As in Parasakti, Karunanidhi is obsessed here too with the plight of the suffering woman. Actress Meena, the only big-ticket name, plays rich medical student Kannamma who falls in love with Anandan after he saves her from an acid attack. Soon Anandan—now her husband—is missing in action in Kargil and she is wrongly accused of having an affair with his best friend.
The film is about one woman’s struggle, and triumph, in a male-dominated society. The Kargil war seems a pointless backdrop—perhaps only to facilitate Sun TV footage showing Karunanidhi and the late Murasoli Maran making the highest donations among the states to the PM’s Relief Fund. The symbolism is even more pathetic: tsunami waves as indicators of Kannamma’s torment when she learns that her husband is missing; when the character regains composure, the tsunami recedes! Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi also star, as portraits in the background, symbolising the DMK’s role reversal from the anti-Congressism of the ’50s. Kannamma does not work as propaganda or otherwise, even with the mandatory item numbers thrown in. Viewers are warned: another film scripted by Karunanidhi, Mannin Mainthan, is to release shortly.
