Hi friends in this article let us discuss about the film that won the Best Film Award at the 55th National Award along with the Best Actor Award, which went to Prakash Raj for his character "Vengadam" in this movie.Ive got a chance to watch this movie and I will say that everyone should watch see this film.

Even though it is a Tamil film, it has no language barriers, as it shows how the hard working peolpe struggle and how they work hard to keep their promise.

Truly sensational acting from Prakashraj who deserves this award. He is known for his best acting, but in this film he lives as the Silk Weaver "Vengadam". Apart from Prakashraj, Shreya reddy has also done an extremely good job.When you find a chance to watch this movie , make sure that you are relax, so that the core of the movie can be easily understood.

Really you might cry during the climax, if you are sensitive as it is a true story and so when you feel that this incident had happen to a human being some 60 years back, you might shed tears. Credit goes to Priyadarshan ,who has directed this movie, and franky speaking he has showed the sufferings of the Silk Weavers very naturally and real.

Actually this story takes place in Canjeevaram (also called as Kanchivaram). Kanchivaram is nothing but the present Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu which is famous for its silk. During the Britis period it was called as Kanchivaram.Eventhough the film is about the story that takes place in Kanchivaram, reports says that shooting took mostly in Mysore.

Another view of the film is the raise of Communism and they have shown very clearly in this film.Before Russia becomes an allie during the second world war, Communism was against the law in India.Prakahsraj has done this part very well because the introduction of communism made the Silk Weavers to fight for their rights against the rich Zamindars.

Technical Crew of the film

i)This film was written and directed by the well known director Priyadarshan

ii)Shailendra Singh is the producer for this film

iii)This film was released officially on September 12, 2008

iv)The music director for this film is M. G. Sreekumar

v)This film runs for about 2 hours and to be precisre it is 8 minutes short of 2 hours.

vi)The Editing work for this film was done by Arun Kumar

Artists and casts

i)Prakash Raj as Vegandam, and he is a poor Silk Weaver and from my point of view he lived as this characater.He was shown as 30 years man when she was married and he was also shown as an old man when his daughter dies and the transformation between these two characters was extremely good and hats off to him.

ii)Shreya Reddy as Annam, who is the wife of vengadam and she is always very calm and at point of time she becomes a victim in a stampade and om that time onwards she becomes ill which lead to his death.

iii)Shammu as Thamarai, and she is the daughter of Vengadam and Annam.She has also acted in Kamal's Dasavatharam as the Scientist Doctor, who is responsible for the monkey anu to escape for the box and die, and it is shown in the image below.

About the movie

The film starts in a police station, on February 1st 1948 (Madras Province), when Prakashraj was released from the jail, under the custody of two policemen who also comes with him.Then they travel from Coimbatore to Kanchipuram.

Prakash Raj was seen with hand cuff and this says that he was released with special permission and the reason is kept as suspense.

Then he along with the two police officer travels in a bus and they start to travel in the bus in spite of heavy rain.Then the bus stops in a tea stall and everybody goes to drink tea.At that place, one of the police officer looses his batch and he scolds Prakashraj, as he was responsible for that.

Then the flash back starts, where Prakash Raj was getting married to Shriya Reddy and they come to the village of Prakash Raj.

There he was teased by a old lady,  as Prakash's wife was wearing only an ordinay sarrie and not a silk sarrie, because before this Pakash promised the entire village, that in his marriage he will bring his wife with a Silk sarre.

Then again the films comes to the present(i.e., 1948) where the bus stops as a tree fell on the road and the driver says that it will take time for the bus to start again.

Again in the flash back, it is shown that Prakash Raj father dies and he doesn't have silk clost for final formality but he manages with a silk thread.The next day when Prakash goes to the Zamindar of the village and there the Zamindar says that he will not give Silk thread to the house of  silk weaver, rather all silk weaver should come to temple for weaving.

So next day all the Silk Weavers comes to the temple and Prakash Raj was called by the Zamindar and  asked to make a saree for his daughter's marriage and that must be unique. After that he works hard to finish the saree and he also discusses this with his wife every time regarding the design, but unfortunately he couldn't show the saree to his wife.

A foreigner comes to Zamindar's house and he was astonished to see the beautiful work done in the saree and he also praises Prakash Raj and the foreigner was also informed that each saree costs 800 and Zamindar tries to makes business with this.Prakash Raj was given additional 1 rupee for this work along with his salary of 7 rupees.

Prakash Raj was very happy and he comes to his wife happily and says that everybody appreciated his work and both of them were happy.

But his wife asks Prakash that she want to see the saree and Prakash also promised that he would show here during the marriage of the Zamindar's daughter.

Next morning both of them decided to go to te Marriage so that they could see the saree and when they reach the Zamindar's house, Prakash got the news that his wife was pregnant after she vomits.

Then the film comes to present and this time the bus got punctured and the driver asks all to get down form the bus in spite of heavy rain.But a child and mother was inside the bus.

So again the film goes to flash back where a girl child was born to Prakash Raj and during the function Prakash Raj promises that he will buy a Silk Saree for his daughter during his marriage, and the name of their daughter is Thamarai.

Everyone critisize Prakash Raj as during that time it was only a dream for the silk weavers to buy a Silk Saree and Prakash already failed once as he wasn't able to buy a Silk Saree for his wife at the time of his marriage.

Then after this Prakash finds his sister's husband was missing as he was not having enough money to run the family.Later Shreya asks why he promised to get the silk saree as it was highly impossible.But Prakash raj says that he was collecting money for years and he also believes that working hard till his daughter's marriage will make him to get the enough money to make a silk saree.

The next day in the temple Prakash's friends says that he wil come late next day and he asks Prakash to get his silk thread for him.Meanwhile Prakash's brother-in-law threatens that he will not take his wife back until Prakash gives him money.Under this crirical circumstance Prakash decides to the use the money to save for his sister's life as her husband takes her wife back to his house.

But Shreya was upset because the money can't be used to get silk saree for his daughter.Then he decides to work hard and also he goes to the extent of smuggling the Silk thread and hides them in their mouth so that he could not be caught when the security checks him.

He keeps this as a regular habit and also starts to weave a own silk saree in his house with the help of small amount of strings he used to collect everyday and he used to weave every night after everyone in the house were asleep.Then his daughter grows and she started to go to school along with his friend's son.In the film Prakash Raj is shown to forget his wallet, key etc when he goes to work and his wife will help him and these scene are humorous.

During that time motor vehicle was unknown among the people in the village as they were used to see only horse vehicle and they believe that a horse vehicle that runs without horses and everybody was eagerly expecting for the arrival of the Motor car.

The day has finally come and it was a holiday as the Zamindar has brought a motor car and everyone were expecting for that and they were surprised to hear that the driver earns a huge amount of 35 rupees every month for this.Finally when the motor car was coming everybody was shouting and running after the car and during this a stampede occurs and Shreya becomes a victim due to this stampede.

After some days a man comes to the village says that he was a writer and he is a communist man and during that time Communism was strictly prohibited as it was under the British rule.Later during a function in a village Shreya vomits and everybody was shocked to hear that she was blood vomiting, and the locals there said that they should take her to Town hospital.

So Prakash asks his friend to arrange for a horse vehicle to go and see a town doctor, but Shreya believe that she wont be alive for the next day.So Prakash Raj carries her and shows the unfinished sarrie that he was weaving for these days with the help of the smuggled strings.While she was seeing the unfinished saree Shreya dies.

Now Thamarai has grown up and she take care of all the responsibilities of the house and he also helps her dad o find the wallet,key,spectacles when he leaves for the job. She also goes to the tailoring class.At the same time Prakash's friends son,Ranga, joins the British - Indian army as the world war 2 has started and he is also in love with Thamarai and this love is double sided.

Meanwhile the writer slowly changes the mind of the people in the village by saying stories and also making them to act in drama, that particularly criticises the Zamindar of the village.But the writer slowly promotes the communist idea and this made the weavers think that they were slave to the Zamindar.

But the police surrounds that village in search of the writer who teaches the Communist principle as it was against the law at that time and they kill the writer.After some day Rangan writes a letter and he also says that he is willing to marry Thamarai and as a result of this Prakash goes and asks his friend whether he is willing to allow his son to marry his daughte and he also accepts and both were  happy and he again promises that he will give Silk Saree to his daughter.

After the death of the writer, Prakash takes car of the writer's work and he along with others makes a demand with the Zamindar and according to that demand that includes

i)Weavers after 60 years should be given pension

ii)The salary for 3 saress should be 45 than that of 25

iii)Silk Weavers those who wevae in house must be independent to sell their saree on their own.

So they decided to ask for this demand, but the Zamindar refuses it and Prakash was arrested saying that he was a Communist and as a result all the weavers involve in a strike as they didn't go for work.So the Zamindar finally makes prakash release from jail and he was badly beaten.

Meanwhile the foreigner makes a contract with Zamindar and he also asks them to  deliver on the exact date, but the zamindar feels it would take time, but he somehow plans to finish the job by bringing the silk form Mysore as quickly as possible within 10 days and also orders the weavers to work 3 hours extra everyday.

So using this opportunity Prakash and other weavers again ask for their demand and threatens they will not come to job if the demand was not made.But the zamindar says that he will import and weavers from Mysore and finish the job.So Prakash decides to takes the pedal from all the weaving machine, which is necessary for weaving, so that they couldn't start their job without the pedal.

So naturally the work stops and there is no source of income for all the weavers.Meanwhile in the Second World War Russia becomes an allie with Britain and so Communism becomes legal in India.Apart from this Zamindar agreed to give 20 % extra salary but rejected all the other demands.So they decided to continue the strike until all the demands are accepted.

As the strike continues Thamarai was very much concerned about how he is going to get the Silk Salary.Meanwhile Ranagn comes from the army and he came so that he could get married to Thamarai.So Prakash Raj was worried whether he could finish the saree or not so he decides to return to work and also asked others to return.

But Prakash friend was against him and he feels that he was selfish.When Prakash was returning from the work his friends starts to fight with him and in this fight the silk strings which he was hiding in his mouth comes out and the employee of zamindar beats him and he was arrested for this and this is the reason he was in jail.

Now the film comes to the present and when Prakash and the policemen reach Kanchipuram and they receive the news that Thamarai was very ill.Prakash goes home and he couldn't see Thamarai in that stage.His brother-in-law was not interested to take care of her and Prakash was having 16 more months to complete his punishment in the jail.

So he takes a decision that might not be correct but that will do at least some good to his daughter as he mixes poison in the food and feeds her and as a result Thamarai dies.After this he goes and get the unfinished silk and tries to cover the body, but unfortunately the saree was not lengthy to cover the entire body.The film finally ends when Prakashraj turns and laughs which indicates that he has become mentally ill. Surely most of them would shed tears after watching this scene.Surely he deserves an award and moreover the film is also very nice even though it is slow.

The IMDB rating for this movie is 8.6 out of 10

• Written by Raaghavan Krishnamurthy.
• In category Movies.
• 15 years ago.

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