‘Guess the climax if you can’: The day Bharathiraja challenged film critics

With a spring in his step, Bharathiraja strode confidently onto the dais of Nungambakkam’s Four Frames preview theatre. It was the intermission of his 2008 film, Bommalattam, and the veteran filmmaker had something to ask the film critics and journalists who had assembled to watch the movie.

In fact, it was a challenge.

“You have all watched Bommalattam till this l point. Can any of you guess what will happen in the end? If you can, please meet me outside.”

There was an immediate flutter among members of the media who had assembled to watch this whodunit. Here was a filmmaker – who had already helmed popular thriller Sigappu Rojakkal (1978) starring Kamal Haasan – challenging the press to guess the climax.

I penned down my own theory in a notebook that I took along to the screening, but the queue to reach Bharathiraja was long: several scribes had walked up to him to discuss what they had witnessed thus far and where they thought it was headed.

Hearing point after point being floated, Bharathiraja just smiled He knew he had packed something into the movie that no one could fathom.

Now, directors addressing the press on such occasions is nothing new – they usually say something to the effect of “We have done our best in this film. Please be fair and kind” – and leave the critics to consume the cinematic material. But on that evening in 2008, Bharathiraja’s open challenge led to whispers and theories.

Much before Tamil cinema showcased several filmmakers who were inclined towards twists and murder mysteries, Bharathiraja had already been there. Those few minutes at the preview showcased a filmmaker of grit and confidence: someone who dared to experiment, and believed that audiences would back that.

What really happens at the end of Bommalattam, starring Arjun Sarja, Nana Patekar and Rukmini Vijayakumar, is for another time. In fact, this film might not rank among his finest, but it proved that Bharathiraja could handle multiple genres, including such edge-of-the-seat fare, with ease. The Hindu’s review of the film noted that: “The end is new. The circumstances that drive the murderer to take the extreme stop are shocking. The impact on the viewer is tremendous....”

Today, the twist is an integral part of cinema and web-series. In most thrillers, audiences expect a last-minute reveal of a character or a plot point that they least expect. The bigger the reveal, the better the reception is likely to be, as proved in South Indian cinema by films like the Drishyam franchise. But back in 2008, in the relatively overlooked Bommalattam, Bharathiraja was among the mainstream filmmakers who experimented with narrative twists when such storytelling was not the norm yet.