sujatha Narayanan @n_sujatha08