Review of Kannathil Muthamittal

Introduction

Imagine you`ve just turned nine and your parents tell you that you`re not their natural child,that you were adopted. How do you suppose you take this? This is just what happens to Amudha, who learns this from her adoptive father, Thiruchelvan. He tells her of how he came across her in a Red Cross hospital and decided to write a short story about her. This captured the imagination of his neighbour and close friend Indra that they visit the baby in hospital and name her `Amudha`. They marry and adopt her as their first child.

Amudha now wants to know why she was given up for adoption and wants to find her real mother. This causes a bit of a rift in the family and her parents eventually decide to take her to Sri Lanka to track down her birth mother. This isn`t without consequences however as we see first hand the unrest in the region with the army and guerillas at war. Witnessing the violence at such close quarters it slowly dawns on the young Amudha that her real mother is here fighting for a cause which she tries to get a handle on. Will she be able to persuade her to come back to India and live in peace, away from all the violence? Is her real mother all she would imagine her to be?

Video

Presented with a 2.20:1 anamorphic transfer, the quality of the film looks very good. There`s some minor print damage and dirt which is a shame, but the gorgeous photography more than makes up for these problems. This well composed cinematography means that the colour balance, contrast and detail is very, very good. The locations used throughout are brought out well and it`s a joy to watch. I only noticed minor artefacting, but this was quite minor.

Audio

The sound here is very well recorded. You get a DD5.1 soundtrack which for the most part sounds very dynamic and clear taken from the original DTS soundtrack. It was mixed in a THX approved facility so I guess this has something to do with the clarity. I did notice some hiss in the quieter moments and some incorrect reverberation taking place in a couple of scenes which seemed a little weird to me, but apart from these minor faults I thought it sounded good. The music comes across very well and there`s certainly a sense of spaciousness in the open soundfield.

Features

The menu system could be better designed as there`s no way to skip an animated part of the menu to get to the options. Any keypress to get to the menu will restart the disc and it`s a chore sitting through over a minutes worth of copyright messages.

Apart from animated menus and English subtitles, there are two trailers. These are for Gemini and Samurai, two films coming soon (if not out already). The subtitling here is good, with only minor errors, but I could read them clearly and follow the onscreen action too. There are some subtitling issues though. There were some scenes where the dialogue wasn`t subtitled so someone decided it wasn`t worth doing, but it annoyed me that it was missing. Plus all the songs, except song one, aren`t subtitled. While I can get the gist from the imagery and performances, I would have liked the option of knowing the lyrics.

Since I really enjoyed this film, it`s a shame there aren`t any other extras. Bios or production notes would have been an ideal addition. I know there are a few extras because these feature on the official film website at www.kannathil.com. There are production stills and an interview transcript with director Mani Ratnam and P.S. Keerthana (Amudha).

Conclusion

This was very surprising for me. I know I can be extremely picky at times and have come down hard on other Indian films I`ve reviewed, but this is a different kettle of fish. I really like this film. It`s different from all the usual aimless singing and dancing that I`ve seen and has a very well told story at its heart. Writer and director Mani Ratnam never loses sight of the fact that story as well as characters are important. He has a good eye for camera direction too which only helps to pique ones interest.

The story about the girl Amudha wanting to find out the reasons why she was adopted and finally meeting her real mother is an interesting one. She comes across as intelligent and believable, and no less so than the rest of the cast. Some of the story takes place against the backdrop of unrest in Sri Lanka with the guerilla`s and army at war and this only adds a frightening amount of realism to the proceedings. The idea of telling her she was adopted in the first place opened a whole can of worms. Watching to see how the family unit kept it together in these trying times is one element of the story as is watching Amudha growing more distant from her adoptive mother and how they cope emotionally. I thought it was handled deftly. There are also a few heart wrenching moments without any over the top sentimentality.

The cast here are all engaging and none more so than P.S. Keerthana who plays the young girl, Amudha, who has to get my vote for outstanding ability. She`s very young, yet comes across with such confidence that she knows how to perform in front of a camera and is very comfortable with it all.

The few songs here aren`t the overblown numbers that you might associate with Indian films. These are intergrated into the story so they actually mean something. There was a good fusion of eastern percussion and western electronica which I thought worked surprisingly well. The film at just 135 minutes has a good pace to it and never bores. This is certainly one of the most interesting and enjoyable pieces of Indian cinema I`ve seen in quite some time.

The lush looking locations backing up the story, the well composed music and wonderful actors` performances all add up to a very good film. If you`re the type that dips a toe into world cinema from time-to-time in search of something refreshing, then you can`t do worse than this. This film has quality throughout and I heartily recommend it.