Movie: Thavamai Thavamirunthu

Cheran, a rarest talent in Tamil filmdom registered his innate ability in his debut movie Barathi Kannamma with a novel story line and stunning climax. He has panache for good cinema which enriched the experience on celluloid with his movies like Porkalam, Vetrikodikattu and Pandavar Poomi. He touched the new altitudes in Indian cinema with his remarkable and national award winning Autograph.

Cheran one of the handful of movie makers who has the guts to make the uncompromised artistic cinema even in the era of the stereotyped or formula based movies reigning the film world. His niche for quality cinema keeps rolling and he comes out with flying colours in his latest venture Thavamai Thavamirunthu which is heartwarming from start to end.

The Tamil cinema normally restricted itself to focus on mother son relationship alone, but Cheran picked the unexplored territory of bondage between father and son and Thavamai Thavamirunthu serves the glowing tribute to fatherhood. The movie is the poetry in celluloid with appealing story line, skillful screenplay and appropriate characterization with well rooted nativity.

The plot sets in Tamil village milieu with the location, sets, makeup and the other production related stuff perfectly sync in with the story telling. The limelight is on the lower middle income family which struggles for their very own livelihood. Cheran adopted his Autograph magic to go into memory lane and unfold the nostalgic feelings to drive home the message effectively.

The story is all about Muthiah (Rajkiran) and Saratha (Saranya) and their two sons Ramanathan (Senthil) and Ramalingam (Cheran). Muthiah owns a printing press is running pillar to post, taking loans and pledging his belongings to give his wards the best education though he is uneducated. The problem created in the family with his erring elder son and his sulking daughter in law (Meena) starts quarreling. Ramalingam (Cheran) added fuel to the fire by committing a serious blunder and eloped with his lover (Padmapriya). The happenings aftermath forms the rest of the movie.

The rural language and accent of the characters are perfect as the story is happening in the village near Karaikudi and kudos to Cheran as he intelligently avoided any caste names being used or suffixed to the character names in the movie belonging to the region which is very common in Tamil movies. The happy family celebrating the Pongal in their native village even after they moved to bigger city is pleasurable.

Rajkiran, vastly underrated actor, lived in the role of Muthiah. He dominates the whole show with his hallmark performance and etched out an impression that as if the role is played by thespian Nadikar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan. Saranya, a gifted actress, has the life time performance in this film. Cheran besides many responsibilities on his sleeve blends into the character with consummate élan and ease. Padmapriya has the outstanding debut with Senthil and Meena made their presence felt.
The movie is criticized for its length but the movie has the depth to touch the heart and takes close you to the brink of tear. With this movie Cheran joins the elite club of greatest Tamil movie makers and this film is on par with Barathiraja’s 16 Vayathinile, Maheindaran’s oothri pookal, Balumahedra’s Veedu and Thankar’s Azhaki.

Thavamai Thavamirunthu is brave attempt and it catapulted Cheran to the pinnacle of fame.