:O

The ethnic strife regarding the separate home land for the Tamils in Srilanka was in news for quite sometime now. Recently, the leader of the LTTE, Mr. Velupillai Prabhakaran was claimed to have been assassinated by the Srilankan army, throwing the so called Tigers into organizational disarray. The brutalities committed by the Srilankan army and the Srilankan government have over the decades evoked immense sympathy from the Tamils living in India as well. I still remember that morning in the 1990s when my mother and father were hooked into the Television with paper in their hands carrying brutal gory images of bodies shattered and strewn around in a small town of Sri Perambudur in India. I didn’t understand a wee bit of this being a tiny little-self, that the Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had been assassinated by a suicide LTTE bomber as she garlanded him on the dais.

Madhavan, Simran and Keerthana in Kannathil Muthamittal

Years passed on. I watched from United States as the current Srilankan President Mahinda Rajapaksha narrowed down on hideouts of LTTE in Kilinochi steadily. I heard, heard and listened to my Tamil friends on how innocents getting caught in cross-war between the LTTE and the Army was unfortunate. I couldn’t help but being induced to think about this yet again, as I saw Mani Rathnam’s poignant, masterful and powerful movie which builds its plot around the quest of a daughter separated by birth from her mother. The central theme on which the movie rests on is this political ethnic strife in Srilanka, which has left behind tales of horror, sufferings by ethnic Tamils living in Srilanka.

The movie stars versatile actors, that any director of a social drama movie must select, namely: Madhavan, Nandita Das and Prakash Raj. In addition to these folks there are Simran Bagga and P.S Keerthana. Each one of these folks have performed stupendously and I cannot find any words to describe how beautiful the selection of roles has been for each one these folks. Madhavan plays the role of a gifted writer who sets up his novel on the poignant tale of separation of the kid whom he would later adopt. It seems after this movie Madhavan’s versatile acting abilities were noticed by everyone and this movie established him as an actor one can bank upon. To be frank, I had always associated Simran with feisty hot item roles in the Tamil and regional movies. Boy, how wrong I was. She seems to belong to the ranks of actresses like Tabu who can gel well in serious roles given to them. Her performance as a caring mother and dedicated family woman in this movie is easily one of the best ones I have ever seen. P.S Keerthana, plays the character of Amudha, who was separated from her mother as a kid. This performance is comparable to Rubina Ali and co’s acting in Slum dog millionaire, Baby Shyamali’s acting in Anjali as well as Zekeria Ebrahimi’s in the Kite Runner.

The plot gains momentum as the caretaker parents of Amuda decide to reveal her real life story as she attains the age of nine. Eventually they would be forced to travel to Srilanka in search of Amudha’s mother who has turned into a hardcore LTTE rebel. The movie has another important lesson when it delves on how fateful and unpredictable life can be when it shows Amuda interacting with his dad, just before he bombs a convoy as suicide bomber for the tigers. Madhavan and Simran’s acting as caring parents of Amudha ranks as one of the best in entire history of movies for me. The Final scenes are a tad bit too emotional when Amudha finally gets to meet her estranged mother, who is now revealed to be a top woman leader of the LTTE rebels. Amudha pleads with her estranged mother to take back her without knowing what she is into. Nandita though hard-hearted at first, is later forced to break down and it is apparent that she cannot give Amudha the care that a true mother would have given. As such she would leave it to Simran and Madhavan to take her back to Madras.

In a nutshell, a strongly recommended movie. Crisp editing and nice choreography coupled with tight acting with all of the actors make it worth watching.