Kaatru Veliyidai - L'Étendue du Vent

I don't understand why this film got many negative reviews perhaps they thought this film portrays Lust in the name of love.This film portrays both that's why I called it "A story of Passionate love".A love between two almost opposite characters who wants enjoy love and sexual pleasures but not prepared for Family life and it's responsibilities.The psychological differences between the two main characters were well portrayed. Karthi suits his role when he plays "Rough" Character but his facial expressions irritated me during romantic scenes.Mani's Heroines are usually well educated,independent and adorable. Dr.Leela (Aditi) is an addition to this list. Aditi did a good job there. I was surprised to see RJ Balaji in Dr'Ilyas Hussain's role.As usual visuals were eye pleasing and I enjoyed them very much.Songs were good.I was disappointed that Mani was trying to normalize premarital sexual relationships.I'm aware premarital sexual relationship is increasing in India and SriLanka but portraying those as culturally "Normal" is unacceptable.

A Maniratnam film always has a "solid" base for human relationships and this film isn't different in that aspect. Where it differs is the story narration - that is less verbose, more visual(and cryptic). The Characters (VC & Dr.Leela) seems to be well thought- out (but defined more through visual cues & motifs). The director has focused more on reflecting the "moments"(What happens) - of their love, togetherness and conflicts than elaborating their story(and the Whys).. These moments give a trajectory that's sinusoidal. The final culmination (climax) might seem out-of-place for many, but for me that an organic end (where the characters seem to resolve their conflicts within and with the other, and end-up together,at least that moment).. This movie is definitely a visual treat and will stand-out as a classic(though it doesn't appear so today)

P.S: If Karthi's(VC) acting has irritated you, then the character has achieved its purpose(the same goes with you ending up adoring Dr.Leela -Aditi).How these opposites connect is a phenomenon(you call it love or whatever) that's mystical, not logical.. And the movie just reflects that.

This is a Ravi Varman film, not Maniratnam's. Each and every shot screams the cinematographer's talent. It's like he painted them rather than captured them. RV just enhances the beauty of everything through his skills. If RV is one side of the Kaatru veliyidai coin, ARR is the other. He does what he always does, especially with Maniratnam. A soundtrack that's gonna keep ringing in our ears forever. Songs and scores, ARR nailed them both.

But the same can't be said about Maniratnam's story. Bit of lazy writing. In one scene a character asks another "y does the heroine put up with a abusive, misogynistic hero?" and the answer is "LOVE". It's disappointing that Maniratnam resorts to this age old drama after his last modern outing, OKK. Lot of the scenes are inconsistent. The interval between Azhagiye and Sarattu Vandiyil songs is just 2 min, and the latter seems forced. The film is promoted as a poetic Romantic tale, but I see is an toxic relationship between an abusive hero and stupid heroine. The heroine here wants to be respected but she gives in to the hero for the sake of love.

Aditi Rao does a splendid job, but Karthi does falter. He needs to work in emoting vulnerabilities. The production design is great.

Overall RV and ARR have put their best to save MR's weak story.

There is a line between portraying an abusive relationship as problematic, and showing it as glorious. Prisoner of war VK (Karthi) reminisces about his romance with an army hospital doctor, Leela (Aditi Rao), while plotting his return to India. The film, mostly told in flashback, is an endless array of abusive segments pegged as somehow romantic and indicative of the intensity of the fighting man. With each missed warning signal of "Run, Leela, Run" the educated, independent doctor is endeared more and more by the egregious excesses of her fighter pilot suitor. If relationship abuse were were required to be flagged with a written warning accompanying the scene (as the Indian government requires for scenes with characters drinking or smoking), the film would have a second layer of subtitles. The only mildly redeeming feature of the film is the locales, which Mani Ratnam's films are known for, though they scarcely do much to assuage the unwitting unfolding of the portrait of an acid attacker as a young man. The screenplay mainly consists of seven or short-film like sequences of bizarre behavior, offset by a momentary apology and close-up shots of the protagonist's pained face, to set up the next. There is no real plot development or dive into the characters, which even the lovers of the MGR model of macho screen romance would find hard to empathize with. The best scene in the film is when a paunchy character actor dies, and is stuffed into a coffin at best designed for a svelte fashion model, leaving the audience to rue the scriptwriter editing away the compelling scene in which his arms would need to be sawed off to fit the grave. That scene was only saved by its irrelevance to the plot.

Good visuals and music by AR Rahman but script is not intense enough in this latest Maniratnam outing. Karthi and Aditi shine; this is Aditi's career-best, no doubt. The script is average and the characters have a 90s style persona to them. Cant really help wondering is the movie trying to connect to current gen youths or youths of the past?

Katru Veliyidai fails to connect with the classic Maniratnam romance in the past where he wrote the script for the characters, adopting a film making style that is apt for the script rather than going along with latest trends. the characters here are fine but the romance and character interconnections is solely missing. As a result this movie comes out as a character study rather than a romantic film .

Recall watching Roja - and earlier, all of Mani Sir's films - and being awed, charmed and floored by his craft. Today, if his films - post Alaipayuthey, Kannathil Muthamittal and Aaytha Ezhuthu won international awards but fared poorly in Asia, thats because today's young people aren't the Arvindswamy or the Madhubala types, maybe they are not even Madhavan /shalini types... What this film does is merge the the characters from alaipayuthey and Roja to come up with new stereotypes that is supposedly apt for the late 2010s

The movie could have done better if it has more action and Pakistan jail scenes intermixed with with the flashback romance.