I checked out Director Cheran’s movie Pandavar Bhoomi (Tamil). This movie is by no means recent, but I am so hopelessly out of touch with Tamil films and its more recent stars that selecting a Tamil film at the video store has become a major challenge. The net result is that I manage to see one Tamil film, maybe once every 3-4 months at best.
I was really impressed with another more recent film directed by Cheran, titled Autograph, that I diligently searched for a move directed by him and landed this one. I was a little disappointed, mostly due to the high standards set by Autograph. Nevertheless, I thought Pandavar Bhoomi was a watchable film.
A bunch of new actors (I think!) do a fine job of their roles. The hero looks a lot like Vjiaykumar (who also plays a small role in the film), probably his son? The theme of the movie is certainly different from conventional films. Based on Autograph and this movie, the director seems to have a passion for building stories based on past events. He clearly enjoys probing the past in avid detail. The story revolves around a five sibling family which migrates from a village amidst a tragedy and later returns to their roots. To re-live their past they decide to re-construct their ancestral home. The engineer who builds their home develops a close relationship with the family, particularly a girl in the family. Unfortunately for him, the historic family tragedy comes in the way of a love story, otherwise headed for marital bliss.
The Director has thrown in one fight sequence at the end and a couple of songs, otherwise the movie is pretty “clean” and devoid of unnecessary add-ons. He has also thrown in some left leaning utterances about Swadeshi-Videshi for social message purposes. Overall, the movie is watchable but no where close to Autograph.
Pakora Korner 