Film Review: ''Love Channel''

A NEW hero (Eashwar), a child star turned heroine who still looks very much a school girl, a cast with no big names - all of them against the backdrop of foreign lands (a significant part of the story takes place in Germany) - the producers sure need confidence and guts and Jayavilas Productions, the creators of ``Love Channel'', seem to have it in plenty.

The era of Tamil films with English titles is in, and in keeping with the norm, after ``Citizen'' it is now ``Love Channel''.

Monisha looks too young to take on the mantle of heroine. It was not very long ago that you saw her as the innocent daughter of Nasser, dancing and singing for the ``Nila Kaigiradhu...'' number in ``Indira''.

Generally, it is shopping complexes, arcades and tourist spots that are highlighted in song sequences in films that shift to locations abroad all of a sudden. It is only very rarely that a residential area of an alien nation is captured with its beauty and aesthetics intact. Rajarajan's camera has done it in ``Love Channel''.

Police Commissioner Arumugam (V.S. Raghavan) has two sons Rajeev (Rajeev) and Ravi (Eashwar). Rajeev is married to Parimalam (Sadhana), and has a daughter who is in her early teens. Ravi keeps postponing marriage, for no particular reason. So the elders find a match for Ravi, and Rajeswari (Monisha) becomes his fiancee. But even before Ravi and Rajeswari meet, the alliance is broken because of a skirmish on the eve of the engagement. The two families become sworn enemies. Ravi is in Germany now and Monisha too goes there with her grandfather, where the two youngsters meet and fall in love. Neither knows the identity of the other. Thus goes the story, told in a reasonably interesting fashion by R.N. Kumaresan who has taken on the major tasks of story, screenplay, dialogue and direction.

A couple of song situations look contrived - the ``Odadhaeda Rajakumara'', sequence for example. Also the dance movements for a few numbers tend to get repetitive.

Amid the smooth flow of the story come scenes (like the ``Swayamvaram'' episode in which Dhamu gets beaten black and blue) which stick out like a sore thumb. And they expect you to believe that the incident takes place in Germany! The director could have avoided such loud and unappealing interpolations.

V. S. Raghavan is back on the big screen after a period in hibernation. And gladly the role offers enough scope for the veteran to perform - imagine he even sings and dances. But in the opening scene, when the family fools him into rushing home from office the viewer is concerned that the shock could be too much for the old man. How come the family does not think of it?

In these days of using foreign locations for song sequences alone, in `Love Channel' they are used as a beautiful backdrop to tell the story. But will someone tell our producers that foreigners dancing for our desi numbers present a pathetic picture?

MALATHI RANGARAJAN

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