penance n repentance

i had promised in my last blog (if i remember right) to post a review on thavamai thavam irundhu... the reason why i didnt do it earlier is that the movie spans over a good three hours n writing a review for bluffmaster was plainly an easier task... now lemme see, if i remember anything at all about the movie...
the thing i remember vividly about it is that the protagonist (i mean raj kiran here, not mr.whatshisname), is shown pedalling something all through the movie... first the press n then his cycle, the cycle again... n again n then the press after that... after all that show of pedalling, my mind refused to register anything else i guess... anywayz, let me begin at the beginning... this movie is about this hard working dad who dotes on his sons... he has a couple of them... the younger one being cheran... (who told him he could act????) anywayz... the dad owns a printing press... slogs day in n day out to send his sons to a good school, buy them clothes, books n things n in general keep them as content as he can... this i think is a summary of the first one or one n a half hours... ;) as i mentioned b4, theres a lot of pedalling going on... now, the first son does his diploma, gets his dad to pay for a job n as he proves to be a village-casanova (har de har har), his dad gets him married... n yup, the dad guy keeps borrowing money n stuff... permanently-under-the-tension-of-debts kinda thing... u get my point, dont u? so yeah, the elder son n his wife rnt too happy about living in the same house as their parents n so they move out.... ofcourse causing the old couple a gr8 amount of distress... the younger son, does his engineering (heaven help me)... comes across this girl in college with whom he (inevitably) falls in love... now abt the girl he falls in love with... she is seen explaining a math prob orally (excuse me while i snicker!), in english (heaven help her! u know wat happens to u if u speak in english in an engineering coll!!!! right! u get boycotted! or girl-cotted as the case maybe ;))... anywayz, all this just adds to the attraction the hero feels for her... to cut the long story short, the two become a couple... n during one umm... "study session", they get physical n yeah ofcourse the girl gets pregnant... now for some unfathomable reason, the girl n the guy run away to chennai... i mean, it wud have been so much simpler to get their parents' consent n tie the knot... but no,,, they run away n there he weds her by the simple process of tying a manja kayir... (if only it worked that way in real life)... anywayz, the hero is forced to take up menial jobs to make sure they get enuff to eat... i think there was a song somewhere at this juncture (cant really be sure) n the hardships they face seem worse when there's a sad song playing in the bg... (guess thats how it was intended to be... i mean, when the guy cant act, u make it seem like he can... ) the girl soon gives birth to a baby n the hero who is so financially down that he cant pay the hospital bills, calls up a friend back in the same village he hails from... he comes back from work n wonder of wonders (or prolly it was shock of shocks ;)) finds his dad squatted on the floor in his single room "house"... anywayz, the dad with his usual (and exceptionally annoying) generosity gives the son some money to help take care of the mom n new-born, n leaves... the couple then decide that they will be better off in their village n go back... the mother-in-law initially has some issues, with this particular decision of theirs, but then yeah, in true tamil cinema style, these issues are soon resolved, by a simple act of placing the wailing child in her grandmom's hands... the m-i-l then melts down n they soon settle down together and are one big happy family... wat happens after this is the movie's saving grace... by now anywayz, the audience is prolly half asleep n only just waiting for the whole crap to come to an end... anywayz... the hero soon lands a good job, makes a tidy bit of money, climbs up the social ladder..... u get the idea... anywayz, the oldies (ie. raj kiran n his wife) also live it up a lil bit n most of the happy scenes are all rushed through (nope sorry, not rushed through... "rush" is not a word to be used in the context of this movie ;)) in the same way as the tragic ones were... right! ofcourse with the help of a song... anywayz... the mom (saranya plays cheran's mom), kicks the bucket... the dad ofcourse retires back to the village to live again in the house which holds the precious memories of his wife... now the older son, isnt too well off ... comes crawling back to his dad n demands that the house be sold so he can get a share of it (to use for business or some such thing... dont really remember)... he then accuses the dad of being partial to his younger son... the old man is devastated... preoccupied with what his son accused him of, he slips while walking somewhere n slips into coma... regains consciousness only to ask his younger son if he too felt his dad hadnt done enough for him, n on being assured to the contrary, breathes his last... u think now that the ordeal is over, oops, sorry! u think the movie is finally over i mean; but no... theres more... the younger son promises to help his brother out... the movie finally ends with the audience gawking at the third generation poring over their grand-dads biography... n yup, they read it loud enough for us to hear and u finally see the credits after that... phew! AMEN! wat remains to be done is to wake up the sleeping members of ur party, (which u put together with gr8 enthusiam for a second show), curse the moment u decided to watch this movie, n walk out of the theatre more bored than a month of lectures can make u... parting shot: penance refers to the title n repentance refers to ur foremost reaction on seeing the movie :D