May 12, 2005 01:11 AM
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(Updated May 12, 2005 01:11 AM)
“Chandramukhi”, superstar Rajnikant’s much-awaited movie, after the colossal flop “Baba”, is a major let-down. Once again, Rajni fans will be horrified by the star’s choice of films lately. “Padayappa” was probably his last best film that had a decent script, powerhouse performances by Rajni and Ramya Krishna, and good music.
Chandramukhi is loosely inspired by the Malayalam movie, “Manichitrathazu” that won Shobana a National Award for her performance as the schizophrenic danseuse. However, this movie doesn’t hold a candle to the original. The compendium of high profile stars and the Sivaji Banner notwithstanding, the film’s production values compare at best to a low-budget Kannada film. It seems like director P.Vasu, who gave Tamil cinema one of its biggest hits in “Chinna Thambi”, chose to fall asleep at the helm, rather than herd his actors and his script to some sort of meaningful direction. The end result: shoddy film, lousy performances, horrendous make-up (especially Rajni’s), insipid music and weak dialogue. Not to mention the Matrix-style action. Stop already, it’s getting tiring!
The story goes thus: Prabhu and Jyotika fall in love, get married, much to the chagrin of his mother (K.R.Vijaya in a guest appearance), who wanted him to marry his cousin, in order to restore family ties that were severed years ago. However, Prabhu plans to apologize to his uncle and make things right. He even seeks help from foster brother cum psychiatrist Rajni, who flies in from the US of A just in the nick of time.
Although their uncle Nassar forgives them, his sister Chemmeen Sheela still has vendetta on her agenda. She has a sinister-looking assistant, who follows her around with a devious smile for no apparent reason. Vadivelu, as Nasser’s younger brother, is supposedly the comic relief in the film. Hardly! His crass gags are just grating on your eardrums and nerves.
Of course, there is also the loyal family gardener Vijay Kumar (wasted in a miniscule role) whose granddaughter Nayan Tara is Rajni’s love interest. She does not have much to do in the film, but this will most certainly embellish her portfolio in the industry.
Ok, going ahead with the story, Prabhu and Jyotika decide to buy a ‘haunted’ mansion, despite pleas from family and friends not to. The 150-year old mansion belonged to a king of Vijayanagaram, who sets his beautiful courtesan Chandramukhi ablaze in a fit of jealousy and rage. Therefore, legend has it that Chandramukhi’s spirit haunts the mansion even to this day, thirsting for revenge. In spite of the curse, the entire family moves into the mansion lock, stock and barrel. After that, as expected, bizarre things start to unfold at the mansion, people start behaving funny and the script (?) runs amok.
Instead of maintaining a tight leash on the story and reining his actors, director P.Vasu decides to take off to Greece or Babylon for a romantic duet with the lead pair! And when his vacation is over and the film is not (not surprisingly), he decides to tie all the loose ends by having Rajni do a narration on the goings-on and takes the film to a hurried climax.
The audience is thoroughly flummoxed at the end with the serpentine routes the movie takes. None of the lead actors have anything worthwhile to say or do. Even Rajni’s loaded- with- political innuendo dialogues pack as much punch as yesterday’s cola. There is just not enough fizz in this cola to make you want to drink it. I have seen almost all of Rajni’s movies and enjoyed them too, with suspended disbelief of course, but this one (along with Baba) takes the cake and the bakery!! It’s just downright unbearable, with all due apologies to ardent Rajni fans!
