Minsara Kanavu (*ing Kajol not-yet-Devgn, Prabhudheva)
Dec 5, 2013 15:16:46 GMT
dancelover and bangaram like this
Post by odadune on Dec 5, 2013 15:16:46 GMT
(also starring Arvind Swamy.)
This Tamil language film was the directoral debut of Rajiv Menon, who went on to do Kandukondain. The story involves Thomas (Arvind) who's just back from his studies in the US, and in the course of visiting his aunt, a nun who's the headmistress at a Catholic girls' school, he meets and falls for one of her charges, Priya (Kajol). The catch is that Priya believes that she has a religious vocation, and wants to become a nun herself, over the objections of her father. Daddy drags her through a montage of suitor meet and greets, with one of the high points being a very young, very funny and rather dashing Prakash Raj as the son of a mobster. Arvind, meanwhile mopes around humorously until he sees a hairdresser named Deva (Prabhudheva), successfully talk a suicidal bride down off the ledge (literally) after she's been jilted at the altar. Deva claims to understand women inside and out, having been around them so much in the course of his work. Thomas wants him to get Priya to change her mind about the religious vocation thing, and do a spot of surrogate wooing. Deva initially refuses, but relents after he sees Priya. Needless to say, he ends up falling for Priya, and she for him, and then things get complicated.
The early stages of the movie are pleasant but slow, not really kicking into gear until Prabhudheva shows up about 30-40 minutes in. And the less time you spend thinking about the age gap between Priya and the men, the happier you'll be: Thomas meets her when he's a college graduate and she seems to be in her last semester of what my country would call high school, although I don't recall that he really tries to woo her until she graduates. The male characters are somewhat vaguely written. For instance, we're suddenly told, about halfway through the movie, that Thomas is actually pretty compassionate to the poor, even though he had previously come off likable but pretty self-centered. This is a hint towards the ultimate resolution of the love triangle, but there isn't anything leading up to it in the earlier part of the story. The idea is maybe that Priya and her concern for the poor has rubbed off on him, but it's not really spelled out. The implication that Deva is a pretty cynical guy who becomes less so as he falls under Priya's spell is also there, but the writing and the directing do not really connect the dots for the viewer-it's the actor's performance that makes it work. Another problem with the film is the way it comes very abruptly to a crisis in the last thirty minutes or so and resolves it just as abruptly, although the actual scene showing how the three characters' lives panned out is absolutely delightful, IMO.
Priya, by contrast, is a pretty well-thought-out character: her desire to become a nun comes from a combination of idealism and a distrust of marriage, and her mentor the head mistress/Mother Superior urges her to think things through and take some time to experience life as a young adult. Kajol's take on the character is a bit similar to her performance in Yeh Dillagi: a young woman with this ferocious energy, determined to attack life head-on and anyone who says she can't follow her dreams.
The men are equally good, with Arvind keeping Thomas sympathetic inspite of his failings, and Prabhudheva being exactly what you would expect him to be based on his cameos in the movies he directed later: impish and hyperactive, with mannerisms that are somehow foppish but virile. Basically it's a very fun bunch of characters to hang out with for a couple of hours, with a lot of nice humorous little bits, and the songs by A. R. Rahman are mostly pretty good. The picturizations don't really get interesting until Prabhudheva enters the picture (he choreographed the dance numbers), but the ones that work are really cool; I will try to post links later on.
This is a difficult movie to get a hold of; I bought the Ayngaran dvd a number of years back from the now-defunct anytamil.com. Amazon US has a few copies of the Hindi dub, Sapnay, and myindiashopping claims to have it as well (along with a probably unsubbed 3-in-1 of Tamil movies that includes Minsara Kanavu). I've only seen bits of the Sapnay version; it suffers from issues with getting the dialogue to match the lip movements, and kind of awkward lyrics, and it reputedly omits a brief ending montage showing what happened to the minor characters, and I don't believe Kajol dubbed for herself. But the movie's a good enough vehicle for her and Prabhudheva to where it might be worth seeing even in that state, if you like the actors. (MK also might or might not be floating illegally around youtube at any given time.)
This Tamil language film was the directoral debut of Rajiv Menon, who went on to do Kandukondain. The story involves Thomas (Arvind) who's just back from his studies in the US, and in the course of visiting his aunt, a nun who's the headmistress at a Catholic girls' school, he meets and falls for one of her charges, Priya (Kajol). The catch is that Priya believes that she has a religious vocation, and wants to become a nun herself, over the objections of her father. Daddy drags her through a montage of suitor meet and greets, with one of the high points being a very young, very funny and rather dashing Prakash Raj as the son of a mobster. Arvind, meanwhile mopes around humorously until he sees a hairdresser named Deva (Prabhudheva), successfully talk a suicidal bride down off the ledge (literally) after she's been jilted at the altar. Deva claims to understand women inside and out, having been around them so much in the course of his work. Thomas wants him to get Priya to change her mind about the religious vocation thing, and do a spot of surrogate wooing. Deva initially refuses, but relents after he sees Priya. Needless to say, he ends up falling for Priya, and she for him, and then things get complicated.
The early stages of the movie are pleasant but slow, not really kicking into gear until Prabhudheva shows up about 30-40 minutes in. And the less time you spend thinking about the age gap between Priya and the men, the happier you'll be: Thomas meets her when he's a college graduate and she seems to be in her last semester of what my country would call high school, although I don't recall that he really tries to woo her until she graduates. The male characters are somewhat vaguely written. For instance, we're suddenly told, about halfway through the movie, that Thomas is actually pretty compassionate to the poor, even though he had previously come off likable but pretty self-centered. This is a hint towards the ultimate resolution of the love triangle, but there isn't anything leading up to it in the earlier part of the story. The idea is maybe that Priya and her concern for the poor has rubbed off on him, but it's not really spelled out. The implication that Deva is a pretty cynical guy who becomes less so as he falls under Priya's spell is also there, but the writing and the directing do not really connect the dots for the viewer-it's the actor's performance that makes it work. Another problem with the film is the way it comes very abruptly to a crisis in the last thirty minutes or so and resolves it just as abruptly, although the actual scene showing how the three characters' lives panned out is absolutely delightful, IMO.
Priya, by contrast, is a pretty well-thought-out character: her desire to become a nun comes from a combination of idealism and a distrust of marriage, and her mentor the head mistress/Mother Superior urges her to think things through and take some time to experience life as a young adult. Kajol's take on the character is a bit similar to her performance in Yeh Dillagi: a young woman with this ferocious energy, determined to attack life head-on and anyone who says she can't follow her dreams.
The men are equally good, with Arvind keeping Thomas sympathetic inspite of his failings, and Prabhudheva being exactly what you would expect him to be based on his cameos in the movies he directed later: impish and hyperactive, with mannerisms that are somehow foppish but virile. Basically it's a very fun bunch of characters to hang out with for a couple of hours, with a lot of nice humorous little bits, and the songs by A. R. Rahman are mostly pretty good. The picturizations don't really get interesting until Prabhudheva enters the picture (he choreographed the dance numbers), but the ones that work are really cool; I will try to post links later on.
This is a difficult movie to get a hold of; I bought the Ayngaran dvd a number of years back from the now-defunct anytamil.com. Amazon US has a few copies of the Hindi dub, Sapnay, and myindiashopping claims to have it as well (along with a probably unsubbed 3-in-1 of Tamil movies that includes Minsara Kanavu). I've only seen bits of the Sapnay version; it suffers from issues with getting the dialogue to match the lip movements, and kind of awkward lyrics, and it reputedly omits a brief ending montage showing what happened to the minor characters, and I don't believe Kajol dubbed for herself. But the movie's a good enough vehicle for her and Prabhudheva to where it might be worth seeing even in that state, if you like the actors. (MK also might or might not be floating illegally around youtube at any given time.)