I saw 2 movies this past week. One was Mouna Raagam and the other Chiththiram Pesuthadi.
I have always considered Mouna Raagam to be a classic among tamil movies. I wanted to find out if I still held to that view. It is one of the few tamil movies that doesnt waste scenes and keeps a tight leash on the story. Whether it is the treatment of revathi-karthik or revathi-mohan relationships, I thought it had a lot of originality. Every time I watch this movie, I am reminded of Manirathnam's pathetic effort in Alaipaayuthae. Other than Iruvar, Nayakan and (to some extent) Thiruda Thiruda, I dont think Manirathnam has made a movie that I can sit back and enjoy the movie just for the way it is made. Iruvar has a drawback in that you have to have some interest in personalities that dominated tamilnadu politics to appreciate the movie but it is beautiful nonetheless.
Some things I noticed this time around:
(i) I think P.C.Sriram made the introduction scene of Karthik that much more impactful by shooting it at higher speed. I dont know whether he actually did it but the scene does move faster leading to the illusion that served Karthik very well throughout the movie, that of a rogue with hair trigger impulse.
(ii) I appreciated Mohan's acting in this movie after having watched him take advantage of SPB's voice in most of his movies. This is one movie where I could see Mohan actually acting the role instead of serving as vehicle to the genius that is SPB. He is solid in his acting and comes across as someone who takes himself very seriously. It does help that Manirathnam paints the character with enormous sympathy. I am not sure whether it is a coincidence that Mohan's character is a personnel manager that lends some credence to his handling of his relationship with Revathi's character.
(iii) I thought Revathi overplayed the emotional side of her character too much. The only time it didnt sound jarring was with Karthik which might be because of the similarity of the characters(impulsive, quick to judge) they were playing. But Karthik, getting the benefit of tamil movie directors fashioning great characters for their male leads while constructing caricatures of the female ones(Thanks to my brother for repeatedly pointing that out so much that I have now come to believe it as a fact), doesnt seem to overplay it. Manirathnam has given him a role where he can be impulsive without taking himself too seriously. Revathi's role is someone who is impulsive and takes herself too seriously. The restaurant scene where Karthik entreats Revathi's father to join them for coffee is one place where the contrast is shown beautifully.
(iv) The aspect of mouna raagam that almost everyone remembers is Mohan using the same phrases that Revathi used early in their marriage and her realization at the pointed nature of them. For me, it had to do with the nature of the 3 characters the way Manirathnam has constructed it. Karthik is someone who says what he thinks and gets on with it. Revathi is similar except that after her marriage to Mohan, she is far more circumspect about saying what she thinks after having been burned once. Mohan is the other extreme where he receives slingshots of misfortune stoically, digests it and bides his time to respond. So, while the first half of the movie is about the maturation of Revathi, the second half is about maturation of Mohan. The end of Karthik's scenes points to Revathi coming to terms with her impulsive past and a realization that she cant go back. Revathi learns to let go of her past experience and to accept her lot in life, that of a bored tamil housewife in delhi pushed into a marriage by her parents through emotional blackmail(which is when the tamil audiences let out a sigh of relief at a challenge to their cherished stereotype of tamil culture, that of an unhappy wife reining in her impulses, nipped in the bud). Mohan, in the earlier scenes in the movie, revels in the enlightened husband part who uses his personnel skills honed from trade union negotiations on his wife. When Revathi's attitude towards him improves, he belatedly realises he has been a sucker for her impulsive behaviour all along and decides to let her sweat a little with his responses to her. The whole passive aggressive profile of Mohan is perfectly maintained till the end when he takes some time to respond to Revathi's pleadings.
I would love it if Manirathnam took Mouna Raagam - The End Game starting with the climax of the original and building on the relationship between Mohan and Revathi as the culture around them changes. What tamil culture was in 1980s is no longer true. My guess is that in such a movie, after 2 kids Revathi will slink ever more deeper into depression while Mohan will take to working long hours at office and putting even more burden on Revathi till she cant take it anymore and demands a divorce, again.
All said and done, Mouna raagam is a beautiful movie around a simple story that has great emotive appeal. All my potshots are ramblings of someone who is too much in awe of the movie itself.
Chiththiram pesuthadi was a movie I had high expectations for, after hearing from friends and reading from reviews that it was a well deserved surprise hit of 2006. I didnt like the movie at all as much as I tried convincing myself its treatment was different. The movie starts great, then meanders around trying to find out a way around and ends lamely. It might be that my disappoinment was more with how much potential was wasted by the time the movie ended.
Some characters were etched very well, starting with Narain and his friends as henchmen of the local 'dada'. The characters were beautifully constructed even though it cant be said of their acting, especially Narain.
I dont think tamil movies have shown friends openly coveting their friends' girlfriends and still be shown as a true friend. Normal friendships in tamil movies are very stark. If you are a friend, you treat your friend's girlfriend as sister. Of course, if you dont, you get into an adversarial relationship which is then milked for comedy(Dum Dum Dum) or violence(countless others). Here, friends pour out their jealousies in the open and still remain as friends. The director here has made a compromise where the heroine fawns over every friend of the hero as a brother while the friends of the hero themselves are split over that characterisation.
Heroine's characterisation is a caricature of a city girl lurching from one father figure to another throughout the movie. Bhaavna has made a mess of even that flimsy character with her loud acting.
Hero's characterisation is brilliant but Narain proceeds to flush it down the drain. Here is someone who walks to his own tune indifferent to the effect it has on his existing relationships. Those initial scenes were a delight to watch. After his transformation upon meeting bhaavna, the inconsistency in his acting was too jarring. And the character's antics before getting ready to knock his adversaries throughout the movie were just annoying.
Heroine's father character was well developed even though there could have been more work on it. Tamil movie directors have been steadily improving in their characterisation of fathers and this movie is no exception.
Some of Narain's friends have great profiles. Their reactions are a delight, much more than Narain's.
The rest of the characters were ill developed including the dada played by 'Kathal' Dandapani. As with every tamil movie director, Mishkin fails to develop a good profile for the female characters including the hero's mother or sister. They are just there to nullify the expectation that the hero is not the way he is because he doesnt have any family to hold onto. The sister deserved a better profile given the treatment she receives from the hero throughout the movie.
Some scenes(especially the twist in the storyline which while good, does look stale especially after watching Sethu) looked more like inspirations from earlier, illustrious tamil movies even though the director has fit them well into the story flow.
To me, this is a movie that could have been great but ended up being very average due to missed opportunities.
