Orange Mittai is a 2015 Indian, Tamil, Dark Comedy film co-written and directed by Biju Viswanath. Produced by actor Vijay Sethupathi, the film features him in the lead role alongside Ramesh Thilak, Arumugam Bala and Aashritha. The film began production in mid-2014.
Orange Mittai is a pleasantly short film of just about an hour and half detailing the pathos and pain of old-age loneliness -- a common feature in today's India with ageing parents finding themselves alone and abandoned.
Thirty-seven-old Vijay Sethupathi -- who appears determined not to be typecast, having played varying kinds of characters in Pizza and Soodhu Kaavum -- essays an elderly man, Kailasam, living all by himself in a huge, dilapidated mansion in a remote village. When he seemingly develops symptoms of a cardiac arrest, an ambulance is sent to fetch him.
The journey with driver Aarumugham (Aarubala) and para-medic Satya (Ramesh Thilak) turns into a roller-coaster ride with Kailasam playing a spoilt brat, arrogant and irritatingly ego-centric.
What Orange Mittai eventually wants to grip us with is that gnawing feeling of misery which sets in as one is left alone.First-class performances by Sethupathi and Thilak have the movie racing, though I was a tad disappointed with Vijay's makeup. Often it helps to have an old man portray an old man -- as we saw with a touch of brilliance in Piku.
Nonetheless, Orange Mittai is a refreshing relief from the distressingly long and annoyingly loud and exaggerated Tamil works that one has been bombarded with in recent times. Biju Viswanath keeps his narrative -- at least most of the times -- tastefully understated.
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