When the music album was released a friend of mine said one of the songs matches a scene in a Murakami novel. And it did. The song in question was Iravingu Theevai and the novel was 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I badly wanted to watch this movie before anyone spoiled anything so I silently booked it and went off. Didn’t tell a soul. Now that I have watched it I want to tell the world about it.
Don’t worry I won’t be giving out spoilers.
One tip for any tardy person : DO NOT BE LATE FOR THIS MOVIE.
The first few minutes are pretty amazing. So don’t be late and miss out on it. I personally loved everything in the movie. Starting from the characters involved, the music, the locations. Everything was used in the most appropriate amount and nothing was over used or under used. A romance dripping movie that makes most girls cry. And I think most men will atleast reminisce on their little love story. We all have one. This movie taps exactly that memory. I am sort of enjoying the past couple weeks’ movie line up. CCV, Pariyerum perumal and now ’96. Oh yeah don’t miss out that tiny little quotation mark before the number. That gives you more clue about the movie. Most of you may have guessed so many things from the trailer. And most of your guesses would be right.
I don’t even know where to start. The teaser came out and “Kadhale kadhale thani perum thunaiye; Kuda va kuda va podhum podhum” became an anthem. And then there were the songs and the trailer. God damn…. The lyricist just.. Okay I got no words. Every song, every word made people feel something. The whole album was on loop. Being a fan of Thaikudam Bridge I already loved the music director before he did music for this movie. And he has done a splendid job in the movie too.
So the expectations were just high. Building up characters is not an easy thing. Establishing the story is something we don’t see easily. Only veteran directors and screenplay writers do it. And kudos to you C.Prem kumar for doing that with such ease. There was equal amount of romance from both the male and the female characters. Their friends remain in their given spots and do what they have to do. But Ram and Janu are the backbones of this story and they get to shine till the very end. From the very beginning the flow of the movie is smooth.
With the most simplistic and as realistic as possible characters it feels like we journeyed with Ramachandran and Janaki Devi. You laugh with them, you cry with them and even cry for them. For the bookworm in me, it felt like I was reading a novel or a short story. Just for a period of time you live with the characters and root for them. Learn whatever you can about them and try to think how they must have felt in various situations. This movie does exactly that to you. It just tugs at your heart and you don’t have any other go but wipe away your tears and walk out of the screen.
And I cannot get off without saying how much of a cutie Vijay Sethupathi has become. He was charismatic and all. But in this movie is just so cute and adorable in a lot of scenes. The reactions he gave was what most men would have given at that certain moment and its just so kawaiiiii (it means cute in japanese.) Trisha as usual does what she does well. Her eyes do most of the work and its been a long time since we saw such acting.
Oh what can I say. I wish to say a lot to both Ram and Janu and wish them the all the very best!!!!
