MANAM VIRUMBUDHE UNNAI

A movie review by Balaji Balasubramaniam

Prabhu used to be quite a popular actor at one time with many a success to his credit. At one point, he enjoyed great success pairing with Kushboo in several movies, the pinnacle of which was Chinna Thambi, one of the biggest hits in tamil cinema. But a string of flops affected his box-office clout and consequently, his name no longer spells success at the box-office. (Things might be looking up for him again though, with the success of Tirupati Ezhumalai Venkatesa.) Manam Virumbudhe Unnai was affected by this and found no takers among the distributors. It has been lying in the cans for a while and finally seems to have found light of day.

Shanmugam(Prabhu) showers love and affection on his two daughters, Kavitha and Anitha. Having found them abandoned, he has raised them without them knowing that they were orphans. When pestered by them for the photograph of their mother, he describes the girl of his dreams to his friend Sabapathy(Dhamu) who then paints her portrait. Shanmugam presents this portrait to his daughters as their mother Amudha. Coincidentally, the children chance upon Priya(Meena), who looks like the woman in the portrait and along with Shanmugam, go to her home in Madras.

Priya's is a big family consisting of her parents(Jaiganesh and Lakshmi), uncle('Delhi' Ganesh) and 'murai' paiyan Chandru(Karan). Their family friend Prakash(Rajiv Krishna) secretly harbors feelings for Priya. When Chandru finds Priya's photo in Shanmugam's belongings, they decide to find out his real reason for entering their house. So Priya acts as though she loves him and Shanmugam too believes her. Things come to a head during Priya's birthday party when Shanmugam finds out their real feelings towards him. When the truth is revealed, its Priya's turn to fall in love with him. Naturally, everyone in her family opposes this.

The movie has a rather heavy-weight story. It is populated with lots of characters(most of whom have an important part in the proceedings) and has interesting twists and turns. While movies with a flimsy story like Unnaruge Naanirundhaal survive based on other factors, this movie lets a potentially engaging story go to waste by some uninspired storytelling. The director fails to generate any interest in the goings-on and lets even possible chances for suspense pass by. For example, he reveals right at the beginning that Prabhu found his children abandoned and has been raising them. Hiding this could have led to a lot more interest in the movie and an interesting twist at the end.

None of the characters behave logically either. Prabhu gives in too easily when his kids want to stay with a woman who looks like their dead mother. Same goes for Meena. Instead of confronting Prabhu who has her photo with him, she inexplicably opts to act as though she loves him. How this would help her figure out why Prabhu has her photo, I'm not sure. Karan is the only one who behaves sensibly throughout. His actions are different from the way 'murai' paiyans of the heroine typically behave in movies and his standing up for Rajiv Krishna is a pleasant surprise.

After the rather mellow happenings through most of the movie, the final portions turn into a case of overkill as the movie lurches from one climax to another. With kids getting injured and normal guys turning into psychos, the movie has atleast 3 veritable climaxes. Naturally, this becomes tiring.

Prabhu is a master at playing the soft-spoken, gold-hearted man and does not disappoint. He excels in the scene where he protests his innocence when blamed for being in love with Meena. Meena looks pretty but doesn't get many chances to display her histrionics. Rajiv Krishna(the hero in Aahaa) and Karan perform creditably. The kids play an important part in the movie but the director has not taken too much care in their selection. Neither of them is really cute and the younger one is especially wooden in her performance. While not a blockbuster soundtrack, Ilaiyaraja has come up with several catchy tunes. Almost all the songs like Ilavenirkaala Panjami... and Koottukkuyila... are pleasing to the ear with Thangakili tholil... being the pick of the lot.