Kalavaani

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Vimal, Oviya, Ganja Karuppu, Ilavarasu, Saranya
Director : Sargunam
Music : S.S.Kumaran

In the last few years, tamil industry has witnessed the release of some successful village based movies. The acceptance of 'Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu', 'Poo', 'Pasanga' etc had given strength to many new producers and directors to come up with similar themes, irrespective of the star cast. Now the debutant director Sargunam had made a movie named 'Kalavaani' with Vimal ('Pasanga' fame) and new comer Oviya in the lead roles. Om Prakash is the cinematographer and S.S.Kumaran ('Poo' fame) is the music director.

As we have seen before, in this story also, there are two opponent villages where hero and the heroine lives. Arikki (Vimal) is an irresponsible guy, who unnecessarily spends the money send by his father (Ilavarasu) from abroad. His mother (Saranya) and sister, who are afraid of him, doesn't tried to control his activities. He meets Maheswari (Oviya), a school going girl from the neighboring village. He is teasing her in the beginning days and gradually it ended up in love. In the middle, Arikki and his friends got involved in a kidnapping incident happened in the next village. Maheswari's brother Ilango, an angry young man, who has got an upper hand in that village, heard about this. Ilango and his companions attacked Arikki during the festival celebrations. When Ilango came to know about the affair of his sister, he tried to arrange her marriage soon. How Arikki wins his love, in front of the angry relatives and villagers, is told in the climax.

The story line of 'Kalavaani' is good, but the problems happening in the execution side has caused the unstable environment. The movie lacks the speed that required. As the director had given more importance to romance matters, most of the situations have been covered up with the meeting between the lovers by the sides of paddy fields. Though the heroine in the cycle scenes felt original, it should have been done in a limited way. The situations like the fighting at the cricket tournament, the attack on the hero, climax where the heroine's family reached their opponent village etc should have been done more seriously. The friendship area also lacks the punch it required.

Vimal has done well in the unemployed role, but his dubbing lacks energy in many areas. Debutant malayalee girl Oviya is suited well for such an innocent character. New face, who comes in the role of Ilango is good, but his actions are repetitive in the chasing scenes. Comedy scenes featuring Ganja Karuppu are good. Ilavarasu and Saranya have done roles in their own style. The girl who did the sister role of hero and the non popular actors who comes a the parents of the heroine are equally good. The hero helping his lover, the version given for the wordings on wall 'LCIIO', the happenings at the heroine's family etc have been neatly shown here.

Songs by S.S.Kumaran are not the best, it comes as bg score also in few areas. Old Ilayaraja songs have also been used as bg sounds; In some areas a mismatching of the bg music is evident in the first half portions. Cameraman Om Prakash did an excellent job behind the lenses. Debutant director Sargunam needs claps for taking such an ordinary subject involving friendship, romance and revenges in the backdrop of a village with the majority of unestablished faces; If he has approached the project more seriously, the output would have gone to another level.


'Kalavaani' is a love story told in the backdrop of paddy fields using some unpopular faces; Had the problems happened in the presentation side been rectified, it would have become another sensational hit.


Rating : 6 / 10 (revised)