Film review

Chandramukhi: Highly entertaining film on split personality
 

by Karthiga Rukmanykanthan

The long awaited mega film of the year Chandramukhi has captivated audiences around the world with its grandeur. It is also a treat to the fans of Super Star Rajnikanth following the flop of his previous film Baba.

The film contains most of the opulent actors of the Tamil film industry and is a typical entertaining Masala film The historical figure Chandramukhi has been made the base of the plot.

Chandramukhi is the remake of the Malayalam film Manichithrathal. The film deals with the theme of split personality and this has been brilliantly portrayed by Jyothika in the last bits of the film.

The film compares the psychology of split personality to spiritual belief involved in it and concludes with an unbiased solution. Genre is more to the thriller but to make it more entertaining comedy and drama have been incorporated.

Saravanan played by Rajnikanth is a psychiatrist who returns from the US to visit his friend in India. His friend Prabu, a civil engineer, is married to Ganga played by Jyothika in Chennai. Prabu plans to buy an old bungalow to live together with his family.

This was the bungalow where the gorgeous dancer 'Chandramukhi' was put in a house-arrest by a king. The family is restricted to use some parts of the bungalow due to the rumour that the spirit of the late Chandramukhi still exists in those areas.

The family is also told by a priest about the story of Chandramukhi. The king who was impressed by this beautiful dancer builds this bungalow for her. He orders that she should dance only in front of him and plans to marry her. Chandramukhi falls in love with her neighbour who is also a dancer. The jealous king kills both of them.

Due to the ruthless murder of Chandrmukhi, a belief exists in the public for more than 150 years saying that her spirit is roaming around that part of the bungalow in the motive of killing the king for the injustice. Jyothika who was curious to see what was inside that part of the bungalow breaks the lock and gets into see Chndramukhi's room.

In the meantime, the family arranges a marriage to Malayvika with Vinneth, a famous dance teacher. Someone attempts to kill some of the family members several times but fails. The blame is put on Nayantara, the music teacher whom Rajinkanth is in love with. Rajnikanth investigates this matter and finds out the person behind these causes.

To everybody's surprise it is Jyothika who attempts to kill her own husband Prabu. Jyothika who is psychologically affected ever since her parents' death lives with her grandmother. To console, her grandmother narrates her stories from legends. Jyothika acts out the characters in those stories and eventually lives that character.

She gets influenced by Chandramukhi's story which provoke her to break the lock of the room. She gets fascinated by the dancer and changes herself and lives the character of Chandramukhi unconsciously. She falls in love with Vinneth, a dancer, like Chandramukhi and to stop his marriage with Malavika, she attempts to kill her.

The rest of the film deals with how Rajnikanth risks his life to rescue his friend's wife.The flexibility of the plot allows the inclusion of substance, such as comedy and drama and it also has many twists and turns to aggravate curiosity.

An entertaining film is something which shines in all aspects such a cast, music, choreography, cinematography, stunt and story. The film contains fully formed and experienced actors out of which the importance is more to Rajnikanth and Jyothika.

Rajnikanth's performance is far better comparing to his previous film Baba. he has given some extraordinary performances which reminds of Padaiappa. his get-up like a king, the villainous expressions to the song "Ra Ra" and his stylish walks reminds the Rajnikanth of 70s.

Jyothika is well-known for her exaggerated performances in films like Kushi. The Chandramukhi role requires some inflated expressions for some striking scenes. The only actress who could perform this role with ease is Jyothika. She sacred away the audience with her eyes.

She has also become a proven dancer with the success of this film. This film is again a huge break for Jyothika as she has given such a marvellous performance with some aggressive enactments.

Vadivelu, the comedian in demand these days is hilarious and makes some uproarious comedy scenes together with Rajnikanth.

Vidyasagar has given in some of his best collections of tunes to this film. The highlight of the film is the "Ra Ra" song. This mind-blowing song is ideal for Bharatha Natyam and so the choreography has turned out spectacularly. To enhance the artistic work to the song Thotta Tharani has given a suitable setting.

It is the cinematographer who brings out these artistic innovations. The Cameraman Sekhar Joseph has beautifully captured this song and brought out a neat work with some additional special effects from the editor Suresh Urs. There is nothing new in the story as it is more of a fiction but still the long anticipated delight Chandramukhi has made itself the box-office hit of the year.

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