Escape Life Through Cricket

#sriGINthoughts #reviews #Tamilmovies #LubberPandhu #BlueStar #Viduthalai2

tl;dr (On comparing two similar Cricket-themed Tamil movies of 2024, one feels that Lubber Pandhu is better than Blue Star for various reasons.) 

3 min read.

Got to watch #BlueStar (Tamil movie) on Ungalukkaga MediaCorp yesterday.

After the heartrending MCG loss a couple of days back, one wasn’t keen to watch anything related to cricket. Then one remembered #LubberPandhu, arguably the Tamil movie of the year (scraping past #Maharaja by a whisker) and started watching purely to compare.

Two antagonists who join hands to beat a common enemy. Small town rivalry. A love affair thrown in. Caste differences playing out openly. Focus on love and humanity even in the winning moment. Integration (?) is seen as a better victory than winning (Win-Win, anyone?). Some dialogues to hit it to the gallery (no pun intended). Both released in 2024 - Blue Star being the first one to hit the screens though.

Anbe Sivam. Anbe Bhim. Anbe Cricket. 

So how do the movies compare?

#Casting: BS has strong cast with excellent nativity. But Ashok Selvan looked bronzed out & kind of out of place. LP’s strength was its immaculate casting, right down to those drunkard audience. And if Dhinesh as Gethu was amazing, his wife was doubly so!

#Screenplay_and_Writing: the way LP wove the love story into the story - and the associated tensions + the way the characters went through their lives with strong undercurrent of cricket was deeply satisfying. Fact that Gethu and Anbu are not of the same age group added to the pulls and pushes more effectively.

Blue Star 

BS worked hard to bring out the caste and strata differences through even small things like the high caste Rajesh calling someone (named as Ashwin! Dei!) whose caste & societal status is higher as ‘Ji!’ And the constant watermark of Ambedkar statue/picture did not allow one to forget what the movie was trying to convey. It is clearly black and white and doesn’t want to indulge in greys at all.

LP had a few instances of this (when Gethu’s mom asks about the caste, when Balan bursts out about how he isn’t a bro since he is an SC…) but by and large it decided to stay away from riding the political wagon and sticks firmly to the story of two people with cricket as a milieu.

#Impact: BS unabashedly espouses Dalitism through what the creators see Cricket as a symbolic escape route from oppression. The symbolisms attack you from all angles. The Dalit blue, the motif of dog as a face paint, hero’s name being Ranjith (who produced this movie…) Granted scores of Cricket leagues in India have helped them to dream - but it turns out to be preachy - even the aspiring Bullet Raj wants to play for West Indies (mind you not the SENA nations!) citing ‘bloody politics’ in Indian cricket. 

Lubber Pandhu

But LP attempts to tell the story of small town India through Cricket and brings in transformation as a byproduct. By cleverly mixing gallery moments such as Captain Vijaykanth’s songs, the running commentary of matches that are so on point and hilarious, the powerful female characters who stand on their own against the towering protagonists, LP creates a massive impact akin to ‘that MSD sixer’ in 2011 WC finals.

Lubber Pandhu: 8/10

Blue Star: 6/10 

So, if you are to watch one, then LP it is. But do watch out for the subliminal messages. We need to do so to understand life.

Right on time for the Sydney Test match, do you say? 😊

PS: We did watch the other ‘doctrine’ movie #Viduthalai2 by Vetri Maaran on NY eve. It was good in very few patches. (VJS & Chetan acting; the minister’s character expertly played by Ilavarasu; some dialogues; why-I-cut-and-grew-hair explanation by Mahalakshmi Thozhar…) 

Otherwise, was like sitting through a Communist propaganda session. To give the benefit of doubt, the movie serves a reminder to people on what it could have been if not for red-flaggers. Learn the history and do not repeat it. For that purpose I suggest that you sit through it on OTT🙏