I set out to watch Onpathu rupai notu to kill the saturday evening and seek some pleasantness.The review in Hindu was very deceptive. It didn’t turn out to be soothing afterall .
I was a little late but just in time for the final tag " Kadai Thiraikdai IyakkamThankar Bachan"
You find a dark guy(the one who acted in Azhagi as Parthiban’s young teenage version) requesting his superior for a two day off after a hard day’s work and boarding the bus to Kurinjipadi, leaving home for his father’s death anniversary and hearing a commotion - an old manky man begging the conductor to offer him a seat in the bus. Enter Sathyaraj. they are known to each other afterall, so the guys offers him a seat and a conversation of reminiscence ensues.
The whole movie is about the life of the good samaritan of the Village Madhavar Padaiyachi who along with his wife(Archana) nurture and bring up their Children only to be abused and isolated by them in their old age. Couple friends to the couple Nasser and Rohini come to their rescue, and Thankar being a sucker for poignance ends the movie on a note of sorrow .
Its just a visual rep of a melodramatic novel on screen with too much pathos and poignancy .You get to see a lot of quarrel between the elderly couple and the in laws and the occasional hysteria of archana screaming away "murugaaa." after such encounters.
Really.tests your ears. Thankfully she dies sometime later. But unfortunately u have a crowd mourning her death with mass hysteria, and you wish you were dead too.
Satyaraj essays the role with ease. So does Archana, Nasser and Rohini.Needless to comment.
A choiciest selection of cast, fine performance and a proficient direction.The depiction of life and living of the rural folklore is at its best.
But still I had to take an aspirin for my headache had increased twicefold and the "murugaaaa." screams kept coming back throughout the night.
PS: yet to findout what the title means to the movie