A Comfortable Kanden Kadhalai

With last minute changes to our initial plans of catching up KK on a night show we settled down for a late matinee (4:45 p.m) on Saturday in Edison. As it was the eleventh hr decision, we literally had to beat the traffic to reach the venue on time. Inspite of all V's earnest efforts we were delayed by 20 minutes. When we entered the theatre Tamanna was rendering the dialogue "Theni kaara ponnu naan ...seeviduven seevi" which by then was very familiar to all our ears - thanks to the Sun TV promos.

I do plan to fill in the missed scenes but from the original movie, Jab We Met. They have meticulously copied frame by frame from the Hindi version with a few positive additions in the Tamil tale that watching either one wouldn't make any difference but for the language. In the copy act nothing has been spared. Right from the costumes - though they are absolutely inappropriate to the heroine's native town, camera work - any pair of eyes used to the Polaroid zooms in Bollywood wouldn't have failed to notice this, lead characters mannerisms without any interference of Tamanna/Bharath's individualism, expressions which remind you of Kareena/Shahid in a lot of places, nothing is spared.

Tamanna has done a good job with her homework - she gracefully tries to match up Kareena's role in JWM though the latter stands out in her performance. She does manage to get on our nerves with a few incongruous grimaces and grins but for most part of the movie she is tolerable. She admittedly has scaled up to real acting from just being a mere wax goddess pleasing her fans in a couple of duets in appealing costumes.

Bharath on the other hand has played it subtle which doesn’t pass muster. From the genre of movies he has done when establishing himself in the industry, the image I can best think of for Bharath is a proletariat handyman-next-door which he does with ease. The sophisticated, classy, cynical cultured chocolate boy representation is not what would suit Bharath to a T. Ineptly he has played the role of a high class business man where it is difficult to avoid seeing Shahid's face every time Bharath comes on screen especially in the second half.

The artist who has stolen the show beyond words is the often professional Santhanam. These days’ directors are obviously banking more on the comedians than their lead stars to help them save their deposit and this movie is no exception. Santhanam's efforts are paid very well. Evidently it is Santhanam and Tamanna who are outstanding and Bharath is immaterial.

When remaking a movie from a different language, it would be highly appreciated if the directors could take into the consideration the cultural differences we share. In the north where they are more inclined towards adapting the western culture, married lady eloping with another man and still maintaining the maternal relationship with her kids might be perfectly acceptable but to us it is gravely improper. Bharath stays depressed for a major part of the movie and the reason for his depression is his mom's extra marital affair and second marriage. They could have simply bypassed this event or corrected mid-course as the mother-son's plot was least significant in the movie, needless to say added no value.

Songs are barely all right with 2 numbers giving you a little sense of satisfaction. There were 2 of them soon after the intermission playing back to back which tested the patience of a lot of audience who chose to extend their break by walking out of the theatre. To me it was a great relief as it played a key role in retaining my toddler in his seat who was pretty restless by then. The solo song for Bharath looked to me like a deliberate inclusion to show off the star's dancing capabilities other than which there is nothing in the movie to showcase the stars worth.

A decent entertainer in a long while now when people have almost given up hopes expecting an A-Ok light subject and resorted to their precious DVD collection of evergreen favorites - a true light at the end of the tunnel.

One thing for sure is K.N. Maran is one hell of a business man. I can see that he keeps buying these off beat movies which are not that great (though this doesn’t fall under this category), and then advertises the hell out of it in his channel and makes more people watch it (read more revenue). After seeing the 50 million ads with the best clippings smartly edited so many times in a day, anyone would be easily convinced that they have to watch the movie at least once. Kanden Kadhalai is definitely worth watching at least once and not a let down unlike the earlier disasters:)!