Director Halitha Shameem is known for her emotional dramas like Poovarasan Peepee, Sillu Karupatti or Aelay. She is now back with Minmini, which has been filmed over a period of eight years, keeping in line with the growth of her young, on-screen characters. 

The plot

Minmini takes off in a residential school in Ooty (cool climes) and we are introduced to two young boys in the same class – one is Pari (Gaurav Kaalai), who is very popular and a superb footballer, and the other is newcomer Sabari (Praveen Kishore), who loves chess and is an excellent artist. Both earn a name for themselves and a rivalry develops between them as the weeks pass. When a teacher asks the students what they want to do in life, the replies that Sabari and Pari give are so distinct that it shows how different they both are. One day there is an unfortunate school bus accident in which some students survive and the tonality of things change completely and in the second half, we see Praveena (Esther Anil), who ends up joining their school, coincidentally meeting Sabari while out on a bike trip in the Himalayas.

The director has divided the film into two parts - one part which plays out in the school and the other in the Himalayas in the lap of nature – and revolves solely around Pari, Sabari and Praveena. How the Sabari and Praveena get re-connected and what their journey of self-discovery is is what Shameem takes us through. The main theme though is survivor’s guilt and what people who are alive and have lost someone go through is what she tries to convey in this drama. So, does it work?

A different attempt

Minmini is a different attempt in Tamil cinema and one must appreciate Halitha Shameem for trying to showcase a new theme to the audience. The fact that she shot this film over eight years to stay true to her three actors and their growth on screen is commendable as well. Having said that, the movie gets very philosophical and that is a tad annoying. Beautiful mountain sceneries and conversations about life and pursuing one’s passion and so on between a young couple is quite cliched and lacks profundity.

Sample this – Sabari and Praveen stare at the night sky and talk about life after death. In the Himalayas, they are just doing things which we find on all the tourist websites – mountain biking, drinking butter tea, attending local festivals, etc. Lot of youngsters today go on solo trips to ‘find meaning in life’ and Shameem’s characters mouth a whole lot of dialogues that seem to be from a self-help book. There are other logical flaws in the film and this makes the theme less believable as well.

For instance, how is a girl who has had an organ transplant running around happily all over the world? Moreover, someone who has been depressed for years can’t function normally in society and it’s surprising that Sabari can. In fact, some of the scenes need to have been better written and shot. For example, the bus accident scene could have been better shot. And in the scene where Praveena tells her mother she wants to do something for Pari, the mother’s reaction is over-dramatic like in a Tamil TV serial.

The performances

Esther Anil as Praveena makes a good impression but Praveen Kishore comes across as awkward in some scenes. The performances of the three central characters are also not consistent and this could, of course, be due to their age and inexperience. In technical aspects, the cinematography by Manoj Paramahamsa is beautiful and one must talk about the BGM of Khatija Rahman, AR Rahman’s daughter, who makes her debut as music director. Khatija Rahman’s music is a major value add for the film and her use of instruments and the orchestra shows her father’s influence on her music. However, at times, the BGM is too loud and distracts from the narrative.

Minmini paints a very pretty picture but doesn’t hit the right spot as some of her other films did. Halitha Shameem has tried to take us on a journey along with her characters and somewhere along the way, this journey loses meaning.

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