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Sangamam
is a celebration of dance. Set entirely in rural Tamil Nadu, Sangamam is
a credible movie with good music by A.R.Rahman and superlative
performance by Manivannan. Director Suresh Krishna displays a sure touch
in emotional scenes and has done a very competent job throughout.
The story goes like this.
Rahman is the son of Manivannan (who is a top rural dance artiste) and
goes to perform in a temple dance festival. At the festival he meets
Vindhya – a Bharatanatyam artiste – who is the daughter of a famous
dancer, Vijayakumar. Love blossoms between the two young dancers in the
temple festival in “Thillana Mohanambal” style. Manivannan is
supportive of their romance, as is Srividya – Vindhya’s mother.
Manivannan is insulted by Vijayakumar when the former formally asks for
his daughter hand in wedding for his son Rahman. Vijayakumar believes
that rural dance form is inferior to Bharatanatyam and therefore
Manivannan and Rahman are not in the same league as Vijayakumar’s
family. The rest of the story is about how no one art or dance form is
superior to the other. Manivannan pays with his life to prove the point
thanks to the villainy of local tough Radha Ravi. Vijayakumar finally
sees reason and unites the young lovers and thus creating a Sangamam of
the two dance forms.
Manivannan
is superlative. Rahman does justice to his role and has brought a
certain dignity and understatement to his character. The supporting
actors – Vadivelu, Charlie, Tyagu, Delhi Ganesh, Srividya, Purambokku
and Vijaya Kumar have put in competing performances. Vadivelu deserves
special mention for his performance. Vindhya, the heroine is the only
weak link. She does not emote, seems out of sorts in a number of scenes.
Even her dancing is not first rate. A poor choice for heroine.
The
comedy is entwined with the main plot, which is a refreshing change from
the trend these days. At 16 reels the movie is a bit long.
The
camerawork is fantastic and captures the sheer beauty of rural Tamil
Nadu in the most wonderful way. The temples and fields of Tamil Nadu
form the backdrop for many scenes, which is delightful to say the least.
The costumes are in keeping with the requirements of the movie with
every character being seen only in Veshti and female characters in
Sarees.
Finally,
a comment on the music of A.R.Rahman. The score is excellent but the
picturisation of songs could have been better. Margazhi
Thingal, Mazhai Thuli, Varaha Nadi and
Mudhal Murai have been well picturised. In Sowkiyama,
the lip movements of Vindhya are totally out of sync with the voice of
the singer, which leads to a comical situation.
Suresh
Krishna has given a clean movie with good music. However, it is
difficult to comment on the commercial viability of the movie as it does
not have any “item” songs or cheap thrills. We will have to see how
viewers accept the movie.
by
R
Ananthanarayanan
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