Rhythm

One of the better movies released at the end of the 90s. The big thing is the usual high quality music of AR Rahman and Vasanth's family oriented romance story Karthikeyan(Arjun), a photo editor in Bombay, is a widower, having lost his wife Aruna(Jyotika) a few years back. His parents have only one mission in life - to see him married and happy again. Chitra(Meena), a tamil girl whom Karthikeyan meets, gives them hope. She is a widow, her husband(Ramesh Arvind) having died too, and also has a son Shiva(Master Aditya). When they exchange their sad stories, Karthikeyan and Chitra find out that their pasts are linked.

In fact i like this movie for the fact that it is so realistic that it could happen or is happening to someone u know in real life or even your own life in the future. Like all Vasanth's movies, they show their quality years after u view them..He lets his films do all the talking' His films had a strong message and he managed to reach the masses with his excellent narrative style.

A.R.Rahman with his music and the cinematographer Arthur Wilson have done an excellent job together with the director vasanth to deliver. The editing and camera-work is subdued, subtle and portray still frames long enough to view the audience in the the story.

Every stage of the relationship between Arjun and Meena has been told naturally and with minimum of fuss. Their initial friction and subsequent gradual friendship are uncontrived and natural. the couple meet several times at the train station in the first half and these scenes are well done.. Both their actions and dialogs during these portions are very uncinematic and real like what happens in real life.... The role of Meena's neighbour is also inessential and is obvious as a ploy that allows Arjun to indulge in a fight sequence and maintain his 'Action King' sobriquet. But Vasanth recovers in time with a crisp climax that is underplayed and very effective with rain pouring down in cold ooty train station

I wish this talented director all the very best for all his future projects and hope that the stars shine bright for him

Amazing movie and a music, Meena and Arjun's acting is mind blowing. It gives me a chill whenever i watch this movie.

This movie is a classic; one of the best movies you'll ever see. It has a simple and modest storyline, a well scripted screenplay, characters that you can easily relate to, subtle romance, beautiful settings both in Ooty and in Mumbai, a beautiful and haunting background music score that brings out your emotions even if minor flaws in acting fail to do so. Arjun is very mature - one of his best displays of acting, Meena looks stunning as a widow who develops feelings for another widower but hides her feelings fearing the social stigma against widow remarriage, Jothika and Ramesh Arvind play their roles to the T. Lakshmi could not have done more justice to the role of a staunch and orthodox Iyengar mother-in-law who disowns her son and later feels guilt and sympathy towards her daughter-in-law after having lost her son.

Easily the most beautiful family entertainer (in tamil) of the past decade!

9/10

As a foreigner, "Rhythm" was the first Tamil film that I saw that I truly enjoyed. I worked in south India for ten years, but I could never really enjoy the films, which seemed to be made primarily for mass appeal in the Tamil market, and didn't really have a lot of appeal internationally. "Rhythm" was a refreshing break. It still had traces of those clichés: there are still song duets that feel out of place in a serious story, there is some pointless action scene in the second half, but overall, it was a very satisfying film. At its heart, it is a very simple love story between widow and widower, but it's told in a very subtle, adult way that is somewhat rare to find. Both the characters are very likable and their dialogues and interactions are all played in a realistic and quiet manner. Their relationship grows gradually and comes to a slow conclusion - there is no big climactic emotional romance scene. But that quiet approach makes it very believable and sweet, especially because it doesn't drown itself in sentimentality. This is the kind of love story that might just be happening somewhere in the world today, instead of just in a movie.

I just wish that it didn't have any of typical Indian film things like song-and-dance numbers. Don't get me wrong, the songs are nice, but they are something that feels weird to moviegoers outside of India. If "Rhythm" was a 100% straight movie it's something I would recommend to anyone without a second thought, even if they aren't familiar with Tamil movies.

A mature love story that never fails to touch the heart... Rhythm is a movie which has a mature aura, presence and performance by two of the biggest stars in tamil cinema history - Arjun and Meena

The movie basically is about widowed people meeting each other by chance and forming a relationship in a city. both of whom hide sadness in their pasts and find out that they have more than just this sadness in common.Much of the movie centres around their lives and the people around them. Although the movie did not do well at the box office, years later,It became cult favourite on the internet because the events shown can happen to anyone in real life. . This movie makes the most impact in multiple viewings . Year after i watched the movie a dozen times and it still does not fade away. Each viewing gives a better feel than the first time one watches it and tends to erase any memory of the movie .

The movie has a solid script and screenplay for most of the time bordering on narcissism and nostalgia.It never resorts to cheap or forced sentiments at any point and a touch of realism pervades the entire movie.many of the movie events on screen can be related to real life. Looks like director vasanth did his usual experimentation at last minute and stuck to a bound script. Good for him. A must watch movie and excellent contender for Oscars performance especially for the female lead Meena throughout... Although the movie was not a big success at the box office, it wins critical acclaim , much like the stuff one sees in international film festivals.

The lead actress Meena , a popular 1990s actress who seems to have recently retired from the scene was exceptionally brilliant performance in each scene. Strangely enough, she looks the best in this movie in terms of makeup ...In my opinion, this movie had her in her best performance to date...Kudos to director vasanth

Actor Arjun primarily known for action roles has attempted a totally offbeat movie this time and probably the only movie which shows him in a restrained performance

The other best part of this movie was the music which came as a refreshing break in the year 2000. the music for this film by AR Rahman was one of the finest in his career. Combining new age styles with commercial acoustic , The background score is a clear winner and is used effectively by the director vasanth and AR Rahman to convey the intense emotions on screen.

Camera work is slick but restrained for a movie in this time period, with a mixture of ambient lighing , natural landscapes and effects as rain. THough the visuals generally come as pleasing to the eye in the first half hour of the show ( train station, subway and the metro city feel of bangalore), they seem to be marred in the later stages..By then u will not notice too much of that though since the story have gotten quite absorbed into u by then

Overall Rhythm is reminiscent of yesteryear's tamil movies of the 1980s which touched on subjects like marital ,divorce, death and hope. Real life, real people and real events. ALso in the mix are themes like strict culturalism and traditions of India that are still continuing in their modern society.

Overall , Rhythm makes yr heart go Rhythmic. Highly recommended