Yeraatha Malai song:

Listening to Malaysia Vasudevan’s songs collection the other day brought back old memories. My wife and I started discussing his memorable numbers, range, and emotion. Discussion led to topic of movies where his voice elevated the movie and the first movie that came to our mind was Muthal Mariyathai. So, we decided to watch the movie over the weekend. I had watched the movie first time during my second year of college when it got released. I don’t recollect watching it again end to end after that. Of course, the songs ended up in the favorite list.

I was little apprehensive whether the movie will work after three decades. Will it fit in the current times? I was in for a surprise. After the first few minutes of familiarity, we were fully immersed in the movie universe as if we were watching it for the first time. While I liked the movie when I watched it in 1985, I connected with the movie much better this time. My appreciation for the director Bharathiraja also went up in the second viewing. This could be also because my reading and understanding of cinema as medium has improved over the last three decades. My take is the movie comes across as a timeless classic, stands the test of time.

The plot line is unusual even for that time and current. It is about a relationship between a middle-aged village chief, Malaichami, and a young woman, Kuyil. This is not the usual two good looking young boy and girl falling in love at first sight story. The film opens with the friends and family of Malaichami gathered around him on his deathbed. The story gets into flashbacks through his life. To mention the story in one line, Malaichami unhappily married to the unpleasant, ill-tempered Ponnatha, finds solace in his friendship with Kuyil, which looks socially awkward due to wide age gap, and it leads to complications. Strength of the movie is how the director brings his creativity, style, and narrative techniques to give us the perspective of the relationship. I counted 3 man-woman relationships, no erase that, 5 if we include the two minor ones.

Continued in the link: Readers Write In #638: Muthal Mariyathai – A movie that has aged well and engages us even after 3 decades