The Racy Film Maker of Action and Family Drama.

       

                  

        Speed and tempo are the most vital segments of world cinema.To mix speed with family sentiment in equal proportions and to provide an action sequence that does not sag at any point is not that easy for a film maker. That too, to produce a quality film with all these attributes for a delicious audio visual treat,deserves special recognition.While people like Dharani, A.R.Murugadas and K.V.Anand have excelled in the action genre movies with revelant speed, they could not be considered for inclusive treatment of substantial family sentiment in their films released so far. But Lingusamy has come out with a sweet mix of action and family sentiment with remarkable tempo in films like Run,Sandakkozhi and Vettai besides giving us a full length family drama interwoven with tempo and quality in Aanadam. Ezhil and Saran have always carried certain amount of juvenile gusto in their direction that hardly ever missed to display a graceful mix of speed and grace.
      Beyond these great names in Tamil film industry, there is one ace director who  has consistently  maintained unfailing speed in all his dozen films released so far, be it a family drama or police story or stories relating to events of rural base. That is the highly energized film maker Hari, who has given us great hits like Saamy,Aaru,Arul,Aiyya, Vengai, Singam 1 and 2.

     The most striking nature of Hari’s films is the fast changing scene sequence that remains as a qualitatively integrated driving thread, without any trace of dragging the events to their natural culmination. The suspense ridden twists that are sprinkled through out the narration, with calculated breaks between each twist ,become the chief attracting component of every Hari movie. The consistent identity mark of Hari’s films is the controlling whip in the hands of good elements, who happen to be the family head or the village chieftain or an honest and rightly determined police officer. The other notable feature is the vigorous team spirit running evenly as a continuous process of the whole action sequence as if it were a grand sports event, say, a tug-of-war between good and evil.One could always notice the team mates cherishing the tempo of the game as the most vital characteristic, adding merit to their involvement in the totality of the progressive course of events.

    When it comes to narration of  police stories, Hari has proved himself as a self starting ignition switch, pushing  from behind the whole process of justice-rendering participation of the protagonists, protecting the victims of wrong doers.Samy and Singam 1 and 2 are the powerful police films he has made and all the three have carried an ISI mark with regard to the qualitative inclusion of the action parameters and the sudden, sensible turn-around  that forms part of a police story interestingly told. The comedy addition in these films, became a strengthening subplot for the main story and it was Vivek and Sandhaanam who intelligently carried on the comedy show, with social messages and personal whims respectively.The stiffness and rage aptly displayed by Vikram and Soorya in Police uniform combined with their stunning action verve in eliminating the evil designs of the opponent, pointedly contributed to the special effect of Hari’s direction of these films.

     The titles chosen for Hari’s films are quite interesting too. Except Thamirabarani, all other films made by Hari carry two syllable titles like Thamizh, Kovil, Aaaru, Saamy, Arul, Singam, Seval Aiyya and Vengai. Barring Kovil and Thaamirabarani,the other titles are hero-centric. The single syllabled Vel is the title of his other movie. His short titles seem to symbolize speed and titles like Singam, Seval and Vengai in particular are a mark of the potential fighting spirit and ferocity in destroying the enemy.The other hidden thrust may be the impact of the underlying rural nature of his themes and story composition. Almost all these titles would reveal the significance of the village order and way of life, prevalent in the interpretation of family and social values focused by the director. One could feel the absence of urban touch in narration, reminding us of the films of K.S.Gopalakrishnan of the last millennium.In most films of Hari the prominent thrust has been the youngsters' reverence for elders with unquestioning submission as one could find in Arul Thamirabarani,Ayya and Vengai in particular.

    A special mention has to be made about Hari’s Aiyya , for treating a noble theme in a classic style, by narrating beautifully the interrelated events of a neat story line, with suitable twists in action, so as to make it an enjoyable movie from beginning till end .It is this film that brought out Hari’s directorial capacity for poignant delineation of characters. Sarathkumar’s distinguished performance in dual roles, made the film an extraordinary hit with Prakash Raj and Napoleon adding substantial support for a grand collective show.The climax of the movie showing redeemed PrakashRaj surrendering himself in all humility, before the ennobling spirit of the old Aiyyathurai[Sarathkumar],was a sweet reminder of the great antique maxim ''nobleness enkindleth nobleness’’.
    As far as family sentiment is concerned Hari has beautifully exhibited the endearing note of family intimacy and filial submission to paternal supremacy in films like Samy,Arul,Ayya and Vengai besides focusing father son attachment in Sami and Vengai. In 'Arul', Hari showed the prejudices of a father against one of his sons based on a circumstantial misunderstanding. Veteran character actors like Vijayakumar,Vinuchakravarthi,Radha Ravi,Rajkiran and Nasser have delivered their father roles with a governing temper of discipline and dignity. 
    Hari's latest hit Singam 2, has also significantly retained the speed factor though most of the characters appear for a short while as visitors, without making any remarkable impact.While Sandhaanam memorably entertains with his comedy support in a couple of scenes Vivek appears a bit late, only to remind us of his better participation in Singam1. This sequel film, stands up only because of the dedicated roaring of Sooriya. The events seem to happen in a hurry not to stay effectively in our thoughts.For me, the earlier version scores a higher ranking on account of the more meticulous narration of scenes and events.The villains in Singam 2 made me long for Prakash Raj and I thought he himself could have donned the role of Rehaman with a different make up.I  have always swallowed with a difficulty the plight of seeing Rehaman as a villain, because in my opinion, he still remains as the chocolate boy of Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal of K.Balachander. But for Sooriya, the speed factor alone would not have given Singam 2 the run that it is eligible for, now. Hari could have also pruned the length of the movie.

   Every film director is made of a qualifying frame of mind to focus life’s cherished principles and perceived realities, through their chosen creative mode of celluloid presentation. Some are passionate about reaching a selective audience base with an artistic perspective. Some are down to earth and keep their approach ever targeting the larger audience, looking for a skit and narration that conquer their imagination at jet speed, so as to make them feel that their time spent at the theatres, was very short .Hari belongs to the latter group of directors,who can hardly afford to ignore the 'speed and tempo concept' of making films.He can be rightly called the consummate maker of action, speed and family drama.

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