VADA CHENNAI - COLD OPEN
Muthu Anand
It seems that my craze for Vadachennai would never cease. One of the best things which I loved about Vadachennai was that it had one of the greatest cold opens I’ve ever seen in Cinema.
A cold open is a narrative tactic/hook used in television and films. It is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In television, this is often done on the theory that involving the audience in the plot as soon as possible will reduce the likelihood of their switching from a show during the opening commercial. (Wikipedia).
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A great story in itself is not enough to hook the audience into the film. Cold open is one of the most effective gripping hooks to capture the attention of your viewers right from the start and it also sets up the mood for the entire film. Movies like Dark Knight, Dark Knight Rises, Mission Impossible 3, Inception, Inglorious Basterds, Social Network, Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, Skyfall and TV series like Sacred Games have great cold opens.
Vada Chennai is a film with a non-linear narrative cleverly employs the use of cold open at the beginning of the film. Remember this is a film which is written having in mind the theatrical experience unlike it’s to be released, successors. Immediately after the disclaimers, CBFC certificate and production company banners are shown, the cold open hits the screen without wasting time where we hear dialogues followed by a blood-stained knife thudding on the table with VO in between the conversation instead of providing the audiences with background information about the story’s characters and setting.
The scene further shows the characters laughing and having a conversation right after they’ve committed murder to show the brutality and violence which would follow in the film. We’re given very limited information as to who was the victim, why was he killed, who are these perpetrators, what is their motive to commit the murder in order to keep us intrigued till we find answers to those questions. Right after it, we have the jail scene where Guna and Senthil both have altercations just before the title credit appears.
I couldn’t stop myself from comparing Vadachennai’s cold open with Goodfellas’s cold open which I consider as the best cold open in movie history. I just love the way the camera zooms into Henry Hill when he says "As far back as I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a gangster" and then Rags to Riches starts to play when Henry Hill closes the trunk right after Conway and Devito kills Batts. Only Martin Scorsese could pull off stuff like that. Though Goodfellas follows a tragedy narrative, unlike Vadachennai.But the cold open in both these films serve similar purpose. Both set up the mood for a gritty atmosphere.
