Coming Soon - Thavamaai Thavamirundhu

Any new movie of Cheran is cause for celebration for lovers of quality Tamil cinema. All his movies so far have been well-intentioned, clean films that touched us at some level, either through the message they conveyed or through the emotions they explored. He is one of the few directors who has understood the power of the visual medium. Like KB before him, he understands that a picture (i.e. a scene) is worth a 1000 words and conveys emotions visually than through dialogs or action. He possesses great imagination and creativity and his directorial touches are proof of that.

His first few movies were downbeat affairs. They took up heavy topics like caste, physical disability and corruption in politics and presented them without sugarcoating the issues. Though Bharathi Kannamma and Porkkaalam were hits, the excellent Desiya Geetham was a disaster, which made him rethink his ways. But his answer, the optimistic and commercial Vettri Kodi Kattu, was disappointing. Commercial cinema was clearly not his forte and his efforts to add commercial elements to his style were half-hearted.

With Paandavar Bhoomi, he finally found his niche. He concentrated on human emotions and relations, relegating the social message to the background, to come up with a moving tale. He sharpened the same in Autograph, his biggest hit to date, where he completely abandoned the ‘message’ to present a simple but heartfelt tale of love.

The title and the trailer point to him continuing the trend in his next film - the eagerly anticipated Thavamaai Thavamirundhu. The film has not had it easy so far. Initially scheduled for Diwali, it became embroiled in financial problems and doubts were raised about it being released this year. But it looks like it will make it to screens this Saturday itself. The film is supposed to be about the love between parents and their offspring - a topic Cheran could do full justice to.

After Gopika in Autograph, Cheran introduces another heroine from Malayalam films, Padmapriya. She doesn’t look very pretty in the pictures, especially compared to recent Malayalam imports like Gopika, Navya Nair, Nayan and Asin. I’m hoping she’s just not photogenic but make up for it with her performance. The cast also includes Rajkiran and Saranya. Music is by Sabesh Murali.

With Kanda Naal Mudhal also just released, this weekend might just be the real Diwali for fans of good cinema.