Bharathi Kannamma
Poster
Directed byCheran
Written byCheran
Produced byHenry
StarringParthiban
Meena
CinematographyKichas
Edited byK. Thanikachalam
Music byDeva
Production
company
Pankaj Productions
Release date
  • 15 January 1997 (1997-01-15)
Running time
168 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Bharathi Kannamma (/bɑːrʌðɪ/) is a 1997 Indian Tamil-language drama film written and directed by Cheran, starring R. Parthiban and Meena. The film marks Cheran's debut as a director and screenwriter. It was released on 15 January 1997 and emerged a success. Prabhu Solomon remade the film in Kannada as Usire (2001).[1]

Plot

The protagonist is a landlord in Devar Palayam. In a community where wealthy landlords do not normally engage in unskilled labour, he does his own chores to make a social statement that all castes are equal.

In a flashback; Bharathi (Parthiban) is a lower caste worker for a rich landlord, Vellaisamy Thevar (Vijayakumar). He saves Vellaisamy's daughter Kanamma (Meena) at a local fair, and she falls in love with him. Bharathi's sister, Pechi (Indhu), accompanies him to the fair and wants some anklets that Bharati cannot afford. Kanamma waits until everyone leaves after dinner and then gives Pechi some anklets. This is seen by Bharati, who is actually in love with her but does not reciprocate her feelings due to his loyalty towards Vellaisamy. Pechi settles with a higher-caste landlord's son living in the next village.

Vellaisamy thinks of getting his daughter married and finds a suitable candidate. On the day of the ponnu paarkura, a fire starts, and the groom's family views the union to be unfavorable. Afterward, Kanamma's burns are treated by Bharati, and she writes a letter about her love for him, but his name is obscured by her tears. The letter is discovered by her father, who attacks his daughter and tries to discover who she loves. Bharati later tells Kanamma that their relationship cannot happen due to caste differences. Vellaisamy's mother has a heart attack, and her last wish is to see Kanamma married. He consults astrologers who assure him of a match, while Kanamma remains depressed. When Bharathi is escorting some of his master's goods through a forest, he is stopped by Maayan, who has heard of Kanamma's marriage and vows to stop it.

Kanamma makes the goat sacrifice, and Bharati encourages her to accept her new husband, though he does so with great regret. During the sacrifice of the goat, Kanamma hallucinates that she led Bharati before her father and killed him. Throughout the preparations for the wedding, Bharati does not speak to Kanamma.

Pechi returns home and scolds Bharati for neglecting Kanamma. She tells Bharati to stop Kanamma from potentially killing herself, and he runs to her. Maayan and his gang come to the village and attack Bharati, who defeats them. However, he cannot stop Kanamma from committing suicide. He beats the parai at her funeral, unable to speak. After Vellaisamy is guided to light the torch, and all go to bathe in the river, Bharati throws himself on Kanamma's funeral pyre and burns with her. Vellaisamy realised that bharati was the person kannamma was in love with, but did not tell him due to caste problems. Vellaisamy tells to himself that bharati setting himself on pyre is symbolic representation of their love, and the other villagers grieve again for Bharati, and Vellaisamy adopts Pechi(bharati's sister), marries her to her high-caste lover, and sends them to the city.

Years later, Vellaisamy greets Pechi, her husband, and their children at the railway station forgetting about caste and discrimination of villagers.

Cast

Production

Bharathi Kannamma is the directorial and screenwriting debut of Cheran. Arun Vijay and Karthik were initial choices for the lead actor before Parthiban was finalised.[2]

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Deva.[3]

SongSingersLyricsLength
"Chinna Chinna Kanamma"Febi ManiVairamuthu05:16
"Kottungada"Mano04:44
"Mercy Mercy"Suresh PetersVaali04:33
"Naalu Ezhuthu Kathathille"Gangai AmaranVairamuthu01:00
"Naalu Ezhuthu Paduchavare"Swarnalatha01:54
"Poonkatre Poonkatre"K. J. YesudasVaali05:28
"Rayilu Rayilu"VadiveluVaali04:34
"Retakili Rekkai"Sushmitha, ManoVaali05:04
"Thendralukku Theriyuma"Arunmozhi, K. S. ChithraVairamuthu05:14
"Vaadipatti Melamada"Gangai Amaran02:39

Release and reception

Bharathi Kannamma was released on 15 January 1997.[4] Upon release, the film was almost banned due to accusations of caste-subversive content. As a result, some releases had deleted scenes, and in Rajapalayam the film was not immediately released.[5][6] R. P. R. of Kalki praised Cheran for treating the same old plot differently from other directors while also showing the mental flow of characters poetically while praising the acting of Parthiban and Meena but felt director falls flat in Vijayakumar's character. He also praised Cheran for having anti-climax in his debut film but concluded saying its little tough for audience to accept lovers becoming immortal for creating immortal love stories.[7] Ananda Vikatan rated the film 48 out of 100.[8]

Accolades

Event Category Recipient Ref.
Cinema Express Awards Best Actress – Tamil Meena [9]
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Best Actor R. Parthiban[lower-alpha 1] [10]
Filmfare Awards South Best Film – Tamil Bharathi Kannamma [11]
Best Director – Tamil Cheran
Best Actress – Tamil Meena

Notes

  1. ↑ Shared with Vijay for Kadhalukku Mariyadhai.

References

  1. ↑ Menon, Neelima (23 December 2014). "Prabhu Solomon Interview: The Perfect Wave". Silverscreen India. Archived from the original on 17 May 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  2. ↑ "சேரனின் முதல் படம் பாரதி கண்ணம்மா" [Cheran's first film Bharathi Kannamma]. Maalai Malar (in Tamil). 19 March 2018. Archived from the original on 8 January 2024. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  3. ↑ "Bharathi Kannamma". JioSaavn. 19 September 2019. Archived from the original on 18 May 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  4. ↑ Dhananjayan 2011, p. 196.
  5. ↑ Pillai, Sreedhar (29 March 1998). "Mandal and movies" (PDF). Sunday. Vol. 25, no. 13. pp. 55–57. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  6. ↑ Nambath, Suresh (28 December 2003). "The politics of art". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 22 October 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  7. ↑ ஆர். பி. ஆர். (2 February 1997). "பாரதி கண்ணம்மா". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 25. Archived from the original on 18 May 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  8. ↑ Dhananjayan 2011, p. 198.
  9. ↑ "Cinema Express Awards: Sree Devi Gave Away Best Actor Award For Sarath Kumar". Dinakaran. 24 August 1998. Archived from the original on 3 February 1999. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  10. ↑ "Awards Tamilnadu Government Cinema Awards For 1997 Announced: Best Film Award For "Arunachalam", "Surya Vamsam"". Dinakaran. 27 November 1998. Archived from the original on 3 February 1999. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  11. ↑ "Latest General Knowledge". Competition Science Vision. Pratiyogita Darpan. August 1998. p. 791. Archived from the original on 6 October 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.

Bibliography

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.