Synopsis
A young orphan grows up in a graveyard and is devoid of any human feelings; when he leaves the cemetery and meets people, he experiences emotions for the first time.
A young orphan grows up in a graveyard and is devoid of any human feelings; when he leaves the cemetery and meets people, he experiences emotions for the first time.
Sivaputhrudu, Pitha magan, 先祖之子
A raw, emotional and entertaining dark drama from Bala. His distinctive characterizations, solid narrative and typical humor style keeps you hooked throughout. The final 30 minutes are so hard hitting and moves you into tears. With literally no dialogues, Vikram manages to yet deliver a career defining performance with simply his terrific body language and expressions. Suriya, Laila and Sangeetha are equally outstanding. Ilayaraja’s music elevates the dramatics strongly. An impactful and powerful melodrama.
I've never seen anything like this, a melodrama that pushes so far out into the raw edges of joy, laughter, love, violence, grief that I felt disoriented. Bala was really like let me boil down the experience of human life till it's a burnt caked on concentrated residue, enjoy bitch!!! Yes it probably goes "too far" but I don't care, it is magic.
Thanks nrh for suggesting that I watch Nandha before this, because seeing Pithamagan after that and Sethu really was something (and is an experience I recommend).
Also I've gotta say all of the performances in this movie are incredible. And I had already been thinking about how Vikram is one of the best at acting in/through dance (different from being a good actor or dancer, though he is both) but watching this I realized he is also one of the best at acting through fighting, which I guess is really the same thing.
Serves right up in the alley of all the praises showered on Bala by many filmmakers.
The borderline extreme nature of everything pushes you as a viewer to delve into their world with ease but hits you with a hammer of emotions, which was seemingly expected, considering his previous film Sethu did the same.
This film has an overabundance of anarchic energy that even makes the most commercial moments like the song & dance - scene featuring Simran feel like a burst of ecstatic non-conformity. Pithamagan is so rough, fast, wild and couragous, yet well executed with a good pace and with interesting shifts in sympathy, it really leaves you completely excited. The music is awesome, too. Bala is the master.
expected pithamagan to just be two+ hours of despair, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was more of a masala movie than i expected. there are long stretches of comedy, romance and light-hearted world/character building, at the heart of all this lightness is suriya's delightful sakthi. his character is such a joy to watch, his scams are ridiculously over-the-top but his friendship with the emotionless sitthan is genuinely heartwarming. the ways in which he is able to draw the humanity out of this soulless husk, this animal is genuinely an emotional watch. it's no coincidence that our main characters are seen watching anbe sivam before things go awry, sakthi (a Hindu term, in and of itself) is a…
Pithamagan: The Cold World
“At last Sakthi, you made me cry.”
Bala’s Pithamagan is quite shaky but its excellent final act puts everything into perspective. It’s not an enjoyable watch by any means but its an interesting experiment nonetheless. An animalistic human adapting to the dark world who eventually retreats back to where he came from. There is only pain to gain from entering this world. People not being able to adapt to the cold world, reminded me of Fellini’s La Strada. I watched this for Suriya who does a good job but this is an acting showcase for Vikram all the way. The scene where he finally shows emotions is brilliant. It meanders at times and is flat out dull in places, but a brilliant ending for sure.
72/100
20 years later, Pithamagan will always be amongst Chiyaan's three finest performances to date. The humour is loud in places and this film could have done away with couple of things especially the Simran sequence but that final stretch was well worth it. And for the record "Elangathu" will always be one of Ilayaraja's greatest songs!
Haven’t sobbed at a film in a while. I stumbled upon the climax of this film on cable tv when I was a kid and it absolutely traumatized me - it introduced me to the idea of death and I was so scared my mom was going to die and turn into ashes. I buried it deep down and never thought about it again but one morning last month I woke up and remembered the song “elangathu” and rediscovered that it was from Pithamagan. Now i’m 21 and I made it a point to watch it again, fully, so I can finally get over it. Oh was I wrong.
This movie is tremendous. Bala has made a film that is…
"Those who have chosen the path of love, there is no end / The length of the love is the length of the life."
There are some unwanted scenes in this movie like the actress Simran kidnapping scene. But Vikram's extraordinary performance makes pithamagan a worth watch. The bond between chithan and sakthi is well established in the movie, Surya-Vikram combo was that much hearttouching. Ilayaraja's music ❤️