Paarthale Paravasam (transl. Ecstasy, just watching) is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by K. Balachander, for whom this was his 100th film.[1] It was produced by Balachander's home banner Kavithalayaa Productions and stars MadhavanSimran, Raghava Lawrence and Sneha . The film's music was composed by A. R. Rahman, whilst A. Venkatesh was cinematographer. It tells the story of a couple going through a breakup after the husband is exposed for having had a child from a juvenile relationship. It also shows the introduction of love interests for the couple, and if they reconcile, forms the crux of the plot.
Paarthale Paravasam released on 14 November 2001 to mixed reviews and became a commercial failure.[2]
Plot
Madhava is a doctor, and a single appearance in a film as an actor has made him the heartthrob of thousands of girls. But he decides not to continue with his film career since he promised to his late father to dedicate his life to medicine and social service.
Madhava marries Simi. But a revelation about his past love affair with a college friend with whom he fathered a son causes both his mother and his wife to become furious with him. Soon Simi divorces Madhava, but they continue to remain friends and even go to the extent of fixing each other's second marriages.
Simi decides to get Madhava married to Chella, a nurse at his hospital, while Madhava decides to get Simi married to Azhagu, a professional stage dancer. But in order to convince Azhagu's father to get Azhagu married to Simi, he had to agree with Azhagu's greedy father to give up the land on which he is constructing a hospital for cancer patients.
Madhava and Chella's wedding and Simi and Azhagu's wedding are fixed on the same date. But Azhagu marries one of his cousins on that date on learning about his father's greed. Then Chella's parents find out about Madhava's past and call off the wedding. In the end, Madhava and Simi remarry and Chella marries Kumaran, Madhava's colleague.
Paarthale Paravasam was launched as Balachander's 100th film at his office in Chennai.[3] The original cast announced on the day of the launch included noted singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. However, he was replaced by prominent poet Vaali before the shoot started.[4] Moreover, Raju Sundaram was initially supposed to play the role eventually portrayed by Lawrence in the film.[5] Balachandar managed to select Kamal Haasan in a guest appearance, but failed to do the same with Rajinikanth.[6]
Production of the film was delayed multiple times during the shoot owing to rains in Kerala. Balachander also announced that Rahman and Simran's busy scheduled had held up the film's progress.[7] A song for the film was shot in Malaysia featuring Madhavan and Sneha.[1] Another was shot at Bekal Fort, Kasargod, in Kerala with Madhavan and Simran, which took five days to finish.[8] The introduction song of Madhavan and a team of dancers was shot in Ooty, while a fourth song sequence, with Madhavan and Simran was on the floors of AVM. The fifth was picturised in the Vijaya Vauhini Studios, in sets where Lawrence and Simran danced for the fifth song.[9][10]
Release and reception
The film, upon release on 14 November 2001, with critics citing it as a "disappointment". A critic claimed that the dialogues were "insipid", the narration "lacklustre" and the film was "a monotonous journey for the audience".[11] Similarly, the reviewer from Sify.com labelled the film as "insufferable" and drew criticism to the director and the lead actors, saying that only Vivek's position was the "silver lining".[12]The Hindu wrote "The storyline is the foundation on which an interesting screenplay is built and when the foundation itself is flawed, the exercise makes you weary — especially towards the end."[13]Rediff wrote "At the end of it all, you get the feeling that the director failed to keep control of his storyline. Which is very sad, considering the director was known to be a control freak, and his trademark was a gift for intense, gripping storytelling".[14] Visual Dasan of Kalki wrote The problem is that Balachander, who got into being a little realistic, a little cinematic, and a lot guts, has gotten stuck in dramatic cinema this time.[15]
After the failure of Paarthale Paravasam, Balachander felt that the star cast was the reason for the failure and claimed that if it been made with newcomers it would have been successful.[2]
The soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vaali, Vairamuthu and Na. Muthukumar.[16]GuitaristRashid Ali had his debut as a vocalist through this film. Nithyasree Mahadevan told about the making one of the songs, "We did not have any lyrics except the words "Manmadha Masam", when Shankar Mahadevan, Rahman Sir and I started it. So we worked on improvisations with those two words and sent the meter to poet Vaali. Vaali Sir was so overwhelmed with the tune that he said he did not want to pollute it with more words. So the song has a very unusual presentation with minimum lyrics."[17] The track "Love Check" was a fusion number that had just two words "Love Check" with Sivamani's drums.[18] The songs were choreographed by Lawrence Raghavendra; one was picturised from Malaysia.[1] The song "Azhage Sugama" is loosely based in Sahana raga.[19]
