Mehandi Circus

                   In Mehandi Circus, romance is in the air. Somewhat literally. For, the hero and heroine fall in love to the sounds of Ilaiyaraaja songs and Yeh Raatein Yeh Mausam from Dilli Ka Thug. The guy is Jeeva (debutant Madhampatti Rangaraj, not-so-expressive), who has a music cassette shop in Poompaarai, Kodaikanal. The girl, Mehandi (Shweta Tripathi, impressive in her Tamil debut) is a performer in a circus that has come to the place. Mehandi’s father (Sunny Charles), who also runs the circus, is wary of encouraging this relationship, for Jeeva’s father, Rajangam (Marimuthu) calls the shots in the village. Rajangam is also casteist, so much that he will not even let a worker enter his living room to talk over the phone to his mother, who is critical!

While the framing device, involving Mehandi’s teenage daughter, Nisha (Pooja), who comes in search of Jeeva, of Mehandi Circus, is set in 2010, much of the film happens in 1992. Ilaiyaraaja is ruling the airwaves, though we get a couple of mentions of a certain AR Rahman, who, Jeeva’s friend dismisses as a one-film wonder. Later, the same guy predicts an Oscar for the young man. One of the chief joys of Mehandi Circus is how it uses such nostalgia to draw us into the story. In addition to the innumerable Ilaiyaraaja songs (O Paapa Laali even becomes a theme song for Jeeva and Mehandi’s romance), we also get period touches by way of film posters, furniture and costumes.

The first time we are introduced to Jeeva (in 2010), he is in a bar, surprising his fellow kudimagans with his knowledge of songs and their singers. But when someone sings a line from the song Ivan Yaaro from Minnale, he asks, “Cinema paattaa idhu?” And a character informs that he hasn’t updated himself with film music after 1992. And as the events of that fateful year unfold, we understand why.

The script even tries to make this romance something of an epic by giving us a tale about a prince and princess who couldn’t end up together. The film’s title credits play over this story, which is told through simple but effective animation. But what stops Mehandi Circus from being the epic romance it wants to be is that the beats of its story are not only too familiar. We are able to predict where things are headed and how characters will behave long before they do on screen and this robs the film of novelty. Of course, there are exceptions, like Amaldass (Vela Ramamurthy, a lighter character for a change), a pastor in the village who is a romantic at heart and helps couples to elope and get married. The film’s story and dialogues are by Raju Murugan and there are moments where we see his handiwork, like an early scene in a church where Rajangam mediates between a ‘Christian’ and a ‘converted Christian’.

The director, Saravana Rajendran is earnest in narrating this tale, but his staging (like the camera moving along a house and coming to a stop in front of pictures of Periyar and Ambedkar while a couple is being beaten up by casteist thugs) and narration are a bit bland. Thankfully, Sean Roldan’s lush score (which does most of the heavy-lifting) and Selvakumar SK’s vibrant visuals offset this and keep us engaged.