Chekka Chivantha Vaanam(transl. Crimson red sky) is 2018 Tamil film directed and produced by Maniratnam, is a multi-starrer film starring Prakash raj, Aravind Swami, Vijay Sethupathi, Arun Vijay, Silambarasan as main leads. it was dubbed into Telugu as Nawab. The story brings the taste of Godfather to the Indian audience
Screenplay:
The Screenplay starts with Vijay Sethupathi narration about how the world around us is evolving and crime in it, Senapathi(Prakash raj), the patriarch of the powerful crime kingdom on his way home from the temple with his wife are attacked by the assassins dressed up as cops, but they evade the attack. Senapathi’s family get informed about this, he has one daughter and three sons, eldest one Varadharajan(Aravind Swami) who runs a part of Chennai, second one Thyagarajan (Arun Vijay) businessman in Dubai and third is Ethirajan(Silambarasan) runs Serbian section of his father’s empire. Rasool(Vijay Sethupathi) the cop temporarily suspended for assaulting a kid, decides to help his childhood best friend Varadharajan and his family with Senapathi’s case, from than three sons and Rasool looks at every possibility behind the attack.
Story:
While Senapati and his wife are recovering from the attack he tells his wife that he knows who the culprit is but his wife stops him from telling the name and realises that its one of their sons. Soon after Senapathi passes away and a feud begins among the brothers about alienating of the crime kingdom, while Varadarajan takes the power of his father’s empire, Thyagu and Ethirajan decides to go against his brother on condition Thyagu will be a sole king. while Vardhan frames Thyagu’s wife Renuka and Thyagu hired a hitman to kill Ethi’s wife. The story ends with an interesting and intense twist which shocks the audience.
Music:
Music and background music is a very absorbing element of the film which is composed by Music composer AR Rahman, Mazhai Kuruvi is the song that everyone loves, and the action scenes are even more gripping with Rahman’s magic, everyone knows that Mani Ratnam and AR Rahman are arguably the greatest director-composer duo of our time. Rahman is the music director for most of the Mani Ratnam films
Direction:
Mani Ratnam, the gem of Indian cinema who gave the best films for the Indian audience. It’s not regular Mani Ratnam film that audience witnessed in last few years with the feel-good storyline, AR Rahman at the event told that Mani Ratnam brought the energy that he had during Thalapathy days, This film is a pure story-based with no lip-sync songs, romantic scenes, still, it got the audience attention, Well!! that’s the magic of Mani Ratnam.
Character Arcs:
Varadarajan: The most interesting one and rugged local gangster does whatever to get the throne of father’s empire, the only reason Vardhan turned on his father and brothers is the inferiority complex he felt from the beginning as the elder one.
Thyagu: The ferocious one with stylish looks, is more focused on the business transactions than attending the funeral of his father, the scene where Thyagu jumps and sits on Senapathi’s sofa shows his desire for the throne. his character is also known for creating sparks as part of his plan
Ethiraj: The younger one who thinks that he is everyone’s least favourite and started finding happiness in the outside world and was about to start a new life. The Scene when he opens up to his mother that he is waiting for love from so long shows how badly he wants to be loved, He has no enemies except the one who tried to kill his wife
Rasool: The silent police officer, for the world outside he is suspended and corrupt officer works for the criminal family, but for me, the entire film is reported by Rassol to the police department as an undercover officer.
Actors:
The perfect multi-starrer film which balances all the elements for family gangster genre and importance of main leads, Mani Ratnam told in his interview that he spent six months deciding about cast and crew which we can see as a worthy output. The star casting is the major asset of the film. Arvind Swamy won Best actor Filmfare and Best actor in the negative role at Behindwoods Gold medal