Punnagai Mannan


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This is a classic from K.B and Illayaraaja. As I have said before, Balachandar is never shy to try out controversial topics in his movies. In 1987, the LTTE was a big topic that was disturbing India and Srilanka. The tamils in SL were hated by the local Sinhalese and this is one of the themes presented in this movie. We see the Lankan background follow up in Kannathil Muthamittal from Manirathnam.

This movie shows the emotion of guilty conciousness in a light that other movies have not ventured into. This has been nicely emoted by Kamal, who carries this burden throughout the movie, since he was the unlucky surivivor of a suicide attempt.

Noticeable

As I have said in the review of Raam, a thunderous start makes the rest of the movie very interesting to watch. In this case, it has a thunderous ending as well! I really loved the ending!

Kudos to the art work in this movie! The drawings of Godess Saraswathi and Kamal are both very realistic, considering the area they cover! Awesome!

Rekha and Revathi perform very well in their roles. The reason that Revathi was such a big success is that she makes you feel as if she's going about her business as you would, if you were wearing her shoes. She's a natural on screen and hard to beat. Her voice I guess was dubbed by Sulokshana and that was a slight mismatch, and reminded me of 'Bhairavi' a lot, although I was looking at Revathi.

Kamal has a very difficult assignment and has performed extremely well as Chaplin Chellappa. He is a real comedian and can give anyone a run for their money! His comic timing is classic and no one in tamil cinema could have immitated Chaplin as well as he has. He also emoted brilliantly in the not-so-happy scenes. The romance with Srividya added to this comedy, although it was more of a filler and not crucial to the plot.

The song and dance sequences were very key to the movie and have been brilliantly executed by the maestro and the choreographer. Kamal is known to be great for his dances and Revathi, albeit not known for dance sequences apriori, has set a standard in this flick. There is not much basis for who she could miraculously perform a 16 hour dance sequence after having faltered terribly in the class. But there is always some room for imagination in Balachandar movies.

The story itself is somewhat complicated since there is an interleaving of the Srilankan tale with the dance story consisting of Srividya and Kamal's family, Chaplin & Delhi Ganesh. Add into it the elements of Rekha's family and Delhi Ganesh's multiple wives, your head starts spinning as you read, but not when you watch! So, the director has done an excellent job. Although in some places the movie drags a little, especially where there are no English subtitles to Sinhalese dialogues. Other than that, the script has been dealt with outstandingly.

Verdict

This is a very good movie, which deals with a complicated subject with ease. It can qualify as a classic. But I am not sure how much you will like this movie if you are watching it for the first time only now, but since I have been watching it several times since its release, it has grown on me. If you are from the United Nations or a dance academy, you will love this movie. Tuesday, June 14, 2005 at 5:25 PM