For Non-Tamil speakers, the title of this blog post is of a famous Tamil movie which means, crescent moon. The moon , on the third day after New moon stays only for a brief period of time (about 30 min) and seeable only in the evening . Hence, very few people see the moon during that day.
The character of the protagonist is akin to that of the Moondram Pirai : a rare occurence, a saint to the commons. Kamal Hassan portrays the role of a school teacher who rescues a young girl with amnesia from the house of a prostitute , out of sheer kindness. He takes care of her , treats her in a respectable manner and slowly falls in love with her. He takes the girl to a famous ayurvedic to treat her amnesia illness. Once she recovers ,she forgets all about her stay with him and leaves him. The final scene is right out of an English poetry scene. Kamal Hassan runs towards Sridevi while she mistakes him for a beggar and tries to help him by throwing a food packet.
The acting by Kamal Hassan and Sridevi was so profound that I cried for an hour after the first time I saw the movie. I watched this movie at a young impressionable age, say 10 years and I remember thinking about the young , chaste and caring character that the hero portrayed. I must have watched the film at least 20 times and I fall in love with the character every single time. Sridevi looks at him with innocent eyes at the prostitute place and his first thoughts are about rescuing her!
Cinematography by the late Balu Mahendra was so natural and lifelike.Though it was a story which on surface seemed like it was ripped off from a throat-grabbing pulp paperback (Amnesia! Extramarital lust! Rape attempt!Thwarted love!), the resulting film would not have been recognised by someone who just knew the story outline. So subtle was his handling of the screenplay.The song 'Kanne Kalaimaane' brings a tear to anyone who can understand its lyrics. Its about love that is so pure in its expression that life itself seems like a facade.
Very rarely do we see characters such as these in present day films. Maybe its time, we take a leaf out of timeless classics such as these to bring more creative and thoughtful expressions in Indian Cinema .
No comments:
Post a Comment