Direction by Bharathiraja, screenplay by Mani Ratnam, Music by AR Rahman and Cinematography by Madhu Ambat- If this team can't win, then there is no winner!. But in spite of having a legendary team (ARR was not a legend then!) this movie sank so deep in the middle of the ocean. Now-a-days one can't even get a chance to see the songs in the TV channels.
Back in 1999, when the music was released there was so much expected from this film. But all these expectations were melt down as if an ice cube is kept inside a hot furnace.
Bharathiraja, a master in introducing new faces in Tamil cinema failed in introducing his own son, Manoj. There is nothing to blame Manoj, because the major culprit was the costume designer. Boots covering the ankles, jeans pant inserted into the boot, a rope in the waist, which was on top of the belt and then a shawl on the shoulders. Interesting combo, but a perfect misfit for a person in village. The heroine Riya Sen tries to sport a half-sari, but because of a budgeting constraints they restricted it to ¼ sari. Her dubbing was not even close to any village slang!. All these leads only to a cultural constipation!
The film doesn't mention any time-line, but I sense it should be pre-independence India, not sure. So we can't label whether its a period film or not!
Lighting was too artificial. Too much of light for a typical village. If its pre-independence India, then shouldn't be any artificial light in villages. Madhu Ambat gives an overdose of light.
I can't say whether the screenplay is choppy or the way in which it was shot was choppy, but I couldn't see any mark of Mani Ratnam in this film.
The face saver is music and editing by Pazani Vel (I took his name from the title!). As usual in Bharathiraja films there are several fast cuts. In this sequence, I guess this is cross-cutting. Check out the below video, start from 8:22. There is a small brief cross-cutting at 9:13, which is well executed,
Bharathiraja shouldn't been too zealous by giving the title “Ilampuyal” to his son in his first movie !
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