<i>Kathal</i>: A touching love story : Down South News : ApunKaChoice.Com


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Kathal: A touching love story
30th Dec 2004 16.20 IST
By ApunKaChoice Bureau

Balaji Sakthivel’s film Kathal is a whiff of fresh air on the Tamil film landscape congested with hackneyed plots and trite themes.

Balaji Sakthivel is a talented director. Balaji proved his mettle in his earlier film “Samurai”, which went down well with Tamil masses. The man with the Midas touch is back, after a break, with another quality movie entitled Kathal .

Like he did in ‘Samurai’, Sakthivel has not shied away from experimentation. And the cast – Bharath and Sandhya – gives him ample support. The result is a film that stays with you long after you have left the cinema hall.

Kathal is a delectable entertainer set against the picturesque locales of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. The film tells the tale of a rich girl Aishwarya who falls in love with a mechanic Murugan. Naturally, the girl’s parents don’t approve of her relationship with a mechanic and fix her marriage with another boy of their choice. The lovers elope and get married. Later, they are tracked down, and sweet-talked into returning back home – of course on the condition that all would be forgotten and forgiven. Was the promise honored? That forms the denouement.

The spectacular success of Kathal is much due to the convincing performances Balaji has managed to get out of the protagonists, Aishwarya and Murugan. Bharath is no great shakes as an actor. But in “Kathal”, the youngster gets under the skin of his character and imbues his performance with a sincerity unsurpassed in his acting career.

It is a brilliant debut for Sandhya who plays the heroine. The tragic overtones of her character come out with telling effect. The talented girl has a bright future. There is no doubt about it.