|
Pavithra is the story of a n exceptional woman who finds in a teenager the son that she has never
had.
Pavithra (Radhika) and her husband Ragunathan ( Naaser) seem to have all they need to be happy. Mutual understanding and trust are holding an important place in their couple and love is always evident in it. So, it seems that there’s no limit to their happiness.
However, a terrible tragedy happened to Pavithra and Ragunathan in the early years of their marriage, while they were about to become parents for the first time: their child died a little while after its birth and the consequence of this cruel loss was that Pavithra became sterile.It’s simply impossible to describe the distress of a woman when, as she is about to become a mother for the first time, she is informed that her first child is dead and that she can’t be a mother anymore. So it only remains to us, viewers, to imagine how much Pavithra is morally collapsed when her husband announces her that these two fatalities have fallen on her a the same time, as she she is still lying on the hospital bed. The very moving performance of Radhika, heartrending as a collapsed mother in tears, in this scene, is gripping.
Eighteen years have passed since this tragedy and Pavithra now works as a nurse at the “N.H. Hospital”. Even if several years have gone, neither Pavithra nor Ragunathan didn’t succeed in erasing this memory from their memories.
One day, a teenager named Ashok (Ajith) is admitted to the “N.H.Hospital”, following a motorbike accident. Having discovered that Ashok is suffering from marrowbone cancer and that he is close to death, the director of the hospital leaves Pavithra to take care of Ashok and he asks her to give to this young orphan the only thing he needs for the last days of his life: love.
It just so happens that Ashok was born exactly the same day of the same year as her child. So, it’s quite naturally that Pavithra becomes attached to Ashok, transfering the whole of her maternal love to him. After some small conflicts with Pavithra (caused by his subborness and his lack of goodwillness) Ashok soon starts becoming attached to Pavithra too, considering her as his own mother.
Problems are beginnig when a colleague of Pavithra, a perverted womanizer who has his eye on her and who is incessantly rejected by her, does everything possible to let Ragunathan believe that his wife and Ashok have a love affair together, in order to take his revenge. Ragunathan, who doesn’t believe it at the beginning, finally falls into the trap. So as to estrange Pavithra from her young patient, he writes a love letter intended to his wife and he signs it with the name of Ashok. When Pavithra reads this letter, she first doesn’t believe it but she finally lets herself be persuaded. From that moment, she stops talking to Ashok and she doesn’t even give him a single glance. As he doesn’t understand why Pavithra has a grudge against him, Ashok refuses to take care of himself and he lets his health getting worse and worse day by day.
The health condition of Ashok is now worst than ever. Even if she would like to go and see him, Pavithra doesn’t do it, still convinced that Ashok considers her as a lover.Being striken with remorse, Ragunathan then tells her the whole truth about the love letter. Pavithra then rushes to the hospital . There, Ashok, extremely weakened, is lying on his bed and he is living the last minutes of his life. Ashok then hands over a letter to Pavithra. In this letter, he has expressed all his love to her and tells her how much he would have liked to be her son. After a while, Ashok succeeds, with lots of difficulty, in calling Pavithra “Amma”
(Mother) and he then breathes his last.
Some times later, Pavithra and Ragunathan adopt a child - or rather Ragunathan decides to adopt a child without letting Pavithra know about it before.
With Pavithra, K. Subash has made a beautiful film, which was well-received by audience at the time of its release and which gave him lots of renown. The performance of Radhika and Ajith, who have put their hearth and soul into their characters deserve a specizl mention.
Besides Pavithra was a turning point in the career of Ajith, one year after the release of Amaraavathi and it has enabled him to win lots of fame and to get himself talked about.
But there are, however, some details which seem to be “incompatible”: how could Ragunathan , who is shown as a husband who completely trust his wife at the beginning of the film, suspect her of being unfaithful to him? It seems all the more unbelievable since he perfectly knows that Pavithra considers Ashok as her son.
Another thing: Pavithra goes to see Ashok at the hospital in order to check by herself if he really loves her. And it just so happens that at this very moment , she sees him writing a love letter, which is in fact intended to help a friend to declare his undying love to his beloved one. Therefore, she wrongly concludes that this letter was for her. So everything is settled on an unfortunate misunderstanding. How is this coincidence possible? Anyway, we can pass over this detail, given that it’s not uncommon to see this kind of thing in the Tamil films. Morever, it would have been practically no story in the film without it.
Many scenes of the films are very moving- especially the scenes, full of tenderness, in which Pavithra and Ajith show their affection one for each other. So the faint-hearted might shed some tears during the film.
Ashok and his girlfriend Chitra (Keertana) are making a lovely young couple, full of innocence (It’s so nice to be in love when you’re 18 years!).
The comedy part, done by Vadivelu and Kovay Sarala ( as a couple which is incessantly arguing before patching things up a little while later) and by Kaakaa Radakrishnan, Sivaji Sinnamuthu and “Disco” Santhi isn’t really necessary and quite mediocre. The songs are quite enjoyable: A.R. Rahman’s music is good and “Kavyarasu” Vairamuthu has written nice lyrics. The songs Alagu Nilavu, Sevvaanam and Uyirum Neeyae ( a beautiful song which is an ode to the Mother) deserve a special mention.
All in all, Pavithra is a beautiful film which definitly deserves to be
watched.
.
Review by Kavitha |
