Films of Mani Ratnam

[equanimus]

I'd extend this criticism beyond just the ending. The film is too melodramatic to effectively handle the sheer drama of the original material. Surya and Kalyani (btw, just a thought here, is Mani Ratnam referencing parAsakthi?) hug and cry their hearts out! It's all as if the separation didn't engender an irreparable loss (except the passage of some 30-odd years) which is in many ways central to the Karna-Kunti relationship.

Even early on, the way the film shows Surya and Deva becoming friends is somewhat tacky. It's not the economy I'm objecting to. Bala (who clearly had thaLapathi in mind when making some of his films if not all!) employed more or less the same sort of economy in nandhA, but the growing intimacy between the two is not portrayed with abrupt in-your-face gestures as in thaLapathi.