"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."
- Ellen Parr
Being a strong believer of the above statement and having run out of Hindi/English movies led me to try the yet unexplored territory of Tamil Cinema. Me considering "Dil Se" the finest example of "poetry on screen", what better director to choose than "Mani Sir". Now the point was - which movie ? Well anybody even remotely interested in movies will say - "Nayakan" (yes, i haven't watched it yet :)) . But having watched so many gangster movies recently, i wanted something different. By chance I found "Kannathil Muthamittal" and rest is my effort to share the pure joy I had in those 2 hours.
I won't try to "reinvent the wheel" by giving full plot as I am sure no one can beat good old IMDB in that. In short "Kannathil Muthamittal" is the story of a Tamil writer Thiruchelvan (Madhavan), a gorgeous news reader Indra (Simran) who is a girl next door (literally) to Thiruchelvan...and becomes his wife, their adopted child "Amudha", and Shyama (Nandita Das) , a Sri Lankan resident and real mother of "Amudha".
Mani Sir is "THE PERFECT" story teller. He first allows you to understand the characters, then make sure you connect with them by sheer brilliance of his depiction of the courting days of Thiruchelvan and Indra, the pure love and happiness in their relationship. And then he mixes this completely normal life of a middle class Indian with the LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka. He just scratches the surface so that it is just perfect exposure of the dark relalities of terrorism lurking in various parts of Sri Lanka, without going over the board. The best part of the movie, apart from direction, is the acting of Madhavan and Simran. They get under the skin of character and you never actually feel that they are some actors playing their role. Madhavan is at his sarcastic best while playing with the emotions of Indra and no one can be better "go home, show mom" girl than Indra. I also liked the small but beautifully played part of Thiruchelvan's sister Kamalee. I don't know her name but I am pretty sure she is the same lady who was AIR head in "Dil Se" (right now i am too lazy to verify).
The movie, as I guessed, is open ended and appropriate being that as the audience shall also have something to ponder, the movie has some message and this after thought will make sure you get it :)
I was over-impressed by this movie because of the fact that it was in Tamil, which is as good as an instrumental song to me but still I was able to connect and appreciate the movie (with english subtitles). I think that speaks a lot in itself about the merits of "Mani Sir" as director specifically and any great form of art in general. Who said language is a barrier :)
