If you are an Ilayaraja fan such as this reviewer, you would have your list of those songs that are so enchanting, musically and visually, but you haven’t had a chance to check out what happens before or after the rendition ends.
One such soulful number is Kodaikala Kaatre from the 1981-film Panneer Pushpangal. If there is a list featuring the best of Ilayaraja’s music, this song is always present and is as soothing and dreamy as can be. In the backdrop of a cute hill station where the sun is barely strong enough to even cast a shadow, a bunch of smartly-dressed adolescent boys and girls surround an enigmatic, spectacled teacher with a guitar hanging down his shoulders as he sits before a fire and sings while his fingers delicately strum the chords. Among the teenagers are two lovers, exchanging glances even as they sing and dance with the crowd. Have you wondered who are these people and what is their story?
Few Tamil films have ventured to explore the complexity of adolescent relationships. This movie produced by Gangai Amaran and directed by Santhana Bharathi – P Vasu (Bharathi Vasu) duo attempts just that.
Like the misty village of Ketti (about eight kilometres downhill form Ooty) where the movie is set, most elements in this narrative are also shrouded. For instance, the protagonists Ashwin Prabhu played by Suresh Kumar and Uma played by Shanthi Krishna are senior students but the is no mention of which class they are studying. Also, the two have parents but there is hardly any mention of who they are and what they do. Uma’s mother and Prabh’s father play decent-sized roles but there is hardly any mention of their names or backgrounds.
The movie opens at a boy’s hostel where Prabhu and his friends play a prank on their hostel warden played by Vennira Aadai Moorthy. The plot begins to unfold when a new student, Uma, joins the school. A day before joining the school, Uma rams her car into Prabhu’s bicycle when they first meet. Subsequently, Prabhu finds Uma in the same class and feels a connection. When Uma’s car runs into an accident and she is injured, Prabhu rushes to meet her and confesses to have worried about her. Soon, a beautiful and innocent relationship builds between the two, which is naturally resented by Prabhu’s friends Sreeni, Gopi and others who always tail the couple curiously. The adolescent romance is brought fully alive by Raja’s magical background score that add life to the visuals.
A new teacher, Prem (played by Prathap Pothen) joins the school and takes up residence in the outhouse of Uma’s family bungalow. Unlike other teachers in the school, Prem has a progressive outlook and deals with his students in a mature manner. Soon he becomes popular with them for his unusual ways of handling the troublesome among them and this attracts Uma to him too.
As a resident of Uma’s outhouse, Prem begins to spend a lot of time with her. Uma, who also enjoys her teacher’s company, often ignores Prabhu to spend more time with the teacher. During a school picnic, Uma is with Prem all the time leaving Prabhu heartbroken.
Totally dejected, Prabhu — like most adolescents –displays his frustration by back-answering his teachers and creating ruckus in the campus. When asked to explain his actions or apologize, he remains stubborn and draws the ire of the school principal who wants him suspended. Prem intervenes and saves the situation through his empathetic approach and convinces Prabhu that he looks at Uma just like any other student and there is nothing beyond that.
The couple reunite only to face more trouble – this time due to one of their friends’ pranks – and the matter reaches their parents. How Prabhu and Uma deal with their insensitive parents’ and take their relationship forward, or not, forms the rest of the plot.
As mentioned before, there is not much of a plot or any strong characterization worth writing about. But Panneer Pushpangal ventures into a zone where Tamil films have mostly stayed away from: Young boys and girls with evolving personalities struggling to cope with love, lust, and a controlling, unsupportive environment.
The teenagers’ response to their age-related conflicts are delicately captured by the camera of M C Sekar in the backdrop of the mesmerizing beauty of the Nilgiris.
If not for Ilayaraja’s music, this subtle film about adolescent romance might never have been talked about more than 42 years after it first came out. But then, who can forget Prathap Pothen lip-synching to ‘Kodaikala Kaatree’ and the bubbly Shanthi Krishna romancing Suresh Kumar in ‘Poonthalir Aada’ in the cozy hill town.
Panneer Pushpangal is one of those films you should reserve for a rainy holiday – literally – when there is nothing better to do than watch an adolescent romance stretching in your couch with some warm tea or coffee and fried snacks while reliving those days when were unreasonably, hopelessly in love with a classmate.
Catch this film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFQ0RNaNEOU