Mouna Ragam

maniratnam is hailed universally as a great film-maker with a unique style. although i am not a great fan of his, this movie i think was his best - even ahead of roja.

mouna ragam is a tender movie that pulls at the heartstrings, revathi - in one of her best ever roles - absoluitely steals the show. maniratnam handles the complex relationship between the husband and wife beautifully. kartik as the wife's ex-lover scintillates in his cameo.

the capacity of the human heart to love, its wont to love more than one person is tenderly shown, revathi's reluctance to love her husband and how she slowly changes heart but refuses to acknowledge it are what makes the movie a delight to watch. a movie that can and should ne seen many times over.

this is a tru classic that deserves a full 10.

Mouna Ragam (1986) : Brief Review -

A Sensibile and Classic Romantic saga by Mani Ratnam which tells the difference between infatuated Boyfriend and Responsible Husband. Mouna Ragam has remained underrated for years, especially for pan India audience. Tamil audience is very much familiar with this film but outside South industry, only few film lovers knows about Mouna Ragam's existence. The same happened to me as well. Even I watched his other Mani Ratnam classics first and then came to know about this super Classic. I strongly believe, this film deserves equal popularity as Nayakan, Roja, Bombay or other popular classic of Mani Ratnam. I consider Romance as a dumb genre cause there are hardly some classics which makes sense otherwise it's all just typically melodrama or reconciliation or immatured love stories. With Mouna Ragam, i can say that it is a very matured film for the audience who have matures taste in films. Someone who likes dumb romance like Arjun Reddy or Kabir Singh or some other blockbuster romances (commercially i meant) should stay away from it. It might cause a humiliation to your immatured and childish tatse and then you'll start disliking the same dumb love stories which you have been loving for a long time. Mouna Ragam tells a story of a forced arrange marriage turning into sensible realisation of true love and life-long commitments. It has every scene set in right zone with right conviction and all of it is highly sensible and intellegent. That's important, being intelligence is very important believe me, especially in this Dumb Genre. Revathi and Mohan both gets the roles to remember, something which will always stay with audience and especially married couples. Mani Ratnam has made many classics in other genres, and some of those films are actually overhyped by fans, i would be happy to see this film getting the same hype as those, deservingly.

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest.

A true Mani Ratnam classic. In a world where people walk away from relationships the moment there are signs of trouble this movie shows that love and commitment are rewarded. If you care to look under the surface, this movie explains how and why marriages in conservative societies last even though people are brought together by fortune rather than by a liking for each other.

The characters in the movie are powerful and well supported by the cast. Ilayaraja shows why he was the king of Indian movie music with some lovely and captivating music.

The movie revolves around initially with a Forced arrange marriage b/w Matured guy and a childish lady !! Where the Guy liked her at the first sight, but our heroine is not ready for this marriage. But to compromise family she anyway marry and flew to North India with her husband ! Situations dont favour our heroine,where her only demand is divorce . Hero tries various ways to win her, but she stays away and finally reveals a Heartbroke she had in the past, which is super narrated in crispy way , The duo enjoyed and are about to do register marriage,but unluck favour, Her lover who is also a social activist, gets accused and on their marriage day,lover gets gun shot by police and leaves his life. So , our heroine narrated her story to her husband,then he realises her love. But still he loves her deep down. The movie also has some classic comedies , which is famous and all time favourite. So , they roam about Agra and give some time to spend time.But still heroine needs divorce. So our hero decides to give divorce notice to fulfil her wish. All of a sudden, hero gets attacked by his ex office members and he will be severely bleeding . Our heroine shows her identity as she is the wife of the dying person, which will be portrayed in a very sensitive touch . Then she start to take care of him, once her parents visit them, he shows some disrespect to her parents . When our heroine aask reason for his act, he admits that they should understand that this divorce should be mutual. So our heroine feels guilt on this . Then the final days arrives , they are about to be seperated , where heroine is about to leave her husband and settle with her parents. !!! As always , a happy ending is all we want , our hero runs a long way. Our heroine Pull the train chain and stop the train. A happy ending scene where our hero lifts our heroine to take her back to home, ending in a Note where the two rails gets joined. 💞

I personally believe it's Mani Ratnam's best film because it doesn't have any political plotlines like his other films and so it can be enjoyed by general audience.

The film's story is still relevant in 2021. Women in India are free to make every decision except their marriage. Women may date many men or even fall in love but they can't marry without their parents permission. Arranged marriages used to work well back when there were no social media platforms. But now many arranged marriages don't last long because it's easy to meet new people. This film has protrayed plight of every Indian women in the society.

Revathi has given phenomenol performance and eliyaraja's music is icing on the cake.