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May 1, 2000

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The Movie Review

Alaipayuthey
Director: Mani Ratnam
Cast: Madhavan, Shalini, Jayasudha, Swarnamalya

Mani Ratnam has changed tack with this one, steering clear of the flag-waving sentimentality of his earlier three films. Alaipayuthey is a mellow love story, reminiscent of the director's pre-Roja days. Not to mention another great score by A.R. Rahman. Rich boy Karthik, a software engineer, meets middle-class girl Sakti, a medical student, at a village wedding. Naturally, with love in the air, there's song, dance and lots of colour. Shot extensively at Chennai's suburban railway stations, the film rides on the fleeting imagery of passing trains. Then there's the inevitable parental confrontation and some brisk scenes later, the two tie the knot and go back to their respective homes. That's when Sakti is chucked out of her house -- bag, baggage and books. The couple then decide to move in together, but suddenly tragedy strikes -- Sakti meets with an accident. P.C. Sreeram's camera pans some breathtaking vignettes of Kashmir and Chennai. Arvind Swamy and Khushboo do justice to their small roles. Even Sophiya Haque does a sizzling number, a la Malaika Arora in Dil Se, though she's not as impressive. But it's Madhavan, as Karthik, who emerges the real scene stealer.

-Methil Renuka

Stuart Little
Director: Rob Minkoff
Cast: Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, Jonathan Lipnicki

What happens when a family of human beings adopt a little mouse as their son? Life would trudge along almost normally except that the mouse also has a cat as a pet. Sounds feisty? That's Stuart Little, an animal-talking fun-flick by Minkoff, man who also gave us The Lion King. The hardest hit in the clan is the cat Snowbell who on discovering the new inter-species family mutters: "I need a drink." Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie (of Bertie Wooster fame) play the doting parents, Jonathan Lipnicki, as George the elder son, plays a supporting role to Stuart and Stuart's voiceover is done by Michael J. Fox. The script, co-written by M. Night Shyamalan, is taut and full of spry one-liners. Minkoff said that he thoroughly enjoyed doing the rather "complicated film" ("Shyamalan was wonderful, had no pretensions and was full of ideas") and that he wouldn't mind doing something bigger next, "perhaps a talking T-Rex". No prizes for guessing who'll do the script.

-Robin Abreu

Uttara
Director: Buddhadeb Dasgupta
Cast: Tapas Pal, Jaya Seal, Shankar Chakravarty

It's a film with minimal dialogue and a very big point to make. With his spartan style, Dasgupta has managed to say what a million words could not: among other things, that indifference to intolerance is as harmful as active participation. Uttara, inspired by the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines, is set in a somnolent village in Bengal where the arrival of a letter is an event, and a telephone is still an innovation. In that pretty picture reside best buddies Nimai and Balaram. There's also a Christian priest in the background. The story is predictable in places (the moment Balaram's wife Uttara sees three strangers in the village, you know they will harm her some day), but that becomes a minor blotch on Dasgupta's canvas as the larger picture emerges. Uttara is not about sloganeering activism. It's just a stunningly simple, courageous film.

-Anna M.M. Vetticad

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