Review of Rojavanam

Introduction

This is a warm film that is fully dedicated to the elderly who are normally forgotten or stereotyped in Indian cinema. So it`s a breath of fresh air that the film manages to focus on the elderly in both a humourous and pleasant way. Of course some of the clichés remain of how the youth treat the elderly, but the way these plots interweave with the main narrative is unique and is the one reason why the film is watchable.

But with a nice story idea comes criticism from the director Chelva (Pooveli,1997) which lets us down with a few poor performances. This is a negative point as the film at times lacks the emotion and drama which the screenplay demands. While the character actors and elderly actors are on form and are enchanting to view, the characters played by Shiva, Manorama and `Nizhalgal` Ravi are some of the worst seen in 1999. However these characters don`t appear in the film regularly, which for us is a bonus, but still hinders the overall flow.

Thespian actors `Kaka` Radhakrishnan, M.S.Viswanathan, Jaiganesh and Nambiar are wonderfully portrayed in the film as the loveable elderly folk. It is particularly fun seeing them trying to fix Muthu up with a girl and them beating up a gang of rowdies.

The songs fail to add to the romance, but they are wonderfully shot on location in Germany and have great lighting effects. The overall production values are quite good with some picturesque cinematography. The background musical score is very well orchestrated and remains memorable.

Dispite some downfalls in the screenplay and songs the film was a nice experience and is certainly worth viewing.

Video

The DVD is presented with an anamorphic aspect ratio of 2.25:1 which has been cropped from the original 2.66:1. The cropping doesn`t affect the film though as most of the cinemascope frame is kept. However Ayngaran should get the telecinist to transfer the films in their correct aspect ratio on future titles so that the director`s intentions are kept.

The 35mm print negative source used for this DVD appears to be in mixed condition, being both excellent and quite weak in parts partially due to the way the interpositive negative was kept, and in India it`s not normally in pristine condition.

The source used had some major wear and tear and these are shown as blemishes during the first five reels, which then calms down slightly where reel changes are made. The blemishes are never totally distracting, but for a recent film they are quite noticeable, coming in the form of black lines and dust marks. These could have been cleared up with DVNR (Digital Video Noise Reduction), but some purists will argue that it will cause the picture to have digital filtering problems. Luckily the wear and tear on this transfer doesn`t have an effect on viewing.

Rojavanam had no major signs of compression artefacts, but did have small signs of film grain. Also some shimmering and moiré effects can be seen, but thankfully no edge enhancement. The picture information is very nicely rendered. Images are sharp and detailed, with good contrast and shadow delineation. There are some scenes that appear slightly soft, but never distractingly so. Colour fidelity is well balanced, with accurate fleshtones, rich hues, and deep blacks.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Tamil soundtrack is predominantly dialogue driven and features impressive fidelity. The sound effects and musical score give a wonderful spacious feeling which adds a lot of enjoyment to the film. The track was taken from the original master DTS disc and there`s no distortion. It`s an excellent soundtrack!

Features

The menus are very nicely designed and continue to make Ayngaran rather innovative when it comes to DVD interactivity, but they still need to work on English grammar and typefont for subtitles.

Conclusion

With flaws due to the source material, Rojavanam still manages to shine on this disc. Worth renting.