Sindhu Bhairavi

Saw this classic for the 10th time (number chosen randomly, I don't recall exactly how many times). I cannot have enough of watching it.

What's New?

If you ask this question back in 1983, the answer would be everything!

Noticeable

The contrast between Sindhu and Bhairavi is awesome and hard not to notice. The acting of Suhasini steals the thunder away from the others. Her expressions as a music enthusiast is hard to imitate. The scene that I loved her expression most was when she returns to watch the comeback performance of JKB.

The support cast of Janakaraaj, Delhi Ganesh, Pratap Pothan, the judge dude and even the car driver, has been well used by the director and they have all delivered good performances.

Yesudas's voice suits Sivakumar better than anyone else. Chitra has done an amazing job too. Illayaraaja has put up one of his best performances in Tamil Cinema, all the songs are excellent and have great repeat hearability even after 21 years!!

The director has done a marvellous job in handling a sensitive topic with great subtlely! The analogies and coincidences he draws are simply superb. But the glaring oversight was the lack of taalam from the lead singer, something impossible in carnatic music (thanks to my father in law for noticing this fact, I am a gnana sooniyam and would not notice this either way).

Verdict

It is a classic! KB always dares to think differently and this movie uncovers bigamy with adequate basis, in a very beautiful way, Manirathnam has shown the same concept very stylishly in Agni Nakshatram, another classic. These two directors are really gems of Tamil cinema. This is one of Balachandar's best! Thursday, June 02, 2005 at 11:26 AM

Babs,

Yes you are correct, but I thought the most outstanding performance goes to Suhasini, since it is a movie tailored around Sivakumar and still she carved out a center stage for herself.

Sivakumar has no doubt delivered one of his best performances. He is a great actor and has delivered to perfection on this one. 10:27 PM