Better than the best
By far one of the best Tamil films I’ve ever seen. Ratha Kanneer was in my list for quite some time, thanks to the number of meme videos which were coming out of it ridiculing current government and other present scenarios. I happened to watch it out of the blue on a tiring day but within minutes the film evoked a lot of interest. In fact I was glued to the screen for the first forty minutes or so without knowing how time went by.
M R Radha, once famous more than even MGR and Sivaji, spearheads the film. Generally even now actors would think twice to act in this film which doesn’t have heroism at all. When the anti-hero subject is trending nowadays, it is not even close to what M R Radha had done in RathaKaneer, in fact he’s not an anti-hero but a villain in this film.
The most important feature of the film is his charm, in other words villainy. That part before he contracts leprosy is absolute gem. It was a riot when I watched now. I’m sure it’d have been much better at that time and it would even come down as a shocker in that era. Even though his acting was brilliant, credit has to be given to the writer director duo Krishnan-Panju too who had written the script quite unsympathetically.
Much of his antics once he contracts leprosy were greatly appreciated. Even in that situation his dialogues would be total gem. That reminded me very much of Vivek. Seems most of his comedies were taken out of this film, especially ‘Run’. The film deals with a lot of issues but the highlight of all is the remarriage of Sriranjani Jr. with S. S. Rajendran, what couldn’t be digested even at this time.
constantscribbles 