| Paarthale Paravasam | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | K. Balachander |
| Written by | K. Balachander |
| Produced by | Pushpa Kandaswamy |
| Starring | Madhavan Simran |
| Cinematography | A. Venkatesh |
| Edited by | Suresh Urs |
| Music by | A. R. Rahman |
Production company | |
Release date |
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| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Paarthale Paravasam (transl. Ecstasy, just watching) is a 2001 IndianTamil-languagedrama film directed byK. Balachander, for whom this was his 100th film.[1] It was produced by Balachander's home bannerKavithalayaa Productions and starsMadhavan andSimran in the lead roles alongsideRaghava Lawrence andSneha. The film's music was composed byA. R. Rahman, whilstA. Venkatesh was cinematographer. It tells the story of a couple going through a break-up 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, even though soundtrack was praised.[2]
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 inChennai.[3] The original cast announced on the day of the launch included noted singerS. P. Balasubrahmanyam. However, he was replaced by prominent poetVaali before the shoot started.[4] Moreover,Raju Sundaram was initially supposed to play the role eventually portrayed byLawrence in the film.[5] Balachandar managed to selectKamal Haasan in a guest appearance, but failed to do the same withRajinikanth.[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] The song "Nee Thaan En Desiya Geetham" was shot in Malaysia featuringMadhavan and Sneha.[1] Some scenes were canned inTaiping.[8] Another was shot atBekal Fort, Kasargod, in Kerala with Madhavan and Simran, which took five days to finish.[9] 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 theVijaya Vauhini Studios, in sets where Lawrence and Simran danced for the fifth song.[10][11]
The soundtrack was composed byA. R. Rahman.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", whenShankar 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."[12] The track "Love Check" was a fusion number that had just two words "Love Check" withSivamani's drums.[13] The songs were choreographed byLawrence Raghavendra; "Nee Thaan En Desiya Geetham" was picturised in Malaysia.[1] The song "Azhage Sugama" is loosely based inSahana raga.[14]
| Title | Singer(s) | Lyrics | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Nee Thaan En Desiya Geetham" | P. Balram,K. S. Chithra | Vaali | 3:25 |
| "Adhisaya Thirumanam" | Sujatha Mohan,Sriram Parthasarathy,Kalyani Menon, Sriram Narayan | 6:17 | |
| "Moondrezhuthu" | Harini,Karthik | 4:51 | |
| "Parthale Paravasam" | Ganga Sitharasu,A. R. Reihana,Febi Mani, Fegi,Poornima | Na. Muthukumar | 5:32 |
| "Azhagae Sugama" | Srinivas,Sadhana Sargam | Vairamuthu | 5:05 |
| "Azhagae Sugama"-2 | Srinivas, Sadhana Sargam | 4:03 | |
| "Love Check" | Anandan Sivamani,Palakkad Sreeram | A. R. Rahman | 3:38 |
| "Manmadha Maasam" | Shankar Mahadevan,Nithyasree Mahadevan | Vaali | 4:45 |
| "Naadhir Thinna" | Rashid Ali, Thubara | 5:48 |
Paravasam was the Telugu dubbed version of this movie. Where lyrics were written by A.M. Ratnam and Shiva Ganesh.[15]
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Neevena Jatheeya" | Balaram,K.S. Chitra | |
| 2. | "Manmadha Masam" | Shankar Mahadevan,Nithyasree Mahadevan | |
| 3. | "Cheliya Kushalama" | S.P. Balasubramaniam,Sadhana Sargam | |
| 4. | "Aksharalu Rendaina" | Harini,Karthik | |
| 5. | "Paravasam Paravasam" | A.R. Rehna, Ganga, Febi, Poornima | |
| 6. | "Atisaya Parinayam" | Kalyani Menon,Sujatha Mohan, Sriram Narayan, Sriram Parthasarathy | |
| 7. | "Nadiri Dinna" | Shankar Mahadevan,S.P. Sailaja |
The film, upon release on 14 November 2001. Malini Mannath fromChennai Online claimed that the dialogues were "insipid", the narration "lacklustre" and the film was "a monotonous journey for the audience".[16] Similarly, the reviewer fromSify.com labelled the film as "insufferable" and drew criticism to the director and the lead actors, saying that onlyVivek's position was the "silver lining".[17]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."[18] Rajitha ofRediff.com 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".[19] Visual Dasan ofKalki wrote that 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.[20]Cinesouth wrote "Most expectations from his 100th movie turned out to be disappointments. As far as KB is concerned, this is neither a complete success, nor a wash out failure".[21]
After the failure ofPaarthale 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]
