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Posted by Reader (128.125.53.241) on November 12, 2006 at 15:01:04:
"Madhura's flight for freedom is as much a yearning of an artiste to blur the societal (in this case fiercely patriarchal) boundaries as it is an extension of female bonding of four women (of Madhura, her friend Kama, her mother Ponammal and her Patron Mirasu's wife) who find their fates entwined with each other like an umbilical cord where cutting one would bleed the other."
You got all that from the movie??? Hats off to you!
"The second reason [why the movie grows on you]is the movie's cinematography and art direction."
Yeah, true, the art direction and the visulas were great. Exotic. Cliched: the long shot you described. Sappy poetry: most of the movie. Visually beautiful.
"The movie takes you into an era which is disconnected from the world we inhabit. The period-drama is alive and real, with no stress to romanticize the actual conditions."
Wrong. Do you really call the Saroj-Khan-choregraphed lone night dances by the tormented lead actress real? Looked like tiring Bollywood to me. Unreal. Escapist.
To make my evening fruitful, I *tried* to see all that you managed to see. I tried. But it was not there to see. I am sure the director had all these ideas that she was trying to explore. But the movie did not imbibe those ideas.
Just as being beautiful does not make for a good actress (an idea that is lost on Indian filmmakers, mostly), being beautiful does not make for a good film.
Story telling was high-school-ish. Blunt and obvious "metaphors". Madhura's daughter looks eactly like her, yet so different! What a cliche.
Last of all the lead actress, although beautiful, a very incompetent dancer and actress. The supporting lead actress, who was supposed to be an inferior dancer, was actually a better dancer and a more interesting face.
Movies like these with beautiful costumes, excellent visuals, victimized women, and caste system agonies help keep the illusion of the exotic third-world India.
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