Film Review: Thaali Kaatha Kaliamman

SHANTHI THEATRES' ``Thaali Kaatha Kaaliamman'' starts like a family sentiment drama and then changes into a murder mystery. Finally it ends up glorifying Divinity, with Goddess Kali killing the spirit which causes problems to the hero. So the story is full of twists and turns.

The hero, Prabhu, and his friend, Pandiarajan, come to a village and hear about the tragic tale of a young woman who drowned in the village pond. The whole village then thinks that she had done some wrong for which Goddess Kali had punished her. The husband refuses to perform her last rites and also does not wish to bring up their little daughter. The child is abandoned by the villagers and is brought up by Manorama who narrates the story to Prabhu. When he sees the dead woman's child, now a beautiful girl, Kousalya, he tells Manorama that there is something more to the incident and the young woman would not have committed any wrong.

Mansoor Ali Khan, the uncle, wants to ruin Kausalya's life. Prabhu saves her and is forced to marry her due to circumstances. On the first night, when he enters the room, he sees Sanghavi who says that Prabhu had already married her. Confused he goes to his house where his father Manivannan tells him the story which is shown as a flashback. He had married Sanghavi earlier and because of an accident he had forgotten everything.

After sometime he comes to know that Sanghavi is not a human being but a spirit. Now the spirit has come to live with Prabhu. How the spirit of Sanghavi is destroyed by Kali is the climax of the movie.

Prabhu brings out the poignancy of his role that demands sensitivity and toughness. Pandiarajan is the friend who accompanies the hero and his punch lines with his facial expressions convince one that the director has made the right choice for the role. Kousalya is as usual homely and it is Sanghavi who is seductive in the beginning and little bit frightening as the spirit. Banupriya is apt as Goddess Kali who comes in the climax and kills the spirit. Rajan P.Dev, Alex, Manorama, Manivannan and Suryakanth do their part well to pep up the proceedings.

The camera has been ably handled by Babu, a veteran of more than a 100 films, and has picturised the special effects scenes which are of high standard. Music director Sirpi has concentrated more on the background score than on the songs. Kalaimani's dialogues are crisp. The film is produced by P. Kannapan Yadav. The story, screenplay and direction are by Somasunder. As it is the re-entry for the director, he has put all the box office elements together.

S. R. ASHOK KUMAR

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