The comedy king of Tamil cinema, Goundamani,
has reappeared in a movie after long back and also led the film titled 49-O. The
movie released in Sep 2015 deals with the state of farmers and fertile lands being
transformed into housing plots though political satire. Goundamani as the protagonist
haven’t come back to do a regular comedy role as hero, which most comedians prefer
do to these day but acted prudentially in a serious character along his counter
dialogues for what he’s famous for.
Goundamani is a genuine farmer
and believes that fertile land is the future, oppose to the farmers decided
to sell their fertile land to a real estate company but their poverty forced
them to go ahead with the decision and later deceived by the company and local
politician. The people realizes their mistake and to help farmers get back
their lands, Goundamani come with a plan of promoting his own fertile land but
instead of making housing plots he develops graveyards, beside the lands of farmers to
block the business of the company.
As another step to regain their fertile
land, they decides to sell their votes instead of politicians fix the amount, usually,
they come up with a sum to be paid for vote. Later they nominate their own candidate
and propagate for his victory against the local politicians… but unfortunately
he was murdered. At that moment, Goundamani starts a pioneering movement and how
did that help them to regain their fertile lands is rest of the story. Like one
man army, Goundamani bears the entire movie and his age isn’t an issue while his
energy level on entertainment front is still adequate.
With simple story, Goundamani’s
strong dialogue delivery and script writing upholds the farmer’s struggles and
political satire as the highlight of the scenario. The land promoters has been
excoriated a lot and much of illusions relevant to the fake promises by them has
been revealed in fun manner. The music/songs and cinematography has been
average, but nothing to complain about and many scenes have been straightforward
so the film concludes in less than 2 hours. The movie is worth watching for the
strong social message that supports the value system of farming and re-entry of
Goundamani - for his political counter!
Btw. 49-O is a rule referred to The
Conduct of Elections Rules in Indian, a procedure to be followed when a valid
voter decides not to cast his vote and decides to record this fact.