'Rameswaram' was hailed as a movie that tells a love story in the backdrop of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. True. It has a love story and it shows the refugees. But the movie has nothing to do with the refugees' issue. The serious issue has been used as just an item to add spice to the movie. The backdrop just serves as a plain backdrop, like the one you have on the wall of your living room.
'Rameswaram' deals with a love - typical filmy masala love. The girl falls for the boy at the drop of a hat. The girl chases the boy, who cannot afford to entertain such thoughts.
Vasanthi (Bhavana) is the daughter of the big man (Lal), who does a lot of help for the refugees.
Bhavana instantly falls for Jeevan (Jeeva), a Tamil refugee, staying in the camp in Rameswaram. Jeevan, nurturing a dream to go back to his home land, keeps on discouraging the girl, who is stubborn in her love. Jeevan's heart, influenced by the pure love of the girl, starts melting slowly.
Enters Bose Venkat, the cousin of Vasanthi with full of dreams to marry his childhood sweetheart. He joins as an Inspector in the local police station. The whole family is eagerly awaiting their marriage.
Problem arises when the family comes to know about the love. The inspector and his uncle try to eliminate the boy. They keep on troubling him without much success.
Meanwhile the refugees get a chance to go back and Jeevan has to go with them. He promises Vasanthi that he would come back to marry her. The family is determined to stop him. Vasanthi decides to end her life if Jeevan doesn't turn up. Everything goes on a predictable manner. You started yawning before reaching the climax. The climax, predictable again, shows how everything gets settled.
Director Selvam has tried or pretended to try to deal with the love story in the backdrop of the refugees' plight. He has miserably failed to convincingly combine the two. The backdrop doesn't add any dimension to the predictable silly love story and the love track doesn't provide any relief to the serious issue of refugees. The script hasn't justified the handling of the refugee issue. The tame love story fails to kindle any interest. As a result, the movie ends up as a predictable and dull fare.
The movie however, has some plus points like performances, cinematography, back ground score, and the cast selection to play refugees. Jeeva has once again proved that he is capable of handling strong characters. He has shown a lot of improvement in his facial expressions and body language. His single dimensional character, however, limits his scope to perform.
Bhavana looks beautiful. She spreads her charm with her pleasant smiles and looks. She is energetic and youthful. Her performance, though not outstanding, is flawless.
Lal and Bose Venkat have done their respective parts well. Bose gets more scope and ably justifies his role. Manivannan in a small role doesn't make any impact.
The actors depicting refugees have done commendable job. Lakshana(Santhi) and Sampath are particularly good. They have got the intensity right. Santhi's body language fits the role perfectly.
The cinematography by Vetri and R.B. Gurudev is a major asset of the film. It captures the beauty of the coastal area. The lighting and camera angles are amazing. The scenes that show the arrival and departure of the refugees stand out.
Niru's music is competent. `Ellaraiyum Eththi Poga' song is good. His background score is marvelous.
The fact that no one has successfully attempted to speak in the accent of Sri Lankan Tamils is a major flaw in a movie that has so many Sri Lankan Tamils as its characters. This puts the entire team in poor
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