Veyil

The two reasons of my watching 'Veyil' was firstly it was from the production house of Director Shankar and secondly it is going to be shown at the Cannes film festival this year. The story is told throught the protagonist Murugesan (Pasupathy) who recalls his childhood in a village near Virudhanagar. His father is a butcher who works hard to bring up his four children two boys and two girls and has a happy family. Murugesan is the eldest one and khatir (Bharath) is his brother. The first image that we see is that of the two boys together selling blood from the goats their father – a butcher – has sliced up. And this scene makes us aware that what these kids have been exposed to at that early age. Murugesan has a weakness for movies (especially MGR films) that are screened in a local theatre. One day his father catches his red-handed from the theatre and severly punishes him -- beaten, stripped naked, tied up and left in the sun without food for hours. Unable to bear the humiliation thereafter, he runs away from home after stealing some of his mother's jewellery and cash.

Murugesan reaches a small town and there he spends all his money watching movies. After he loses all money watching movie he is taken care by the projectionist of that local cinema theatre (I bet that that the director was inspired by the italian movie Cinema paradiso). The theatre projectionist teaches Murugesan about how to operate the projection system and in this way Murugesan grows and becomes the operator in the local theatre. He falls in love with Thangam, the daughter of the tea shop owner opposite to the theatre. They plan to get married but Thangam's father does not like this relation and one day he along with other villagers bash Murukesan. The love ends in a tragedy with Thangam forced to kill herself and Murukesan left stranded alone. Murukesan startly drinking heavily and later the theatre also gets closed down. Murugesan is out of job and at this point his mentor, the thatre projectionist asks him to go to his native village. So after 20 years Murugesan goes back to his village to meet his parents and brother and sister . He goes to his house but his father does not allow him to enter the house as he still hates him. But his brother Kathir is overjoyed in getting his brother back and he take him to the house. From here on the movie follows the mental turmoil of Murugesan as he feels that he could not become a responsible son and a elder brother. Murugesan finds himself totally a misfit in the world. He is a loser everywhere. His father and sisters does not like him. He has nothing to do at home and at is not allowed to work at his brother’s place as he does not kknow any other job. He fights with his emotions and thinks that he has wasted his life and has nothing to do.

There are other sub plots in this movie like - kathir's love story, kathir's enemity with the ex-employer, Murukesan's child hood sweetheart relationship with Murukesan etc. But it is actually Murukesan's story that stays with us long after we had finished watching the movie. The stalwart Pasupathy is undoubtedly the star of the film with his poignant portrayal of the ill-destined Murugesan. His composure, dead pan expressions, happiness and tears are real and touching. Watch the movie just for watching a superb acting by Pasupathy.