Film review: Raman
Thediya Seethai (Tamil)
A success among tasteful Tamil audiences
Hunting for girls is nothing new in Tamil cinema but how this movie
handles the emotional aspect of finding a life partner is brought out on
screen interestingly with a considerate screenplay
Ever since his debut as a hero in the movie 'Autograph', Director
Cheran has been proving his mettle in off-beat movies. Raman Thediya
Seethai (Sita, that Ram was in the look for) bearing the title of a
classic movie in which the yesteryear actor M. G. Ramachandran starred
in one such memorable off-beat flicks.
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A scene
from Raman Thediya Seethai |
Giving prominence to his leading lady actresses and other co-stars,
Cheran has carried out his role with ease. The debutant director K. P.
Jegannaath, earlier an assistant to Cheran shows some shades of his
ex-boss in direction and has satisfactorily handled a challenging plot.
The movie keeps its pace and focuses on the plot and gives plenty of
room for the actors to perform. Some actors have cleverly made use of
the opportunity while the others could have done a little better.
Cheran is the protagonist or the Raman as per the title but the
actors who really steal the show are Pasupathi and Nithin Sathya. The
story revolving around Cheran is the main plot and with the journey of
the protagonist, the movie takes the audience through two other
thought-provoking stories nicely scripted and merged with the main plot.
The title reminds the epic Ramayanam because the protagonist in the
movie who is a successful businessman and an eligible bachelor is in the
look for a wife to make his life complete. His first proposal fails as
he honestly reveals his bitter past to the girl.
He reveals his psychiatric treatment during his teenage due to
strenuous studying and during the conversation with her, he stammers to
express himself.
Vimala Raman who plays the role of the girl denies confused and this
makes Venu look for the second proposal where the girl accepts him. But
to see the marriage stops halfway through and following this the
director brings in series of twists and turns arousing curiosity. The
totally heart-broken Cheran is cheered up by a visually challenged radio
jockey who teaches him a lesson by narrating his past.
Pasupathy plays the radio jockey and he excels in his character with
his touching performance. He has carefully studied the mannerisms of the
visually challenged and portrayed it with absolute perfection. Inclusion
of Pasupathy's character also sends out some message to the audience on
self-confidence and that physical challenges end with the body and that
they are not barriers to finding a soul mate.
The motivated Cheran continues on the hunt for the next girls and
there he meets a trishaw driver who has already fallen for that girl.
The second-story woven around the trishaw driver played by Nithin Sathya
who was earlier a crook in the story and his lady love Karthika is very
interesting but their story vanishes abruptly into the main plot. The
director could have extended their part or drawn an interesting
conclusion to their story.
Hunting for girls is nothing new in Tamil cinema but how this movie
handles the emotional aspect of finding a life partner is brought out on
screen interestingly with a considerate screenplay. In most of the Tamil
movies today, the male leads are the central point of talk and the story
is written with importance to them and sometimes the male leads occupy
the complete screen space donning all the possible characters in the
story. It has become a fashion for an actor to do multiple roles after
the victory of Dasavatharam. In 'Raman Thediya Seethai' the story is the
king and therefore all the actors have been given equal chance to
showcase their talent. Rarely do we see movies with carefully carved
characters, ambience and surroundings but in this movie the director has
tactfully handled it.
The clear characterisation has churned out the expressions in essence
with the story and its mood. Cheran's past in the movie creates a bit of
sympathy for him which gives the strength to carry out the rest of the
story.
Cheran in this movie is in the business of printing wedding
invitation cards and even the tiny elements like this have been chosen
to match the plot. Most of the movies do not focus on the
characterisation of the female leads at all, whereas in his movie with
four heroines, the females leads have been characterised distinctively.
Vimala Raman is the love interest of Cheran who works in a hospital
as a receptionist and leads a simple middle class family. She shines at
the end of the movie where she conveys her love to Cheran. Ramya
Nambeesan plays the role of a deprived woman who is facing the
consequences of a hasty marriage with an uncivilised man.
Even though this is her first movie in Tamil, it doesn't look it, she
was wisely used up the opportunity exhibiting her best for the character
she has been assigned. Ghajala was portrayed like a baby doll in her
previous movies and in this movie she plays a mature character and
excels in it too. The young actress Karthika has also proven herself in
the very early stages of her career.
Music scored by Vidyasagar is awesome and some of the melodies like 'mazhai
nindra pothu' and 'ippave ippave' are sweet to hear and are memorable.
Good songs will not be recognised if they aren't pictured properly; the
cameraman does his role by creatively synchronising the shots with the
songs. Tamil audiences have started recognising sans 'masala' movies in
the recent past and therefore 'Raman Thediya Seethai' has a chance of
making it a success among tasteful Tamil audiences around the world.
Producers nodding their heads to innovative ideas are bringing in
healthy and fresh talent to the industry which is clearly visible in the
outcome of this movie.
Karthiga Rukmanykanthan |