Review of Kadhalukku Mariyathai

Introduction

The film is similar to the Hindi version directed by Priyadarshan Doli Saaja Ke Rakhna (1999), which remains the better version. This Tamil version does have some moments with Jeeva’s best friend being more comical and compassionate.

The film`s technical values is also quite good. Fazli, the director of this Tamil version adds more of the Indian cinematic elements with conventional fight scenes, melodrama and dreamy dance sequences, which are all nicely done. The Hindi version has similar sequences, which are handled more three dimensionally and thus diminishes the Tamil and Malayalam versions.

This film also suffers from one major problem, performances. Here I felt the main cast lead, Vijay & Shalini, didn’t have the screen chemistry to make the audience fall into their romantic world and some moments felt rather closed and unfulfilled which affected their talent capabilities. But don’t let this spoil you viewing this movie, which is at least worth a rental.

Video

The DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.25:1, which has been cropped from its original aspect ratio of 2.45:1. The cropping is not as badly affected when viewing as most of the cinemascope frame is kept on this DVD. While Ayngaran have resolved this problem on the forthcoming titles, this DVD was on their backlog of some film catalogues which they first did and is why the problem still exist.

This DVD has been anamorphically encoded and is the usual stance we get from this company, excellent. The 35mm print negative source used for this DVD appears to be in excellent condition, but only two scenes show major wear and tear problems partly due to stock footage used, mostly seen during the credits. Some little dots and speck marks can be seen briefly on this title but they weren`t a total distraction to the eye. The film remained with fresh and clean feeling which is not bad for a film over four years old.

The DVD had no problems like compression artefacts nor of grain, while some shimmering and moiré effects are lightly seen. Other encoding problems was not to be found on this disc, which made viewing more pleasant. The film had excellent sharpness detail, and added a more cinematic definition to the overall picture information. But if the average bite rate would increase I feel more detail could have been seen with ease. But detail is still bloody good when compared with poorer DVD titles out there made by EROS and Video-Sound. The differences is like the difference between hot and cold.

Colour fidelity and saturation are exaggerated, which was intentional on the film-makers part. The colours never become too much too handle as no signs of colour bleeding/distortion was found. Dark details, contrast and shadows are as good as it gets and makes viewing this DVD in all conditions in ease.

Audio

The 5.1 Dolby Digital Tamil soundtrack isquite good, but don’t expect a work out. The soundtrack is very quiet at times and the surround channels only kick in when a song comes up. But this it how it was on cinema and this is how it is on DVD. The front stereo separation is very well spread and makes up most of the sound mix. Dialogues on the centre channel are also very warm and clear

Features

The menus are very impressive in design with some original conceptions. Other supplementary feature includes English subtitles, which are showing signs of improvement.

Conclusion

Ayngaran are fast becoming the best in the Indian DVD world and with titles like this one is easy to see why. Good picture + great sound = Recommended.