I thought the Karthik character gets killed - tragedy, yes, but love failure? :roll:Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerd
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I thought the Karthik character gets killed - tragedy, yes, but love failure? :roll:Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerd
Right. End of the day, she was unable to marry the one she loved.. I feel death of the one you loved is as bad as not being able to live with him/her .. :?Quote:
Originally Posted by app_engine
PR: Thanks. The idea behind having precocious kids inhabit films is that every one loves a precocious kid, when they are not the ones dealing with them 24/7. romba sutti and related terms went from being a warning to an endorsement. I think that might have been Anjali's biggest accomplishment.
Thilak/PR: Regarding Mouna Ragam I had a few theories.
1. I think the timeline is rather significant. Divya is still in college so obviously not too much time (at most 2 years) has passed since Manohar's death. So she might still be in denial and overcompensating. The scenes after the peN pArththal she moves on to anger because she is forced to come to terms with the death (no real excuse to not want to get married). Everything including the marriage and post marriage is bargaining (if she doesn't sleep with Chandrakumar somehow she is being faithful to Manohar - orE sinna puLLathanamA irukkum). The biggest deviation from the Kubler-Ross stages of grief is the lack of depression associated with the loss of Manohar. The first time we actually see her depressed is when Chandrakumar starts his "Taming of the Shrew" technique.
2. The opening might have just been Mani's way of sending mixed signals to the audience. Maybe she is just a free spirit, who didn't like being shackled. But NO! Here is the twist in the tale, she was in love before. (Even though this is fairly hammy if you think about it)
3. The entire sequence with the Sardarji started with a possible fish out of water trend but descended into banality. I thought he could have derived more humor from VKR and Mohan's interactions.
On the whole Mouna Ragam was an interesting first take on life of a girl from 80's Madras. I had written something that stood out sometime ago. Athayum kEzhE post pannidarEn.
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An obviously conflicted Divya sits on the roof of her house - is it still even her house any more? - as her mother tries to talk her into participating in that most well designed of awkward situations, the first of many nights to be spent with someone you barely know. The archaic ceremony that had taken place earlier in the day, something she had been emotionally blackmailed into, had done nothing to change her apprehensions. Her mother repeating banal statements, the understanding of which is predicated on unquestioningly buying into tradition, just serves to aggravate her further. It is the purpose of youth to disrespect age and the bane of the aged to forget their youth.
It is here that Rathnam's writing stood out to me, demonstrating a considerable understanding of the inner workings of a joint family. Divya's sister-in-law (brother's wife), in all probability realising that the argument would hardly solve anything, asks to speak to her privately. The next scene has Divya facing Chandrakumar in a room. Implied is the fact that the sister-in-law succesfully talked Divya down off the roof. What exactly transpired between them is of no importance, because the average Tamil cinema viewer already knew the outcome. The genius in the writing is how this foregone conclusion is engineered. And who better to do it than a character who probably faced similar apprehensions not long enough ago to have forgotten them?
Old memories largely. But it comes on and off on TV. Surely don't have the patience to sit and watch it completely. I see parts on and off and yet to experience much change yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by app_engine
I almost always laugh out loud when she sings with a conscious expression "thalaikanamum enakku illai".
Inside joke ? :-)
The teary smile in kalaivANiyE and things of that sort I still feel unimpressed. I think it is also because I am not able to connect much to the character.
Mouna Raagam from Kubler-Ross perpective :bow:
en pangukku...
She is actually not that chirpy in the flashback. She is morose and sober and it is Manohar who is full of life. So perhaps by being chirpy was perhaps trying to live the life Manohar didn't. heh heh :P
All said, the rain-dance and sardarji taunts being overcompensation is a bit strained IMO. I just see them as commercial thrust-ins that didn't gel well with the characterization. The edges showed.
Completely agree that comedy could have been internally developed
VKR: kalyANam mudinjittA ? honeymoon-nu onnu irukkE
Mohan: union negotiation-nu onnu irukkE
VKR: unakkellAm evan yA poNNu kuduththAn :rotfl:
VKR: nee oru makku yA :lol:
mounarAgam - nice film with some irritations here & there. The worst one being the picturization of 'pani vizhum iravu':-( This was my most fav song when the album got released (nice vocal harmony and innovative orchestration at that time) and used to listen to in headphones in the night. (Recently a Boston radio found this to be worthy to air among many classics that fellow hubber irir123 recommended to them).
Never had a chance to see the movie during those days and was so irritated when I saw this atrocious picturization in a VCD full of songs. My opinion didn't change when I viewed the movie either. Should learn from malayALi directors on how to bring in such songs in a movie like this without irritability.
I'm not sure what came first nAyakan or MR. If nAyakan came later, then we can safely assume that Mani has improved by leaps and bounds by that time (on song picturizations).
Sindhu Bairavi was the best movie of that year and Suhasini and Sivakumar's acting were impeccable. Until then both had been only average in acting terms.
SB surely deserves to up there among one of the finest Tamil movies ever made although I understand that the subject matter may bring discomfort to many viewers.
I'd say Siva Kumar had his own style. He had always been average, and his average performance was useful here. Too bad his real life Mr. Nice Guy personality seeps into his performance, and he is not convincing when playing otherwise. But he did well in that Tanneer Totti song, or Thom, thom aveesam. As for Suhasini…I really can’t place her. Here, I see KB in her performance…you see that in all strong female portrayal of KB’s films 80s onwards. I felt Sulakshana’s portrayal as the naïve wife has been grossly underrated. Now, I am not joining the “revise, revive” bandwagon here…but her performance was really moving. But I agree SB should be up there as one of the finest…but in the context of 80s onwards. Subject matter discomfort-ah? Well, after KB’s incestuous temptation of Apoorva Raganggal and low-life inspection of Tappu Taalanggal…SB is nothing. Just about a snobbish carnatic musician whose arrogance is crumpled when he has extra marital affair. Ampudutheen.Quote:
Originally Posted by NOV
Its not just one film. Take his entire filmography, KB has got a phenomenal success rate in introducing new perception and stalwarts of female characters. Yes, its all old memories largely but I am sure its one after the other. Some Veteran Hubbers can dig further.
Bala, When you have just said KB's women and Maniyaans kids are irritating I really dont mind. I value your opinions. But How does that world becomes a better place? Worst scenario, TFI wouldnt have been better without KB & Mani to a lesser extent. You think KBR, BR, Visu's women and kids are that interesting?
Vivasayi, are you nilavu? :roll:
Mouna Raagam is a movie I have seen 36 times. Never a dull moment - the film was short and sweet. Just a mature man-woman relationship explorer from story stand point - but the characterizations were rather unique.
Divya - volumes can be written on how she was modelled after so many upper middle class rebels and how thousands of young women in Chennai wanted to be like her - Independant, sharp and humorous. They say films become cult classics/classics . In this case Divya's character and the way Revathi made it look so luminous on screen has made the character a cult classic. Its impact and the fact that it officially gave birth on screen to some of Sujatha novel heroines is a literary landmark - a watershed. For leading ladies before Divya would have been labelled 'arrogant soon to be tamed spoilt rich girls' in the script - bright bold and red.
This character then became Mani's stock character. His leading ladies more often than not become some version of Divya - save for manisha's characters in Bombay and DilSe this statement still holds true.
Though everyone loved the cameo by Karthik that kinda balanced Divya's character - the character that impressed me was Mohan's chandra and what a great casting decision to put mohan in there. There is an actor who is voice wise challenged, but well equippped otherwise to emote and visually express. Again this character is a U turn for the husbands tolerating wife character in thamizh cinema hitherto. The usual husband would have won the stalemate by a tight slap to his wife's cheek or some sort of forceful measure to show his 'aambalai thanam'. Here chandra does something so sensitive and so very middle class - where men are brought up to be sensitive to women and soon a generation of men would try to emulate mohan's character subconsciously.
And offcourse the champ - Manohar who went on to become another stock character in mani's movies from there.. the bold guy - who gives two hoots to society and norms . so Mouna ragam is a starting point for so many things and no wonder it was a starting point to Mani's different approach to his movie making career in Thamizh cinema.