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Director: Bharatiraja
Cast: Manoj, Riya Sen, Radhika, Revathi, Ranjita, Manivannan, Raj Kapoor
He is a director who has launched at least a dozen new faces. So one cannot really grudge him if he wanted to introduce his own son (Manoj), that too in his own home production. In fact, one can have only admiration for the director for his brave more. Village subjects are his forte and here again it is a love story set in a rural milieu.
Manoj may
not have the looks of a typical hero. But he has a lot of
confidence and is casual & uninhibited in this performance
before the camera. Chosen to pair with Manoj is Riya Sen (model
and daughter of actress Moon Moon Sen). The director who usually
has an uncanny eye for the right-face-for-the-right-role errors
in this film. The pair looks very mismatched with Manoj in his
bulky frame and Riya looking like a tinny toy next to him. The
director tries hard to make her fit into the role of the typical
village belle, but fails in his attempt. The sophisticated
demeanor, a face that could have done with less make-up, and lips
that struggle to mouth the Tamil lines (a tough time for the
dubbing artiste) all make the character stand out like a sore
thumb. Riya is perpetually wet. She is under the waterfalls,
having a bath, in the rain, under leaky roofs, or losing her step
and falling into the pond. In fact the director tries his best to
make her look sensual, but the tiny frame is just not meant for
it. The director’s favourite scene seems to be the
‘first-encounter-under-water’ where the heroine has
fallen in and the hero jumps in to get away from his tormentors.
This scene is repeated innumerable times in the film.
The lovers belong to two warring villages and go through the usual hurdles before they unite in the end. The director has a protecting team of senior talented artistes, like a shield around his son. Revathi plays the hero’s mother and Radhika his aunt. The duo, for some strange reason, is given the unkempt darkened faces look. But they manage to make an impact. Rehman’s folk tunes have a lively beat, the title song being a catchy one. As for the title – the hero gives the heroine a tiny replica of the Taj Mahal, which later slips into the water (water, water, everywhere). The lovers cross various hurdles and when they re-unite in the end, the Taj Mahal re-surfaces again.