Cutting Out the Soul of Meiyazhagan

A Companion Piece to Meiyazhagan Potato Cut

Out of all the 2024 films that have come out this year, I’ve discussed Meiyazhagan the most with friends and family since its theatrical release. At first, the conversation was mostly about how C. Prem Kumar’s family drama was my favorite film of the year and that everyone and their mother needed to see it. That conversation slowed as Kumar announced cuts to the film were made and it would be rereleased in Tamil Nadu with the shortened version less than a week after its release. Luckily, it seems that either due to distribution, money, timing, or laziness, the shortened cut didn’t reach the limited screens showing the film in the US where I watched it. 

It no longer became a movie that I wanted to convince people to see because of how much I connected with it. It became a movie I wanted to convince people to be witnesses to the full film before it would be censored and lost to time. I encouraged all my friends living close to a theater showing Meiyazhagan to see it while they could.  I even dragged one of my friends to the theater to watch it with me one last time.  As the film was nearing its theatrical end, I hoped when it landed on Netflix that everyone would be able to watch the original cut of the film.  My hopes were dashed when people screenshotted the Meiyazhagan Netflix landing page with the time showing 2 hours and 38 minutes.  The original runtime (still written on IMDB) is 2 hours and 57 minutes.

I am accustomed to director's cuts and fan edits.  I am quite a big fan of them.  Two years ago, I made a fan cut of Mani Ratnam’s Raavanan and Raavan called the Raavan/an Cut. I combined both films to have Vikram’s Dev character from Raavan go up against Vikram’s Veera character from Raavanan.  It was my first major fan edit and while there are portions that are a little janky, the energy of having Chiyaan Vikram fight himself in one of Mani’s best films was enough for me to want to see it come to life.  Both films were accessible for me to have a little fun within Premiere Pro and I made something new and original using two pre-existing films.  

In a perfect world, no matter what type of media, no matter the language, that art could be accessible to everyone to watch, read, learn, play, and expand upon it.  I know we do not live in such a world, but it’s why I firmly believe in film accessibility, preservation, and restoration projects in general.  This brings me to why I felt it in my bones, to cobble together the original version of Meiyazhagan (The Potato Cut). It’s called the Potato Cut for the obvious use of potato-quality footage as well as for Karthi’s character nickname, Potato.

I would love for them to release the full version of the film on any streamer, have it available to buy digitally, or even release a Blu-ray of the full film. I would love for one day this edit to be made useless.  However, with so many people online requesting for a full version to be released, and with different sources slowly releasing the deleted scenes, it looks unlikely that they will be releasing the full film as of now.  Please prove me wrong, Suriya and Jhotika (film producers).

So as of right now, after combing through deleted scenes, sneak previews, trailers, a sneaky camrip, and with the help of Twitter and real-life friends, the Potato Cut has been made.  I started with the Netflix version and camrip and picked apart every scene that they had deleted and re-added them. I tried to match the deleted scenes for the best quality picture as well as tried to keep the audio similar to the original timeline. You may notice overlapping of images and quick flashes to better quality shots embedded within this patchwork.  It is a messy process to assemble and of course, we are dealing with some scenes that, as of writing this, have not been released to the public or have been cropped.  I did the best I could given what was available to me as of October 30th, 2024.

I will not fully get into my feelings on C. Prem Kumar’s statement regarding the reason he cut the film.  I want to say that while he may feel that Meiyazhagan has been unchanged, I will tell you that the whole film feels like the soul has been ripped out of it on Netflix. If you have not seen the full cut, and the Potato Cut is your first time, I will draw your attention to the 5 scenes cut from the film (time stamps included):

Scene 1: Jallikattu Ban (1:36:22)

Scene 2: Walking Across the River (1:59:43)

Scene 3: Karthi’s Campfire Monologue (2:00:31)

Scene 4: Arul Goes to the Venni Paranthalai (2:25:47)

Scene 5: Arul Talks to Hema About Specifics to Karthi’s character (2:30:16)

Each scene, while some are more important than others, talks to each other and builds on each other.  The cycle sequence is amazing but we understand Karthi’s character more through his activities with family, friends, and the village as a whole through the Jallikattu sequence.  We see how much he cares for Dhoni, the bull, and how his empathy extends towards animals as well as the community gatherings during Pongal.  

The next cut scene involves Karthi’s character talking about the different names the town went by and the rivers that cross through it.  It’s a transition sequence.  He hilariously says “location change,” when Arvind Swamy’s Arul asks him where they are heading.  While the walk across the dam, isn’t spectacular, it sets up the next scene with the monologue regarding the place and names and how important history is to Karthi’s character.  

The biggest cut of the film, Scene 3 is a full 10-minute monologue of a drunk Karthi's flow of consciousness. We learn about his visits to Venni Paranthalai temple, his meditation practices, his caring for victims of genocide and protests, his hope for future generations to learn the history of his Tamil culture, and so much more.  It’s a drunken conversation but we get such raw emotion from Karthi that this is where we see him as a whole person.  Karthi’s character remarks that Tamil people aren’t learning about their history or even being taught their language. It feels even more poignant that his statement, these words, have vanished from all streamable means due to the shortened version only available on Netflix.

Without the campfire monologue, they had to then cut Arul abruptly getting off the bus destined for Chennai, so that he could visit Venni Paranthalai. This scene allows Arul to literally walk in Karthi’s character’s shoes to the temple and hero stone that he frequents and honors.  He, too, meditates and reflects not on the battles that took place there, but on the stranger he spent the whole night with. We then see him back on another bus, finally heading home. In the shortened Netflix version, we only see him on the bus heading home where as before we knew that was his second bus ride to get back to Chennai. The whole shortened version of the scene feels deflated and quick as they add some extra music over that scene to boost the emotion that was cut out.  

The final scene they had to cut was Arul talking to his wife, Hema, about this mystery individual. He mentions how much this stranger is fond of Cholan history, and how he commemorates those who died in protest and genocide like he knew them.  He ponders out loud if he can be a real person and if everyone should be more like him.  This portion broke me.  The weight of someone loving you and showing so much care for others when you have felt so little in your life is a lot to carry within, let alone express how much this love meant to you to another person.  Especially in Arul’s case where now he feels all this guilt for enjoying his time with this man with a name he cannot place.

The added impact of editing this was re-adding English subtitles to all the deleted scenes.  Having to type every letter, and every word in the subtitles was immense.  The gravity of everything Karthi said, whether drunk or sober, meant so much to me. The fact that these scenes were taken out of the film feels horrendous. It’s honestly one of the most engrossing performances I’ve ever seen from Karthi. He describes the Eelam genocide and the Sterlite protest massacre, all relating to the fact that we have to bear witness to these crimes. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t see Palestinians being murdered and torn to shreds by US-manufactured weapons, on social media as the world continues to turn and Western governments continue to fund Israeli war crimes.  The scene being cut continues the silencing of any prickly discussion of genocide and war crimes in media. 

Overall, I am disappointed in everyone involved in the decision to keep the shortened version as the one destined for OTT.  Yet, disappointment fuels the creative energy in me and I made this in honor of so many people who enjoyed the original theatrical version or wish to see it.  Many of my friends have written wonderful reviews about the original film which I will link below.  I hope that people do not forget about the original theatrical version. Like C. Prem Kumar, I believe remembering the past and working through memories are an important part of my art and that is why Meiyazhagan Potato Cut is here for everyone.

Happy Halloween and Happy Diwali!

Thank you to Sandi, Kate, and Krandhasi for subtitle assistance. 

This is dedicated to everyone who wished to see Meiyazhagan in full but was unable due to lack of showtimes.

Recommended Reviews for Meiyazhagan:

Kate’s substack review

EvilNGK’s letterboxd review

NotGoodReviews’s letterboxd review

(Contact: KrisLovesMovies96@gmail.com)