VISITOR COLUMN

Its always a pleasant feeling to watch Balu Mahendra's Movies. It slows your pace of life suddenly like Meditation does.  This movie is no different.Guess we can write a lot about Balu Mahendra and it wont serve the objective of looking at this movie.

 

Some observations about the film in an adhoc manner - He has not deviated from the main characters. For example, three sons of the sister are not brought in after the introduction. The sister's husband character is not looped in which are away from the storyline. But not sure, felt in some scenes one son at least  could have been kept  in the back drop to show they are also there with the mother to avoid a possible disjointed look.

 

The Church Father shares a well meaning message about religious togetherness and in following scene he asks to Aditya about religion specifics …and the child specifies that he wants to be Aditya. Is there a contrary view from the Father character?

 

The best character is Aditya’s mother who is well balanced and grounded which we normally expect from Aditya’s Father. Guess the rationale for staying back in the village shares a greater message …another view could be this person has come from an orphanage backdrop and she is more easily understanding the need to contribute to the village and importance of value systems.

 

There are some poetic scenes -   the death fear when his friend expires is well captured , asks  whether he can take bath in hot water to his son which indicates he has accepted him in his fold.

 

Not possible to end this without Illayaraja’s presence in this movie. Shows the BGV importance in this film which moves through sound in some places …the piece when the kid looks at the house is enjoyable. I can easily say Balu’s acting, cinematography  holds the movie together along with Illayaraja.

The title could have been dedicated to all “Grandfathers”!!.

 

Over all pleasant movie to watch and has an international outlook capturing India essence. Hope it wins awards internationally in certain categories.