Meendum Oru Kaathal Kathai

Plot

Sarasu(Raadhika) born to a rich eccentric businessman Badirnath(Dakshinamurthy) is a mentally challenged child. Unable to cope with her condition, Badrinath admits her in a home for such children and is taken care by a Christian Missionary Principal(Charu Haasan) and a guardian Juju thatha(Ronni Patel), a kind old man. Sarasu meets Ganapathi or Guppi(Pratap K. Pothen), another intellectually challenged orphan and they strike a rare affection for each other and become inseparable.

Year pass by Badrinath and his wife come to take Sarasu for their son's wedding engagement. Sarasu innocently insists that Guppi should also accompany her and Guppi is reluctantly accommodated at the insistence of the Principal.

At the wedding party, Guppi and Sarasu bump into, the engaged couple and notice their clandestine affair. Sarasu insists her parents to get her married with Guppi. In a weird twist of things the idea appeals to the guests and Badrinath agrees and Sarasu and Guppi's marriage takes place.

Guppi and Sarasu are sent to Korakunda, a mountain village along with Juju thathta as their guardian. Korakunda is an unusual village inhabited by strange people Manohar(Y. G. Mahendran), the photographer with a vintage tumbled-down box camera who specializes in taking the photos of the dead for the bereaved. Nylux Nalini, a footloose women who has illicit affairs, Kitney, a person of indeterminable age who files kites, the village headman and a few others.

Guppi and Sarasu get in to a physical relationship and Sarasu becomes pregnant. One day in the woods, the drunken village headman tries to molest Sarasu and Guppi who sees it crashes a boulder on his head and kills him. Guppi is condemned for life in jail. Sarasu, separated from Guppi is in distressed agony. She is admitted for delivery in a hospital and Guppi on special permission visits her. In their own innocent way they try to relieve their past happier moments. She dies delivering a baby.

Guppi unable to understand death tries to revive her and when he fails and finds her motionless, snatches the newly born child and flashes the sharp edge of the blood-bottle menacingly at others. But he is quickly overwhelmed and taken back to the prison. Guppi never talked or laughed after the death of his Sarasu and dies after few years in the Jail.

Cast

Production

The film marked the directorial debut of Pratap Pothen. He said that he "could find no lead actor for it, so I did it myself." Pothen portrayed negative roles in Telugu films in order to raise funds for the film. The script was co-written by Somasundareshwar. He recalled that during the sets of Panneer Pushpangal (1981), Pothen promised him that he would direct a film based on his script. The cinematography was handled by P. C. Sreeram earned a good name for this film and got a break to work with top directors like Fazil and Mani Ratnam after this film. The film was shot over the period of a year, taking place primarily at Ooty. During the film's production, Pothen and Raadhika fell in love and got married and fell out the end of the film.; however they got divorced in 1986.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and the lyrics were written by Gangai Amaran.

Accolades

Critical Appreciations

Tamil Cinema had witnessed many films with a mentally challenged lead character but this was the first time that a film had both the lead hero nad heroine as mentally challenged and their love life was well illustrated. The film really took us to their world and made us live and understand their plight. Pratap K. Pothen and Raadhika lived their roles and have come out with brilliant performances. Ronni Patel played another important character in the film as Juju Thatha, their guardian. His closeness with the two grownup children and the way he helps them to live a normal life was shown beautifully.

Reception

Despite receiving critical acclaim, the film was an average success at the box office. Dhananjayan says Ilaiyaraaja's songs and BGM score was a big support to his heartwarming film. P. C. Sreeram's camera work came under high praise as he captured the natural beauty of Ooty very well.

Legacy

Pratap K. Pothen excelled in his debut direction by handling a sensitive theme well. To sum up, the film was " a quirky story that the destiny wrote - Lives of innocents that tears wrought". The film suffered on one aspect, which was in the presentation of the lead characters. As both the lead characters were mentally challenged, their scenes were more comical than intense for us to feel their pain. Most audience felt that it was sort of comedy film than an emotional one to understand the characters and their challenges in life.