'''Mogha Mull'''


1994 137’ col/scope Tamil
d/s Gnana Rajasekharan pc J.R. Circuit
p J. Dharmambal st T. Janaki Raman’s novel
lyr Vali c Sunny Joseph, Thangar Bachan
m Ilaiyaraja
lp Nedumudi Venu, Abhishek, Archana
Joglekar, Soorya


The former bureaucrat Rajasekharan’s debut
feature is an Ilaiyaraja-derived pop phantasy
about India’s classical heritage. The genre
usually features tragedies of unrequited love
and how women are crucial to the creative
muse of infantile geniuses. The film is set in the
1950s in feudal Tanjore. Babu, ten years
younger than the unmarriageable Yamuna, is
seduced by his voluptuous neighbour
Thankamma, but he rejects her subsequent
advances, causing her to commit suicide. This
then enables Babu to find his true vocation as a
musician under the tutelage of master
Ranganna (Venu), as well as his true love and
muse, Yamuna. The music, aesthetically
resistant to the commercialism which besets the
film, is emplotted into the crisis when Babu is
forced to ‘sell’ it in order to raise money for his
dying teacher. His failure in maintaining his
incorruptibility forces him onto the streets of
Madras, whence he is rescued by Yamuna who
reinflates his musical genius.

[[Film]]