Thendral - Sad, sadder, saddest. Review on Thendral

Thangar Bacchan's movies are based on his literary works. That is distinction only few people in the industry have, even in Hollywood. In Hollywood, such people co-write the screenplay with their directors. Anyway, my point after viewing Thendral is that may be Thangar Bacchan could do the same thing. He may have burnt out on his directorial skills in his previous movies. At the least, he should change his assistant directors or increase their number.

Thendral is sad tale of a girl who gets obsessed with her favorite writer and I mean 'obsessed' without any psychopathic connotation. She is too idealistic to believe and does not tell the writer of her love even when she gets a chance. May be that is a psychopathic condition, a conditions which thrives on a masochistic, self-infliction of trouble.

I don't like to watch sad movies and especially related to the suffering of women. More than that, I hate when people say a movie is great simply because it is sad. Sure, we have a lot of suffering around but that does not make a sad movie realistic and therefore a critical success.

Unfortunately, Thendral falls into the category of sad movies I didn't like. I say unfortunately because it could have been made better in the hands of a better director, Bharathiraaja for instance. The movies would still be sad but at least, tolerably. However, there are small things I liked about the movie. Thangar Bacchan creates this poignantly funny scenes on growing up in a village.

It is much like Mani Rathnam's handling of an ideal couple falling in love. Another aspect is the music of Ilayaraaja. There is this haunting piano piece played in solo first and then with violins leading. There are also a lot of small songs but they don't make an impact because you are already feeling sad for the girl.

Like Ilayaraaja, Thangar Bacchan seems to have flair for sad things. My only worry is that Thangar Bacchan should not go down the path of Kadhir. All the movies of Kadhir after Idhayam can easily be categorized as 'untold love' - hero never tells his love for the heroine until 3 hours pass by, albeit painfully, for the viewers.

The premise of the story and the initial development may surprise you but then, it is sad all the way to the end.