Krishnaveni Panjaalai (U)

Synopsis

Kadir (Hemachandran) and Poonkothai (Nandana) are cotton mill workers in southern Tamil Nadu. Their affection grows into love but once the mill closes down following a strike, life gets hard for them and everyone working along with them.

Critic's Review

Story: Kadir (Hemachandran) and Poonkothai (Nandana) are cotton mill workers in southern Tamil Nadu. Their affection grows into love but once the mill closes down following a strike, life gets hard for them and everyone working along with them. Movie Review: It is every director's dream to debut with a movie that creates an impact among all sections of society. Set in Udumalpet in Coimbatore dictrict, ' Krishnaveni Panjaalai' gets it right by taking us back in time into the lives of mill workers and their joys and sorrows. Director Dhanapalan Padmanabhan does a good job, but a better screenplay could have taken the movie to another level. ' Krishnaveni Panjaalai' carefully recreates the late 1980s when several textile mills in the region began to close down, creating unrest among the workers. The movie captures this particular period in a realistic manner, as also the caste-related tensions. Where the movie suffers is with its pacing. The director falters in trying to give equal importance to the plight of the mill workers and the romance between the lead pair, which sort of sticks out and dampens the narration. Also, the song 'Rojamalaiye' comes in the way of the story's flow though the melodious music by N R Ragunandhan is in tune with the movie's setting. 'Aalaikari' and 'Un Kankal' come out tops in the album, and the later has been wonderfully captured by Suresh Bharghav. Hemachandran and Nandana do a good job, and their chemistry works well though the actress could do with a bit of polishing as she tends to go overboard in the emotional scenes. Shanmuga Raja, playing the role of a mill supervisor madly in love with Poonkothai, is a treat to watch. The large cast hampers the movie and characters such as that of M S Bhaskar end up with little to do. 'Krishnaveni Panjaalai' works in parts and could have been more engaging had its screenplay been more tightly knit.