Responsible Care

To
The Editor
The Hindu

I was flabbergasted to read Karthik Subramanian’s review of the tamil movie ‘Kalavaani’ (the thief) in the Friday Review of the Hindu dated 2nd June, the day after I saw the movie. Having nothing to do on a rainy day afternoon in a hill station, we went to the only theater in town that happened to be screening Kalavaani. There were 5 other boys besides the 3 of us in a theater that can hold 400 people.

When the movie started with the slide ‘Drinking and smoking is injurious to health’ gave away the main activity of the ‘hero’. We couldn’t sit after the first 20 minutes. The reason we stayed for nearly an hour is only because we wanted to give enough time for the taxi driver who took us to the theater to enjoy his 10-year-old daughter’s birthday celebration that evening. We also hoped the movie might get better. Reading in the review - ‘Most importantly, and more realistically, the `Kalavaani' never reforms’ – we are glad we didn’t stay longer.

The story is about a vagabond son who blackmails his mother to part with the money his father, a labourer from Dubai, sends every month. He hangs out with his friends at bars, makes moves on every girl he sees and leads a carefree life. He and his brat-pack pull non-stop pranks on the local Panchayat (keep the audience in splits!!?? – oh, please) and pick up fights with any one they possibly can. The good for nothing ‘hero’ falls in love with the local schoolgirl and works on her to make her fall in love with him.

I can’t understand how the reviewer can call this - ‘a heart-warming tale’, ‘worthy addition to the catalogue of neat entertainers', ‘a winner’ etc.

I agree that the lead pair Vimal and Oviya live their characters so well that it made me want to slap them hard to bring them to their senses.

How does Karthik Subramanian rate this as ‘Fun family entertainer’? Would anybody in their right mind, like their son or daughter to learn the 'ideal values' from the lead pair and follow their examples and be able find it funny and laugh?

Please be responsible. I told as many people as possible not to trust The Hindu review of the movie.