Mouna Raagam - the all-time classic . Review on Mouna Raagam Movie

Mouna Raagam is the first of several movies in which the fab combo of Illayaraja and Mani Ratnam worked their magic. But truth to tell, the twosome never quite gelled as superlatively as they did in this one. The theme of love before and after marriage is handled in a rereshingly different manner. Beneath the sequence of scenes aptly described as silent for being shorn of typical over-the-top melodrama lies a subtle artistic touch coming from Mani's expert brush. The real world of Revathi and Mohan drags, things happen slowly, you will Mohan's character to throw his inertia into the trash can and be a man. In sharp contrast, Revathi and Karthik's dream world is exactly that - dreamy, too fast, too breezy to be true. And reality comes knocking hard at their doorstep as Karthik's activities in a revolutionary outfit returns to haunt him at a fateful moment. The dream comes crashing down and leaves Revathi feeling miserable and bitter. But despite her best efforts to break the marriage thrust on her against her will, a different script unfolds and this is where maestro Illayaraja comes into the picture with one of his best soundtracks and background scores. The songs 'Nilaave Vaa', 'Mandram Vandha' and 'Pani Vizhum Iravu' are virtually crafted in the white marble of the Taj Mahal and together they capture the gradual change in Ravathi and Mohan's feelings for each other. An incredibly mature, soothing and tender background score ( strictly by Tamil film standards) brilliantly complements the narrative. Finally, things start to happen only when Mohan shakes off his middle-class, middle-aged staidness and inertia and gets a little filmi in his demeanour. A brief fight scene with a bunch of baddies and a dash after the departing train at the eleventh hour culminate in the typically filmi ending. But Mani's subtlely satirical take on the concluding scenes is unmistakable as he departs from the real world and dreams for a bit. Absolutely recommended, but do not expect the typical elements of a Tamil potboiler to be present in the normal proportion; make no mistake, you need a little patience to watch the very human characters play out their lives in Mouna Raagam, but the experience is richly rewarding. I give it 5 stars for lack of a better option.