Movie: Amma Kanakku
Direction: Ashwini Iyer Tiwari
Cast: Amala Paul, Revathi, Samuthirakani
Music: Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematographer: Gavemic U Ary
Editor:
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: ∗∗½
What is it about: It’s a remake of a Hindi film “Nil Battey Sannata” directed by the same director Ashwini Iyer Tiwari. The film revolves around a mother and her daughter, who have their dreams crossed. How they managed to get through this complication forms the crux of the story.
Why it’s disappointing: Sometimes it’s good not to remake few films as the essence gets lost in the way. One classic of example of is “Amma Kanakku”. In spite of the director and the crew remaining the same, they couldn’t re-create what they did with the original. The story was not tampered at all, but for some reason it did not click in Tamil.
The film runs at a short leash of run time, but feels like forever when it ends. I could say one thing which went quite wrong, the cast literally tried to replicate the style which failed miserably. Even for those who were watching the Tamil version for the first time would feel the same.
Amala Paul did put in a lot of effort in making this character a noteworthy but ends up being compared to Aishwarya Rajesh from “Kaaka Muttai”. I’m not saying she wasn’t good, but should have infused her style rather than what Swara Bhaskar did in the original.
Samuthrakani was a total misfit, I’m still wondering how come they let such a wonderful actor make a buffoon of himself. The acting was a bit too much, and it looked very plastic.
And the character of Collector in the film was really underplayed, I agree the role was a small one, but in the original it had an actor suited for the attire.
The VFX in few scenes were really bad and it was too evident.
What to watch out for: The film had good cinematography by Gavemic U Ary and the music by Maestro was pretty good. Apart from this there was nothing great to rave about. The film had solid potential but lost out in replicating. And of course Yuvashree did a decent job.
Verdict: Ashwini Iyer Tiwari proved that she’s a good director with the original, just that the Tamil attire didn’t fit well. Like I stated earlier sometimes it’s best to leave few films alone without remakes. Worth a watch, if you haven’t seen the original.
