Revisiting Kannathil Muthamittal

Taking the newspaper in hand, this morning, the front page news gave me a chill. 58,000 Tamils fleeing. But, there was more to it. It was the photo that captured my attention. In 2002, Mani Ratnam directed a movie called "Kannathil Muthamittal" (A Peck on the Cheek). It was one of the most flawless movies I have ever watched. Other film directors have claimed that Kannathil Muthamittal should be every film director's reference work. The photo on the frontpage today sent me back to the movie. 

When the character played by Madhavan and his wife (played by Simran) reach the village of Mankulam (Sri Lanka) in a bid to find their adopted daughter's (played by P.S. Keerthana) biological mother, they find the whole village fleeing, with whatever it could take with it. An impending air strike forces the natives of Mankulam to leave the village they were born and brought up in. An aerial view pans and zooms in on the fleeing villagers as the protagonists try to find Shyama, the biological mother. Finding Shyama, they try to convince her that the girl is her daughter. Shyama breaks out into tears, all of a sudden: "Ithu en kolanthe alley." (This is not my daughter). They got the wrong Shyama. Shyama tells them, between tears, how she lost her daughter at a tender age to the military strikes. 

It is the migration scene that is imprinted in my mind, the most. The photos in today's papers were identical. The haunting vocals and A.R. Rahman's music during the migration scene, came back to me as I looked at the photograph. Kannathil Muthamittal was one masterpiece of a work. The plight of Sri Lankan Tamils was showcased well, in the story of a child's search for her biological parents. There wouldn't be a better time to revisit the movie. 

My impressions about the movie after watching it were: how could every one in the movie act so well? The "wrong" Shyama too looked amazing in a role that took less than 2 minutes of screen space. A suicide bomber who talks to the little girl from the park, exhibits amazing facial expressions while jumping towards a government vehicle. No wonder then that the film was lauded at many International Film Festivals. It won awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2003, the Los Angeles Indian Film Festival and the RiverRun International Film Festival, not to mention the 6 National Film Awards (India) it received.

If you haven't watched the movie, go watch it now. Mani Ratnam has a way for shooting emotions on screen. The final scene may fill your eyes with tears. But the movie holds a message and it is even valid for today. I hand over the newspaper to my wife and ask her, pointing at the front page photograph, "Remind you of something?" "Kannathil Muthamittal?" She asks.

[Edits: I received a request to publish the photo from the newspaper. My answer is,

Scanning and attaching a newspaper clipping to my blog is a violation of copyright. I don't want to do that. If you are interested in seeing the photos, search "Sri Lanka" or "Sri Lankan Tamils" in Google and you'll find lots of images showing the migration. One example is this link from Hindu. Click here]