Film Review: ''Ilayavan''

MELODIOUS MUSIC, enchanting visuals, good dialogues, all these and other plus points offset the mediocre screenplay of Shenbagam Movies ``Ilayavan''. Producer Madampatti Sivakumar has introduced his son Satyan as the hero. Satyan has tried his best to do justice to the character. He falls in love with the heroine Kausalya.

The college going lad is against unruly things happening on the campus. He meets a beautiful girl in a city bus (the bus has become a star attraction nowadays after a recent hit film) who boldly comes out and tells the police about the hero and his friend attacking a bus driver and verbally accusing the conductor who claim it is their right to decide whether or not they would stop the bus at a scheduled stop. This starts a rift between the two, and till the last frame she does not change. The fact that she has lost her husband on the marriage day itself makes no difference to the love the hero has for her. In spite of everybody requesting the heroine to accept the hero as her husband, she refuses. But when she changes her mind it is not convincing.

Newcomer Satyan is yet to learn the art of acting. Kausalya does the role with ease, but looks less appealing in the scenes where she expresses anger. The saving grace of the film is the episode involving actor Karan. Srividya and Sivakumar have done their roles effortlessly. `Thalaivasal' Vijay has shown the characteristics of a drug addict convincingly. Fathima Babu, S. N. Lakshmi, Madan Bob, Vaiyapuri and Ragavender are also in the cast.

All the five songs tuned by Ilaiyaraja are mellifluous. The best is `Vattanilaeva' written by Mu. Metha and sung by S. P. Balasubramaniam and Swarnalatha. `En Jeevanae' written by Pulamaipithan and sung by S. P. Balasubramaniam is also a captivating number. Unnikrishnan and Chitra have sung the song `En Idayam Muzhuvathum' written by Arivumathi which has beautiful rhythm. Good lyrics by Pazhani Bharathi for the song `Chinukku chinkkunnu' sung by Mano will linger long in the minds of the audience. `Nilavin Amuthu' a duet by Unnikrishnan and Bhavatharini, which is written by Pazhani Bharathi, is also a good one.

Cameraman V. Ranga has cranked the film to the satisfaction of the director. Some of the outdoor songs have been picturised adequately. The story is not new but the dialogues have enough pep in them. T. Babu has taken care of the direction.

S. R. ASHOK KUMAR

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