Sep 11, 2011 11:38 PM
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(Updated Sep 13, 2011 07:45 AM)
Once in a while, we get a tamil movie where the production crew genuinely try to deliver without the worry of it being a commercial success get in the way. I thought this was one of them, even though, it is a remake of the English Movie "I am Sam". I have only read the summary of the original and it looks like the the story deviated quite a bit to suit Indian viewers for this one.
I thought the strength of the movie was the casting. Everyone fit their role and acted superbly with the accolades going to Vikram as Krishna, Baby Sara as Vikrams daughter Nila and Anushka as Anuradha the lawyer in that order. The script is fairly tight with the comedy scenes kept within limit and no fights!
The movie opens with Krishna searching for Nila in Chennai. He is then found by Anuradha and her partner who decide to help him. We get to know why he is on the streets searching for Nila in a flashback. That story is about this mentally-challenged Man, Krishna, with the maturity of a child. He works as a helper in a chocolate factory in Ooty. He is blessed with a baby girl but loses his wife during birth. Somehow with the help of a friendly worker wife he manages to get her to school age. Here trouble starts and we end up with the starting scene. The 2nd half of the movie is about how he finds her and fights to get back his daughter.
== SPOILER ALERT: ENDING REVEALED BELOW ==
To me, the story, plot and screen play was more or less very good, for a tamil movie. There were no silly dialogues or too much emotion or unnecessary violent scences just to shock. Maybe some of the initial comedy with the van driver suspecting his wife was a bit too much and took away from the story. Some reviews have said 1st half is slow, but I did not think so. The court scenes were ok but lacked in depth and complexity given the difficult case of child custody to a mentally-challenged parent. They had a wonderful opportunity to study this social dilemma with this background but missed it.
The reason I have given only 4 stars to the movie and 3 stars for plot is that I was absolutely stunned with how the director chose to end the movie. It is unbelievable that any person sane or otherwise would fight for his child so much and then after one night, just one night!, choose to return the child to his dead wifes family who gave him no respect whatsoever until then. This he did apparently based on one chastising speech by the opposing lawyer where he questions his capability to bring up the child, though the movie itself provides enough instances where he is shown to be quite capable!
I sincerely believe, the directory or script writer, chose this ending just to to make it unexpected, as most audience at that point thought he will keep custody by marrying Anuradha.or worst case opt for joint custody with his in-laws to safegaurd the future of Nila. But no! They wanted to give that final emotional punch to the gut, so to speak, by making him sacrifice his ultimate desire and give back Nila. The story ends abruptly after this sequence.with no clue given as to how Nila felt about this or what happened to her eventually. It is left to the viewers imagination. Unbelievable decision. After an emotional roller-coaster ride where the hero finally wins the court-case, this was absolutely the stupidest ending possible. It also reflects poorly on the social message that even though a mentally-challenged person took care of his child well. he is better off giving her up to strangers(to the child) for a supposedly better chance in life.
If the director or anybody associated with this movie read this, I urge them to consider this suggestion when releasing the DVD if they have shot footages of an alternate ending(which I suspect they have). Give both the endings. one as in the theater release. and another where he gets to keep her and is successful or at the least shares custody with his in-laws. Let the viewer decide what to watch!
If not for that ending, this would have been a movie for the ages. Now I cannot think of watching it again being aware of the idiotic way it ends!
