Karu Palaniappan has tried to follow a neo-realistic style within the Tamil film milieu in Piravom Santhipom. He succeeds to a large extent, though at times it looks like a Chettiyar wedding video album in the first half, and drags in the second half.
Karu follows the Sooraj Barajatya format of a feel good family film where all characters are nice, friendly and likeable people. There are no villains, no skin, no disco, no Switzerland or Koothu songs, no fights, no crude comedy and other things that you associate with commercial films.
The director has his heart in the right place and has come out with a clean film which is sure going to be lapped up by the family audiences. Visalakshi (Sneha) whom everybody lovingly calls Sala is the only daughter of her rich parents living in small town Karaikudi. She is a loving and friendly girl who loves the company of her friends.
Her parents arrange her wedding with Natesan (Cheran) an Engineer with the state electricity board, coming from an aristocratic joint family of assorted uncles, aunts and children, apart from her in-laws. Sala, after marriage soon becomes a part of the family and enjoys every moment of it, till her husband is transferred to a distant hill station where she becomes lonely.
Natesan always wanted to move out of his joint family existence and lead a life of his own, and takes a liking for the new place and gets immersed in his work However for Sala it is a bitter experience as boredom and loneliness almost kills her!
The film has been well crafted by Palaniappan, his story line is just an episode in a newly married girl's life but the way he has worked his screenplay around it is what makes the film click. The film is for a matured audience who will appreciate the wonderful economy of expression and deliberate silence at times and the crisp day-to-day life dialogues in the film.
Verdict: Feel Good Family Story.
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The melodies of Vidyasagar are soothing and are picturised as a part of the narration, along with lovely camera work of M.S Prabhu who has brought out the emotions of the protagonists in a telling manner. The locations match a large Chettiyar household in the first half and the contrast in the second half where loneliness envelops the frames is beautifully brought out.
As always, Sneha is superb as Sala a woman torn by the dualities of her existence and delivers her career best performance. The way she mixes with her husbands people and takes them along and post interval her dignity in the face of loneliness that creeps into her life is well-etched. Cheran plays a restrained second fiddle to her which helps the film as a whole. Jayaram as the friendly neighbourhood doctor is good. M.S Bhaskar and Kanja Karuppu with their subtle humour are good in the supporting roles along with an army of small careen actors as part of the large family.
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