A glossy gift-wrapper doesn't always guarantee a worthwhile
gift. So's the case with Kaadhalar Dhinam, where
high-tech, foot-tapping music, gorgeous locales and beautiful
cinematography can't make up for what is basically a love
story with not much heart. With its grand scale, lavish song
sequences and feeble romance, the movie it most reminded me of
was Monisha En Monalisa and
that is not a good comparison for any movie.
Ramachandra College in Bombay is the No. 1 in the country for
management studies. Raja(Kunal), a poor boy from Tamil Nadu, gains
admission there with help from the college chairman, Ramachandra
(Nasser). He meets Roja(Sonali Bendre) in one of the chatrooms on
the internet and love blossoms. After they meet, a series of
accidents prevents them from voicing their feelings for each other.
And when Raja finally decides to tell Roja of his love, he learns
that she is the daughter of Ramachandra. Ramachandra wants a rich
lifestyle for his daughter and Raja, who owes everything to
Ramachandra, decides to sacrifice his love.
The initial portions are charming with Raja and Roja chatting
without knowing that they are on different floors of the same
cybercafe. Considering what happens after they meet, you almost
wish the director had spent more time developing this cyberlove
further(like Kaadhal Kavidhai
where the lovers don't meet for a majority of the movie).
But the movie takes a downhill slide once they actually
meet. The events that prevent them from confessing their love to
each other are contrived and make the actions of the hero and
heroine seem blatantly stupid(She lets his letter fly off without
noticing it and when she writes him a letter in his notebook, he
writes his address on the back of the same page, tears it off and
gives it to his friend!).
There are a couple of nice touches like the sparks from the
electric wires above the train when the hero and heroine
touch each other but these are few and far apart. The flashbacks
of both Nasser and Kunal are too serious and seem jarringly
out-of-place in an otherwise light romance.
The so-called comedy is unnecessary, irritating and worst of all,
absurd. We have Koundamani, a professor in the No. 1 management
college in the country, who doesn't know what a monitor or a
mouse is and shares cigarettes with his students! And Chinni
Jayanth, who looks ridiculously old, is supposed to be the hero's
classmate! What is it about the college atmosphere that brings out
the absolute worst in comedy in tamil films? I for one, yearned
for the crude but funny comedy of
Oruvan.
Kunal is a total misfit for the role. He doesn't look like a poor
boy from a TN village, can't act or dance and looks more like
Sonali's younger brother. Sonali looks pretty but there's
absolutely no chemistry between her and Kunal. We never become
involved with the characters and never start to care about them and
that is not a good thing in a love story. Nasser does what he can
with the sad role of a college chairman who spends most of his time
helping one of the students' love affair!
Photography by P.C.Sriram is outstanding but he doesn't have a lot
of work other than in the song sequences. Rehman comes up with
a winner in O Maria(Rambha appears in this single song
sequence following the tradition of Roja in
Nenjinile and
Kaadhal Kavidhai and Simran in
Edhirum Pudhirum and
Andhappuram .)
but all other songs remind you of an old song at one point or
the other.
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