O Kadhal Kanmani: Mani Ratnam is back with a 21st century love story that will charm you

Young Aditya Varadarajan (Dulquer Salmaan) is a gamer in Mumbai. Aadhi, as he’s nicknamed, is happy-go-lucky, has great friends and works under a cherubic, serious-yet-not-so-serious boss. He’s a paying guest with his brother’s older colleague, Ganapathy (Prakash Raj) and his wife Bhavani (Leela Samson), who is an accomplished singer. One day, at a train station, Aadhi runs into Tara (Nithya Menen). He catches her trying to jump in front of a train. They meet again at a wedding and end up realising they both see hankering after marriage as pedantic because it just results in heartache, fights and kids who will relive this painful cycle all over again. Rather than getting stuck in this rut, Aadhi and Tara have other dreams. He wants to go to the United States. She is an architect and wants to go and study in Paris. How a romance blossoms between them and where this relationship heads in six months is what director Mani Ratnam has captured so eloquently in O Kadhal Kanmani. [caption id=“attachment_2201516” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Courtesy: Youtube trailer of the film[/caption] With O Kadhal Kanmani, Mani Ratnam, the director and writer who knows how to showcase the little nuances of a romance so beautifully onscreen, is back with a bang. Salmaan and Menen play a quintessential, 21st century couple, who believe in live-in relationships and don’t think that a piece of paper declaring two people married is needed to validate a commitment. In Mani Ratnam’s earlier films like Mouna Ragam, Alaipayudhey and Roja, relationships have been the crux of the film, but most of the time, his stories saw couples getting married first and then developing a relationship. With O Kadhal Kanmani, the director shows he’s able to keep up with the times. This time, his young couple are urban, decide to live together and the relationship is as beautiful as any other. Mani Ratnam takes you through how the relationship as it evolves in the time Aadhi and Tara are together, showing how they grow as a couple in that six months. Salmaan and Menen are exceptional actors and have delivered very realistic performances. They’re perfect as the couple and the credit goes to the director for capturing the chemistry between them in simple, almost old-fashioned ways – through a look, a smile, a touch or a glistening of the eyes. There is no melodrama, or loud romance, or lengthy dialogues or songs in exotic locales. And that’s precisely why this film works so wonderfully. There are many moments where Mani Ratnam presents a charming combination of humour and tenderness. For instance, when Aadhi’s older brother and his family land up at the Ganapathys, Aadhi starts panicking and begs Tara to leave. She refuses. His sister-in-law insists on seeing his room and when they barge in, we see Tara quickly escaping through the window. In another scene, Aadhi’s niece catches Tara kissing him on the cheek. Her eyes widen and the shocked expression on the ten-year-old is hilarious. The writer in Mani Ratnam has woven a simple love story between Aadhi and Tara, but he also juxtaposes their relationship with that of the traditional older marriage between Ganapathy and Bhavani. How Aadhi and Tara are influenced by the older couple is shown subtly. Ganapthy diligently takes cares of his wife, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, and theirs is very much an equal relationship. In fact, it’s Bhavani who accepts Tara as live-in Aadhi’s girlfriend. “Ganapathy is old-fashioned,” she declares sweetly. One mustn’t forget A R Rahman’s music, which brings alive many of the scenes in the film (as it has done for many of Mani Ratnam’s earlier films). “Mental Manadhil” is a hit on the airwaves and is such a uplifting tune, that your feet start tapping involuntarily the moment you hear it. Of course, conservatives may argue O Kadhal Kanmani is a simplistic a love story that scandalously celebrates a live-in relationship in a culture that is yet to embrace such “modern” ideas ungrudgingly. Perhaps this is the aspect that pushed the CBFC to give the film a U/A rating (rather than a U). Never mind conventions and the baggage they bring, because O Kadhal Kanmani celebrates romance, an emotion that is as old as creation itself (remember Adam and Eve?). Watch this film. It will make you want to fall in love all over again – with love itself and Mani Ratnam as a director.