Rettai Vaal Kuruvi

Happened to watch this old movie "Rettai Vaal Kuruvi" for the first time; I was quite surprised to know that such a movie was made during the 80s. The movie again revolves around bigamy, which is nothing new. The director (Balu Mahendra) has projected what he wanted in a bold fashion. Mohan is married to Archana; Mohan is desperate to get into family way but Archana insists on planning their family, guess this was because of the serious campaign by the Indian government to control the population explosion. The open discussions people get into in the movie about sex and the use of contraceptives is quite surprising. The liberal attitude exhibited was quite rebellious. I am not sure what kind of opposition this movie would have received during the 80s when I believe our society was so closed and conservative. Some scenes where dumb but the movie on the whole was really interesting. Archana's voice was really annoying at times. Mohan was at his very best with his histrionics and for once gave some respite to the mike. Radhika is the other female lead; she is a singer in the movie and falls for Mohan. Mohan too falls in love with Radhika and impregnates her even before marriage (Kushboo) :-) Also, Archana becomes pregnant in the mean time. Both Archana & Radhika are admitted to the same hospital for delivery. As usual you can expect the confusion that is due as the movie tends towards the climax. I am not sure how many got a chance to watch this movie, but IRs songs for the movie were a super hit like.. "Kannan Vanthu Paadugindraa.." I am told is based on Nattabairavi and "Raja Raja chozhan naan.." (Ar/Av goes like this S R2 G2 M1 P D3 N3 S S N3 D3/D2 P M1 G2 R2 S, no staight match but very closely match Varunapriya & Naaghabaranam).

I don't recall this movie ever being telecasted on Doordharshan, for that matter not even on any of those private tamil channels. Now coming to the Kushboo issue, why all those political parties (PMK, DP) threw a tantrum over what kushboo commented about pre-marital sex. It seems quite absurd; people should realize that such absurd protests happen once in a while to get some kind of political/media mileage. In a way both Kushboo and Suhasini gained some media mileage in the process which they would not have got, otherwise. For PMK this has become a routine, the big brother attitude, trying to act as the moral police. Dalit Panthers, nobody knows who these people are, they really don't represent a majority and they also prey on such petty issues to gain political mileage. Another perspective; why is the media itself so damn interested in covering such issues?...because of the interest people show in such things. Our society is full of gossip mongers, they just need some petty things to chew on.

The irony here is that few years back the same people/fans built a temple for Kushboo.