Pirivoem Sandhipoem - Piriya Manamillai

Story in Brief:
Sala is a college-goer and is the only daughter for her parents. She dislikes being alone and requests her friends to stay with her in her home to avoid being alone.

Natesan's family is a huge joint-family with ~32 members and when Sala's parents look for an alliance with Natesan, she is only too happy to accept.

Sala enjoys her time with her new-found family, but then soon fate decides otherwise. Natesan who has spent his life all these years in a home full of people, longs to live separately with her wife. And, when a transfer comes his way to a remote hill stations(Attakatti, wow.. what an beautiful place), he grabs it immediately.

Natesan is happy with the new place, but Sala is not. Sala is shown as a gal who doesn't show even the happiness and so, she doesn't let her husband know that she is not comfortable in the new place.

Slowly, the feeling of loneliness begins to take a toll on her and she drops into a state of depression, which is when Jayaram, the neighbourhood doctor, comes to the rescue.

Natesan then takes Sala back to the place where she loves to.

This is what Pirivoem Sandhipoem is all about.

A simple story indeed, but in the way the director Karu.Palaniappan has narrated grabs our attention. Some of the scenes are almost lyrical, the betrothal function of Sala with Natesan at the temple, for instance.

No separate comedy track, no fight scenes, not overdose of sentiments - Both the Director and the Producer needs to be applauded for creating this neat film.

Sneha portrays the character of Sala with effortless ease and with superb & powerfull expressions. Seems the director wants Sneha to convey every emotions with her eyes and Sneha has responded beautifully. And, in this movie, I fell in love with her eyes more than her face:-)

Be it in the first half where she is a college-goer and while being happy with Cheran's family and in the second half, where she had to express her feeling of loneliness, Sneha excels in the role. This should be her career best performance so far, after Parthiban Kanavu.

And, Sneha has dubbed for herself in the movie. She has done it before in Parthiban Kanavau, but that is only for one of the twin characters that she lend her voice to.

Cheran is his usual self and portrays Natesan naturally. Not much scope though. Jayaram is another actor, who steals the show, after Sneha, with his subtle & natural performance as the Doctor.

Other notable performances come from M.S.Baskar, Kanja Karuppu, Mouli & Devadarshini.

Every director needs to have a social responsibility while doing movies, since movies reach over to far number of people than any other media. Karu.Palaniappan has interspersed his movie with many messages.

The dialogues need to be mentioned. Karu comes up with simple but straight-on-the-head dialogues at many places.

Some of the dialogues I liked:
1) We should tell good about our family members to others. Only then, others will tell good of them.
2) We should give due importance to all our family members, only then others will respect(on the reason that a widowed woman taking Arathi)
3) Sneha says "This is when the wife thinks that her hubby has done something good to her" on being asked by Cheran"You don't kiss me often". The usage of this in a few places in the movie, especially in the climax, is just brilliant and very effectively adds to the strength of the scene . Kudos to the director.
4) Remember God not only in times of distress but also when you are happy.
5) Even the World's most beautiful man & woman can't see their faces each other after one year :-) [Jayaram's advice to Cheran]

Aah.. yes,, I forgot about the camera & music. M.S.Prabhu has captured the awesome Chettinad homes and also the rich exotic locales of Attakatti in all its splendor.

Vidyasagar has given soulful melodies for this movie and all the songs still linger in my mind. I should say the director did not make use of "Medhuva Meduva" song effectively, which
is my personal favorite.

The lyric writers have done splendid work using hitherto unheard Thamizh words. Special mention for Nenjathilae Nenjathilae, which is written based on Andhadhi type, where the next line starts with the last word of the first line(on the lines of Vasantha Kaala Nadhigalilae..)

(My Personal) Takeaways from the movie:
- Give due importance to the Relationship, especially your loved ones
- Don't be too passionate abt your work. Don't toil at the workplace at the expense of your relationship. After all, the relationship is what is permanent and not the work.
- For married as well as to-be-married guys(especially to the IT guys)
- understand your spouse's needs when you are away at work
- Strike a balance between work and home

In case, the gal is working, then itz a different story altogether :-)

All in all, I came back from the theater with the satisfaction of seeing a neat family movie after a loooong time.

Best Regards,
Dharma.