A Peck on the Cheek

 

kannathil Mutthamittal (A Peck on the Cheek) 

This summer is a chance to watch some of my Fav Classic's of Tamil cinema Kannathil Muthamittal (A Peck on the Cheek) by Mani Ratnam.

Kannathil Muthamittal tells the story of a child born in a refugee camp for Sri Lankan Tamils in India and subsequently adopted by an engineer/writer who marries the girl next door in order to qualify as an adoptive father. The couple then decide to tell the child about the adoption on her ninth birthday. The trip from Chennai to Northern Sri Lanka is much shorter, but much more dangerous. The combination of an emotional struggle within a family and an attempted reunion for Amudha with her Biological Mom.This movie explorer's many relationship beautifully. The realtionship between Father and Child,Mother and child even between the siblings.

From the beginning till the end,the love and affection that Thiruchelvan has for his daughter, Amudha is soo beautifull. After the Amudha character knows that she is adopted child she will ask Thiruchelvan which her dad how much you pay to adopt me then Thiruchelvan will reply 'Unnaku vilai yeadhu da Kannu'.And tells her 'nee dha yenna modha modhalaa ezhudha vecha,Aprm nee thaan yennaku Indra vaa kondu vanthu kodutha Nee thaa yennaku ellame'.One of the finnest Dialogue delivery by Madhavan. I think this is the first Non rom-com film for Madhavan.

The movie is just splendid and I wondered why movies like 'Kannathil Muthamittal' didn't represent India for Oscars. Mani Ratnam has bamboo a story of diverse magnitude of the human misfortune caused by the long long years of civil war in SriLanka.And also he handles the human emotions very perfectly Mouna ragam,Anjali are the finnest Examples.

The story of her adoption is told in the flashback and shows the development of romance between Thiru and Indra. I really really liked this part of the story as the two leads play their parts well and adoption story and Romance is really sweet.

And one my favorite Scene from the Film is the Railway Station Scene: Indra sees Amudha and amudha knows what she did is wrong and Indra is angry at her for running away from the School. So, she doesn't hug Simran or anything when she sees her in the station. Simran doesn't want to mellow down in front of her and let out her feeling of joy on seeing her'daughter again'. she too just stands silently glaring at her with a stern look on her face. Suddenly Thiru prompts in Amudha to come to him with a smile on this face .she runs towards him and hugs him. Note there is no single dialogue in this scene the actors convince the scene by their facial expression. Even sometimes the silence makes the scene more beautifull. Mani what a genius man you are.

And big salute to A.R. Rahman what an score and songs man, music is the second soul of this movie and lyrics by Vairamuthu is so bliss 'oru deivam thantha poove' wow. Still i have some bad alligations on daimond perl for the #metoomovement but as a craft i love the work. Many of them will think this the movie between Mother and Daughter yess but there is deep connection between Madhavan and keerthana. He doesn't scold amudha when she runs away from home the first time or even to Rameswaram. so maybe because of the way he treats her, it is with him that his daughter feels more close to than her adopted mother. Note does she say she wants to meet her real father?

And in the climax after Amudha meeting her real mother and confess her feeling and when she leaves her the camera slowly come close to three of them and Amudha kisses Indra on his cheek. A peck on the Cheek which is Kannathil Muthamittal. For me this is Cinema 🙌

My Rating For this Movie is 4/5⭐. So this is my LetterBoxd ID You can connect me through this 👉 Gugan07.

And 24 years of this Masterpiece and this is my first log of this April