Movie Review: Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi

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A historical is rare enough in Tamil. A comical historical is many times so. But to our happy surprise, it works – big time, at that. Vadivelu, the prime mover of the movie, makes it all work. The director, even while making it full of fun, has used his intelligence to lace it with biting satire on many contemporary events.

Simbu Devan (Director) needs to be congratulated for thinking out of the box and at the same time director Shankar (producer) needs to be patted for giving an opportunity to Simbu Devan to prove his skills.

Though the characters speak chaste Tamil, it is quite close to the audience's grasp and they laugh all the way. A movie set in 18th century, the movie is speckled with present day happenings like cola war, brand endorsements by celebrities and so on. Thankfully, there isn't much preaching in the film and everything is left to the discretion of the audience.

Vadivelu playing the hero for the first time has gone hammer and tongs. Utilizing the opportunity well, the actor sparks emotions, plays fool on others, romances, fights with guts and runs for cover at times too. Vadivelu playing the dual role is a real revelation. Specially as Pulikesi, he brings the house down applause whenever he appears on the screen. As Ugiraputhan, a brave youth seeking to reform the society, he plays a serious role and walks with aplomb.

Nasser, Ilavarasu and Sriman are other standouts in this film, which otherwise is a collage of several spoofs on kings and emperors that we have either read or heard.

The storyline is quite simple. In the shades of MGR's Kudiiruntha Koil and Sivaji Ganesan's Manohara, the movie begins with a selfish Rajguru (Nasser), who is keen on usurping the Veera Chozhapura Palayam kingdom. So he kills 22 potential princes. The Rajguru (also the queen's brother) turns happy when the astrologer predicts that the next child of Queen would be a real idiot and can be moulded according to Rajaguru's wish. Unfortunately, twins are born and the Rajguru has no other option but to hand over one child to the astraologer asking him to kill it. Meanwhile, the King and the Queen name the child 23am Pulikesi. Thanks to the Rajaguru being around, the child grows up an idiot, fun-loving youth and a womanizer. The other child grows up as Ugiraputhan and excels in education and warfare. Coming to know of his past, Ugiraputhan unleashes a plan to save his kingdom. He manages to replace Pulikesi and starts to set the house in order thereby incurring the wrath of the Rajguru. Finally it is all up to Ugiraputhan and his loyal commander-in-chief (Sriman) to teach the Rajguru a lesson.

A wafer thin storyline but a hilarious sequence of events makes it enjoyable. While Vadivelu as Pulikesi catches the imagination of all with his dialogue delivery, the other as Ugiraputhan, seemingly an take-off of MGR in his movies in 1950s, surprises everyone.

One cannot resist laughing at the funny encounters between Pulikesi and his soldiers, his hunting experiences and the fear with which he prepares for a war. After this movie, he can be said to be the king of comedies. Though this movie is meant to be hilarious, there are quite a few social messages that are conveyed.

Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi - King of comedies

As published in IndiaGlitz