Once Alfred Hitchcock, the master of the macabre, famously said that a movie should be only as long as one can hold one’s bladder. True enough, his works kept to this length or just about, and they said everything that needed to be in those minutes. But Indian writers and directors have often stepped beyond this point, stretching their films beyond this mark.
C Prem Kumar, who gave us that captivating 96 with Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha, has now dropped his latest, a pre-Diwali release, Meiyazhagan , now on Netflix . While his 2018 96 was about unrequited love in the typically Romeo and Juliet fashion (I have been wondering why the director has not planned a sequel to that), his latest movie is about male bonding with Arvind Swamy (who shot to fame with Roja) and Karthi. Swamy’s Arulmozhi returns to Thanjavur after 22 years to attend his cousin Bhuvaneshwari’s (Swathi) wedding.
For him, it was a trip filled with nostalgia. The city holds bittersweet memories of his first love that ended with his family having to leave the city to relocate to Chennai. But the story is not about this couple, but the friendship that springs between Arulmozhi and Karthi’s Meiyazhagan .
Despite feeling irritated with Meiyazhagan ‘s intrusive quality, the two men settle down to a fine bonding, which reminded me of Ang Lee’s 2005 Brokeback Mountain with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Although there is no homosexual relationship between Meiyazhagan and Arulmozhi (like in Brokeback Moun.