Abhiyum Naanum - A Review

Two weeks back, we went for the movie "Abhiyum Naanum" @ Mayajaal with other Chennai Guys & our classmate Madura from TCS Mumbai. Here is my review of the family entertainer "Abhiyum Naanum".

ABHIYUM NAANUM
Genre: Family Drama
Direction: Radha Mohan
Cast: Prakash Raj, Trisha Krishnan, Aishwarya, Ganesh Venkatram (introducing)
Storyline:
An emotional bid of the relationship between a father and his daughter
Bottomline:
Slightly Sentimental but worth a watch

The Production Banner "Duet Movies" of Prakash Raj has always been giving a standard, heart-warming movies which comes as a refresher amidst normal movies which has violence and super heroic action sequences. "Abhiyum Naanum" is one another movie which ensembles the image of the production house. Director Radha Mohan is back after the huge success of "Mozhi" with this family entertainer. The story revolves around the various phases of a daughter's life from the perspective of her father.

Prakash Raj takes care of his daughter, Abhi like a princess right from her childhood. He hasn't said no to anything she asks as he believes that the decisions made by her will be perfect. As time rolls by, when the talk of marriage comes, he feels very insecure about separating from his daughter. Above all, his daughter had taken a decision to marry a Punjabi journalist which he cannot accept for the simple reason that he had to send her to Delhi where her in-laws home would be and he wanted his daughter under his care for the rest of her life. This being the core idea of the story, all the other characters are just contributing to the life of the story.

Prakash Raj (Raghuraman) takes the lead role of the father who narrates about the various snippets of life that he had faced as a father of a daughter. Whether it is the time when trying to get admission for his daughter, reluctance in accepting a Punjabi as his son-in-law or while explaining how to face problems in life to his daughter, Prakash Raj lives to his character and brings out a charismatic performance. Aishwarya (Anu Raghuraman) ably supports the role of Prakash Raj by providing proper space for Prakash Raj and Trisha but also shows her presence in some scenes.

The character of Abhi portrayed by the small child was excellent. With her childish laugh and naughty looks, the girl captures the mind of the audience. Especially when she brings the beggar to stay with her, the expressions are very cute. Trisha acting as elder Abhi has understood the role well and has given her best for it. The character being a cool girl-next-door type, Trisha has done with flamboyance and ease.

The well known "Chithappa" of "Azhagiya Theeye" fame has taken the role of a beggar turned caretaker. Though the portions where he comes is very sentimental, Radha Mohan has taken care that it didnt go as an overdose. The hero of this film, debutant Ganesh Venkatram looks smart as Joginder Singh. Though this is a father-daughter story, he scores in the places wherever he gets a chance. Prithviraj plays a guest role as a father of a small child has also given a good performance.

The director has taken care that he doesnt change this film to a serial like those in our local channels by placing timing humours. Especially the scenes where Manobala comes, it gives you a hearty laugh. Apart from this, director also delivers the message that helping hand should be lent to those in grief. Radha Mohan has this unique ability to bring you to the verge of tears and then turning it to tears of happiness.

Vidhyasagar has scored well in background score but only few songs remain in our mind as most of the songs were not upto the mark. Cinematography by Preetha has captured the cool estates of hill station with utmost beauty. It is really encouraging to find women wielding cameras for films which is really a positive sign for Indian cinema.

I will go with 3.5 out of 5 for "Abhiyum Naanum" for bringing out the emotions of a father & daughter and for portraying that this life is not just for earning money and living happily ever after but to respect the values of the relationships in the society and to uphold them.

Plus : Story, directions & lead characters

Minus: Songs

Rating: 3.5/5 - GOOD

I really felt that I should have a daughter in my life after seeing this movie and this tells the depth the movie has given you. But opinion differs. Though "Abhiyum Naanum" doesnt equals "Mozhi" in its calibre, it really a heart warming family entertainment which makes you feel the other tamil movies with violence and irritational songs are nothing but crap.

A.R.Rahman - The Global Indian !

A.S. DhilipKumar! Nobody would recognise this name on hearing it for any number of times. But even ppl in the remote areas of India will know the name Allah Rakha Rahman (shortly A.R.Rahman). A man who has proved that music has the capacity to bridge the gap between the continents. Now he has made us proud by winning the prestigious golden globe award for the film "SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE". To add to his achievements, now he has been given three nominations in Two categories for the Academy Awards (Well Known as Oscars). The nominations are for: The Best Original Music Score -"SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE" and two nominations in the Best Original Song - "Jai Ho" and "Oh Saaya" from "SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE". The best thing in him is even after these achievements, he is still down to earth with his feet firmly on the ground which is a very rare trait.

Born to a Tamilian Hindu family on Jan 6,1966. His father R.K.Shekar was a musician by himself. Rahman lost his father in a tender age of 9 after which their family earned their living by renting out the musical instruments they had. Rahman started to work as a keyboard player to "Isai Gnani" Ilayaraja who was also one of the persons who gets Rahman's instruments for rent. His early days with Ilayaraja provided him a platform to flourish. He also got a degree in Western Classical Music from the Trinity College of Music, London.

In 1991, he got an offer from director Mani Ratnam to do musical score for the movie "Roja". Being a debutant in film industry, he caught the audience dumbstruck with his awesome songs of which "Chinna Chinna Asai" has been listed one of among the "Top 10 movie tracks of all time" by the Time magazine in 2005. He was the first ever debutant to win the National Award in Best Music director category.

After Roja, the progress chart of Rahman was always up with his great numbers in films like Kadhalan, Kizhakku Cheemaiyile, Kadhal Desam, Bombay, Muthu, Minsara Kanavu, Iruvar, Sillunu oru kadhal, Sivaji and the list is endless. Especially the song "Mustafa Mustafa" from Kadhal Desam was patroned as a national anthem for friendship those times. He has the ability to give the best in whatever category of music he chooses. He entered the world of Bollywood with "Rangeela" which turned out to be a blockbuster. After that Rahman become an important asset to the Hindi film industry. His works in Hindi includes films like Lagaan, Guru,Rang De Basanthi, Yuva, Ghajini, etc. He is an ardent believer in Sufism. So he converted to Islam. He loves the Qawwali type of music of Sufi saints. The song "Khwaja" from Jodhaa Akbar was fully composed of that style which will fill ur heart with divine spirit on hearing. He worships Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as his guru and promptly he dedicated the song "Tere Bina" from "Guru" to his Guru.

One of the other big traits of Rahman is that he brings up a lot of aspiring young talents in the field of playback singing especially in Tamil, singers like Karthick, Benny Dayal, Chinmayee, Naresh Iyer, etc. are all finds of A.R.Rahman. He also proved that language is not a barrier for music by introducing singers like Udit Narayan, Sukhwinder Singh, Sadhana Sargam, Shreya Goshal and more to Tamil Film music. His achievements are endless including 3 national awards in Tamil for "Roja", "Minsara Kanavu", "Kannathil Muthamittal" and 1 national award in Hindi for "Lagaan" (totally 4 which is the highest ever by any music composer), six-time Tamilnadu state award, eleven time each in Filmfare award and Filmfare award south, IIFA award, Mauritius national award, Malaysian award and also recieved a honorary award from Stanford University for his contribution to world music. The most recent one being the "Golden Globe" for the music in "Slumdog Millionaire" and three nominations for the prestigious and most coveted Oscar awards.

Apart from film music, his albums have also been chartbusters like "Vande Matharam", "Jana Gana Mana",etc. His song "Pray For Me Brother " was chosen as the UNO's song for eradication of poverty in world. He also scored a theatre musical "Bombay Dreams" produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. He also charted the music for the theatre production of "Lord Of The Rings". These achievements got him the title "Mozart Of Madras" from TIME Magazine.

Rahman still remains the same god fearing, humble and pious person what he was when entered his career. Mother India is really proud for her son who has taken India to the Globe with the magic of Music which needs no language. As Indians, we salute this great brother for bringing laurels to the nation with his golden globe award and wish him best for winning the Academy awards.