Kannathil

Starring : Madhavan, Simran
Director: Mani Ratnam.
Release: 15/02/2002.

Writer: Mani Ratnam

Condensed Story

It's just one big happy family scenario with Thiruselvan(Madhavan) an engineer who also writes, his wife Indira (Simran) a TV newsreader with three children, a girl Amudha (P.S.Keerthana) and Vinay and Akhil. All goes well until the couple decides to disclose the truth to Amudha that she is an adopted child of theirs on her 9th birthday. They tell her the truth that they had adopted her in a Red Cross Hospital in Rameswaram. From a happy family the scene now moves to a family having to deal with the emotions of an adopted child who feels disowned, betrayed and left out of the society. The child tries to run away from the house in search of her birth mother, played by Nandita Das. Chakravarthy and Nandita Das are a couple and a part of the LTTE. Charkarvarthy dies in the war, so her Dad brings Nandita Das to Rameswaram, but strongly believing in her cause for fight she disowns the child in a hospital and goes back to SriLanka. Understanding the persistence and the emotions of the child to see her mother, the scene now moves to the dense forest of SriLanka with all the war around. With only the name of the birth mother known they face difficulties finding Nandita Das. Prakash Raj plays the role of a doctor who helps in the quest. But finally when they find Nandita Das she is torn between the love of her child and her mission of liberation.

source: http://www.galatta.com/entertainment/movies/tamil/released/KannathilMuthamIttaal/synopsis.asp

Review

The story was that of a 9 year old kid, who is informed by her parents that she is not really their child, rather she was adopted by her
foster parents from a LTTE camp at Rameswaram. This comes as a huge shock to the kid, and the question as to whether the parents should have
informed the kid of this truth on her 9th birthday is posed -- the kid as well as her grandfather opine that they should not have informed her, her
parents believe they should have informed her. The good part is that everyone in the family, including her two younger "brothers" are very supportive, in spite of this.

After getting to know about this, the parents together with the kid fly to the war-torn Sri Lanka to find her true mother, whose name and village they get to know. This is an action which any one would never allow a loved one to take. Most of the audience keep complaining that they should not have undertaken this trip.

The kid and her parents go to Sri Lanka, and there they come across incidents one more shocking after the other -- the kid talks to a suicide bomber minutes before he performs his mission, and accidentally takes a book from him. She sees this incident at close range. She sees young people with guns who point them at her, and then she runs in fright. Also the kid with her parents and a friend are made to watch a fierce battle between the army and the militants at close range, and the mother gets a bullet-wound on her arm.

When the mother gets the wound, the kid does get the feeling that the sacrifice which her parents are doing are a great sacrifice. This feeling
is not exaggerated, and shown in one scene, which makes the movie good. The kid says that she is willing to abandon her mission of finding her
real mother seeing her mother hurt, but on her mother's insistence, they decide to go one last time. There they meet her mother, and it is emotions, which drove everyone in the theater to tears.

In short, this movie was very good with a very good story, excellent acting by all the characters -- Parthipan's daughter has done a wonderful
job as the kid, Simran as the mother, Nandita Das as her true mother, Madhavan as her father, Prakash Raj as the friend in Sri Lanka. It kept
the audience captive, and as people who know about the situations in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, everyone could relate to the story and the characters.

This is a movie one should not miss..

source: http://www.sulekha.com/moviereview.asp?movie=169535 Murali mani

'The Hindu' review page'

List of songs

1, Vellai Pookkal Ulagam 2, Sundari Sundari 3, Kannathil Muththamittal

4, Signore Signore 5, Vidai Kodu Engal Nadae 6, Kannathil Muththamittal

Music: A.R.Rahman

Lyricists: Vairamuthu

Playbacksingers: A.R.Rahman, Tippu, Sujatha, Hariharan, Chinmayi, Jayachandran, Rafique, Noel, Anupama, Balram, Febi & Rehana.

Link to site with songs:

http://www.tamilbeat.com/newsongs/kannathilm.html

Video trailer file:

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