Cheran’s take on modern-day weddings resembles a TV serial at best
Isn’t the season for special morning ‘pattimandrams’ on television usually Pongal or Deepavali? It looks like it has arrived in February this time, with Cheran’s Thirumanam, which is an archaic,pattimandram-style take on the goings-on behind modern weddings.
The subject is indeed topical, given the kind of money we see getting spent on making weddings look rich, but the treatment on the big screen is quite below par. As the title suggests, the film revolves around the issues leading up to the marriage of Mahesh (Umapathy Ramiah) and Aadhira (Kavya Suresh), and how the two families – consisting of people with varied tastes – warm up to each other.
This isn’t a bad premise, but Cheran loses the plot very early on. At every stage of the wedding preparation – fixing the venue, choosing the invitation, buying clothes – Arivudainambi gives a running commentary about how wasteful it all is. Cheran seems to think that no one, today, has thought about any of this, and we need a movie to open our eyes. All of this “wisdom” comes in form of data dumps. People just stop in their tracks and talk. A lawyer holds forth about how problems in couples today arise from needing space and sexual incompatibility and how there are no joint families anymore to make the newlyweds adjust to one another (conveniently forgetting that joint families come with their own set of problems). She’s apparently speaking to Arivudainambi. She’s really speaking to the audience. She’s giving a Message™.
Even if you are one of those who wants messages from movies, you’ll have to agree that they have to be tucked away elegantly and not thrust in your face. Thirumanam feels like a very long Pongal-special patti mandram interspersed with reaction shots from a mega serial. The acting and staging are really that bad. I kept thinking about how Visu would have handled this subject. He’d have titled it Thirumanam Adhu Narumanam, and gone for a full-throttle comedy-drama mix that would have removed every trace of the deadly earnestness we find here. Mahesh and Aadhira actually look like they belong in the Visu era. They’re nice, without a shred of personality – they make Kamala Kamesh seem like a biker rebel chick. It’s hard to believe they are a modern couple.
The last two songs before the climax seem totally avoidable in the already slow nature of the film. What could have come off as a good movie with a great message doesn’t reach its goals and we cannot help but complain about the screenplay and weak placement of songs.
Thambi Ramaiah and M.S.Bhaskar’s intense conversation in the second half, Sukanya defying the odds about a girl bringing bad luck into the family, the climax sequence are some noteworthy scenes in the film that deserve praise.
We might think the movie has too many messages which might make it feel like the director has played for the gallery, but every message seems relevant, thoughtful and relatable. Something that no other movie has talked about in length. For that and many other noticeable things around the marriage expenses, the film will be liked by the families.
