Review of Kalyana Parisu

The movie which starts off on a cheerful and effervescent note, courtesy of Thangavelu's antics, gradually moves into a sober mood before ending in rather tragic circumstances for the leading actor, "Gemini" Ganesan. Although the latter looks a lot older in his role of a young man in the formative years of his adult life, he puts in a reasonable performance without ever being outstanding. Probably because he gets overshadowed by Saroja Devi's near-perfect portrayal of a pretty girl that gives up her love for her sister's sake and troubled by lovelornness that goes with the sacrifice. This is perhaps her best performance in a long and distinguished career, though it must be admitted that she was always expected to take on an eye-candy role with minimal scope for acting. Casting and Music provided able support to the success of the movie. Be it ANR, in a subdued role, or B. Saroja playing an ideal foil to Thangavelu or Vijayakumari, the character audience love to hate, they all played their part as well as anyone could. Likewise, songs composed by AM Raja and performed by himself and Suseela (mostly) were runaway hits, giving the connoisseurs one more reason to fall in love with the movie. All said and done, this was a Sridhar's movie, through and through. In fact, it was his first movie, as a director, and boy what a difference he brought to the Tamil silver screen. His story-telling, coupled with neat screenplay and ahead-of-times shots, his penchant for romance, and an ear for good music are testament to his status as one of Tamil Cinema's finest directors. In my humble opinion, he is one of only two trend-setters that Tamil filmdom has witnessed (other being the mercurial Bharathi Raja) in its seventy-five plus years of existence; when Tamil cinema was neck-deep in period and mythological movies, he made a bold stand of telling a contemporary story with love as its focal point. In contrast to the movies of its era, it had short and crisp dialogues, very little histrionics, a touch of realism in intimate/romantic scenes, thoughtful and limited casting, and a short climax. In addition to providing the audience with an alternative to movies of the two big stars of 50s and 60s, MGR and "Sivaji" Ganesan, his movies were a prototype for later day Tamil entertainers. And mind you, it all started with Kalyana Parisu.