Thoughts: (In the baritone voice of Amitabh Bachan) Boy meets girl, sparks fly, songs (la la la…..ooh la la…..), run around trees, dance in foreign locales, enter the villain, nahin naheeeennn……., sad-slow song, dishum dishum, repeat happy song, they live happily ever after. Won’t the Bollywood/Tollywood/”whatever”woods stop spewing out these types of movies and their ‘n’ number of variants?
Setting: It is Puja holidays, circa 2002. Camera zooms in to a sleepy corner of Kerala, the protagonist Mr.Nathan and his sister are seen casting their vote to decide on how to escape the boredom of spending a possibly rainy day without books. The 3 Best ones win. Ah, there you see a voting machine, camera pans to the counting day/hour. The unanimous verdict (Indian Parliament could take a leaf from this) is on Mitr: My Friend. Reporters covering the scene say (a la CNN) the verdict was influenced by IFFI. Vive’ la democracie !!!!! (or is it demo crazy)
Fast cut to the Zero Hour – The film is beginning, credits have started rolling in:-
Character : Stars
Lakshmi: Shobana, National Award Winning Actress
Prithvi, Lakshmi’s husband & Silicon Valley Technocrat: Nasir Abdullah, Delhi-based model. (Don’t forget to read his experiences at https://mitr-myfriend.com - it is hilarious)
Divya, the daughter: Preethi Vissa
Steve, the friendly neighbour and hacker: Mathew Phillips
Paul, Steve’s brother: Blake Ormsby
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Direction: Asha Menon a.k.a Revathy, an actress par excellence herself is donning the garbs of the director
Cinematography: Fowzia
Story: Priya V
Screenplay: Sudha Kongara
Music: Bhavatharini Ilayaraja, daughter of Maestro Ilayaraja
Lyrics:Ehsaas(Gulzar), Kuzhaloodhi (Subba Iyer), Give me hugs (Satish), Thom Tana (P K Mishra)
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The Plot:
The story depicts the plight of an Indian woman caught in an alien culture. Lakshmi, the protagonist even after 18 years of her life in America finds herself out of sync with the culture of her new home. She is at a total loss when her daughter wants to move out of their home and why she wants to work instead of going to college. Like Devi describes her, she is absolutely “clueless”. Prithvi doesn’t help the situation either. The story moves at its pace and the protagonists discover that communication and friendship are the pillars of any relationship.
The Music:
Maestro Ilayaraja’s daughter Bhavatharini makes her debut with music direction in this movie. The music is in perfect harmony with the development of the story.
The movie starts with melodious Kuzhaloodhi….. performed by Bombay Jayashree (of Vaseegara…. fame from Minnale). The drum beats by Suresh Peters when the scene shifts from rustic Chidambaram to cosmopolitan ‘Frisco is delightfully executed flawlessly in harmony with the story.
Ehsaas by Hariharan is just fabulous. Gulzar’s keeps you enchanted with the verse.
Vasundhara “Shakalakka” Das is back with another one with Thom Thana
Give me hugs pleasantly sums up the message the movie tries to convey as the final credits roll in.
Highlights:
The refreshing change is the theme of the movie itself – about relationships. It nudges the viewer to think about how s/he has been taking for granted certain relationships in his/her own life.
The casting is superb. Sobhana excels herself in her role, Nasir & Debutant Preeti do a wonderful job. Blake Ormsby as Paul lends lot of light moments – right from his first scene and the “Stevie Stevie Stevie…..”.
Cinematography by Fowzia is fantastic – be it the rural Chidambaram, TN, India or Frisco, CA, USA. The shots at Pier 39 and the Lake Elizabeth are just breathtaking.
Impressions:
The film is a goody-goody one with a strong message to deliver. Watch it for the message, no drama here. Revathy takes her sweet time telling the story.
P.S.:- And it literally rained cats, dogs and elephants - Oops !!!! Improvisation, can’t help it :) - here that day.
P.P.S.:- The other two ones that won the vote were – RGV’s “Road” (I won’t waste time reviewing this one – read just-did-it’s or saaz_ar’s – they hv done a good job with that) and a cute lil’ Malayalam movie – “Mekha Malhar”.(This review is on the assembly line)