Shiva (Mahesh), who is a topper in school, is forced to leave education as his father gets killed in an accident. He gets a job in big Shopping Mall where the workers lead a life which is nothing short to that of a hell. In that mall there is Rani (Anjali) with whom Shiva eventually fall in love. The young couple has to survive in that jail-like Shopping Mall to succeed. They get through all the torture and when the going seems to look blissful, ugly fate smiles on the couple to change their lives forever.There is a strongly believed notion that so-called art films or realistic films are only meant for awards and they rarely enjoy commercial benefits. Tamil cinema is an exception to it. Tamil audiences are game for realistic hard hitting cinema and their filmmakers are happily making films inspired from real life characters. That is probably the real reason for Tamil film industry producing some wonderful films unlike its close competitor Telugu cinema.
Analysis :
Shopping Mall (Angaadi Theru) is gem of a film that has become a rarity these days. Director Vasanthabalan who made critically acclaimed Veyil as his debut film comes up with Shopping Mall that is focused on the miserable lives of workers in large shopping malls. The characters in this film are well known to us. We often come across them every time we step into a shopping mall. Of course we never look into the other side of those people, but Vasantha Balan did. Hence, a beautiful film like Shopping Mall is made.Vasantha Balan had the guts and courage to make a film on the hard hitting reality and he didn’t try to beat around the bush at any instance. In fact he did do good research about how the life goes on ‘behind’ a shopping mall. He brought the pain of those sorrowful lives in a heart-melting way. Also he spun an excellent love story in between and it is sheer poetry to watch those romantic scenes between Mahesh and Anjali. Climax is brilliantly done as it leaves a haunting impression on the audiences even after they leave the auditorium. The film starts off with a bang and perfectly paves into the flashback and moves at a good pace until the interval point. Later on it does lose some speed and the proceedings seem heavy. However, we won’t complain as this is understandable in such films.
TeluguOne Perspective :
New actor Mahesh is perfect fit in this role. The boyish charm and innocence in his face added to the character. He should work on his expressions though. Heroine Anjali is brilliant. She suited the role to the T. She showed the pain and happiness excellently through her beautiful big eyes. A. Venkatesh is believable as a heartless supervisor. Pandi did well in the role of hero’s friend. Every artist did justice to their respective roles. The director opted for brand Tamil faces to appeal to the native Tamil audience and few of them would irk Telugu audience who doesn’t like the Tamil ‘rawness’ and ‘over the board’ performances.First things first, Shopping Mall is not for audience who likes to watch films to get entertained. Please stay away from this film if you’re looking for fun. This film is ‘fun’ to watch for all those realistic film lovers. We have to wait and see if our audiences are in mood to stomach this harsh reality or not.