Kannathil Muthamittal Review (2002)

Watching The Opening Shot of the “Oru Theivam Thanda Poove” Female Version in Kannathil Muthamittal showed to me that Mani Ratnam is honestly the second person to have utmost control over the medium, only after Godard. No other imagery could so very well describe the state of mind of Amudha, played so innocently and sweetly by PS Keerthana, rivalling the child actor playing Kajol in Apur Sansar, who has recently learnt that she is an adopted kid.

Just before the song starts, she has a conversation with her mother Indira about her adoption and even there we get this brilliant staging where Indira is feeding Amudha while sitting on the Oonjal and as the Oonjal is moving, the camera gives us an Oonjal moving shot where the movement of the Oonjal reflects the turmoils of Amudha’s mind.

Or the scene where this primary revelation of her adoption takes place. At the beach during her 9th birthday, her father Thiruchelvan, sitting on the sand surrounded by the running Amudha who is shown in a 360 degree camera movement, reveals to her this crucial information, Amudha first disregards it as callous warning about being a good girl, but then the image, not Amudha, slows down into slow motion as her father explains it clearly. The slowing of the image is Mani Ratnam himself trying to enforce Amudha into understanding the gravity of the situation.

Or the Brilliantly poignant opening sequence before the title card wherein we see a young Shyama getting married and having the most poignant moment of her life when the infiltration of the Army makes her husband attack them. Till then, we never see Shyama individually. She is always surrounded by her people or her husband but the shot we see after the infiltration of the Army is Shyama running away from the war, her husband maybe her life. So we understand when Shyama leaves as to why she leaves her new born baby.

The political conflict of the Sri Lankan crisis mixed with the innocence of a 9 year old kid is absolutely a brilliant way to look at this humanitarian issue, When, towards the last 30 mins, the Army attacks the place where Amudha is about to meet her real mother who hasn’t come, she just yells to her parents telling them to tell the Army to go away and to just bring her mother heightens the innocent eyes of the kid who knows nothing about the issue. Or in the climax when her mother tells her to comeback when the war is over and Amudha asks “Yepo, ma”….

The opening portions of KM has a Scorsese style approach, which is most explicitly visible in the “Sundari” song. Compare that to the montage of murder where Nicky is questioned (which is available in YT under the title “Nicky’s Takeover”) and the explicit influence is seen. Or even in the 4th wall break intro of Amudha might quite possibly be, according to me, one of the earliest uses of the technique in Tamil Cinema (100% Iam wrong, if you know please DM me the first film in Tamil Cinema to break the 4th wall).

Just before the interval, we see Amudha run away to Rameshwaram to find her mother and we see this brilliant shot of Thiru and Indira seeing Amudha through the window standing alone at the sea. We then cut to an extreme wide showing Amudha where Thiru and Indira enter the frame from the right and get down and talk to Amudha about finding her mother.

As they enter the frame, Amudha is in the left, Indira in the middle and Thiru in the right. We see them talk about finding her mother and when Thiru finally agrees to take her to him, the shot cuts and now Thiru and Amudha are together with Indira on the side. This here represents the subplot of KM which primarily seems to deal with story of Amudha coming to terms with her Adoption.

But even previously when we see her runaway to a railway station, we see Indira finding her first in a long shot and we then cut to a close up of Amudha and when she looks back Thiru comes in the middle and Amudha goes and hugs Thiru wherein we see the distance growing between Amudha and Indira, the interval block solidifies this.

We constantly see Amudha’s childishness when we see how she complains to Thiru about Indira hating when it is she who constantly irritates Indira. For the majority of the second half we see Amudha lying on Thiru’s shoulder but in the climax we see her finally with Indira, on her shoulder kissing her.

Mani Ratnam’s films constantly are talked about for their music, and even here, just with 3 songs, the man redefines the usage of songs. I have already talked of the song Sundari

The next 2 songs are basically 2 versions of the same song: Ooru Theivam Thanda poove.

The first time is the female version with Amudha and Indira and this is filled with wide shots wherein Indira and Amudha are together and alone at different times.

The 2nd time is the male version where we see Amudha and Thiru together and this time the shots are more personal, close and emotional.

Watching Kannathil Muthamittal after the PS duology just shows you the range of Mani Ratnam...