‘Kadal’ debacle: Lucky Samantha!

Samantha Ruth Prabhu (Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

In Tamil cinema, film stars used to suffer a bizarre disease that defied explanation : whenever Mani Ratnam announced a new film, all the actors and actresses used get all excited and worked up about picking up a role in it.

This also used to happen each time Rajnikanth announced a film, but at least that hype was usually justified because soon after the film’s box office run, the heroines invariably become the highest paid ones and the villains too are flooded with offers. There were only a few who didn’t capitalize on the Rajni magic.

But Mani Ratnam’s case was a different one. The fuss about starring in a Mani film didn’t always translate into post-release offers.  But the hype had worsened after he began foraying into Bollywood.

Well, when he initially announced ‘Kadal’, he had picked Samantha as the heroine opposite Goutham Karthik. Rumours say that the heroine was replaced because she looked older than Goutham. Of course, the official reason was very different. Some said that Samantha also had earned the dubious distinction of being the first heroine to be replaced in a Mani Ratnam film.

Frankly, I’m not such a big fan of Samantha. She looked easy on the eye in ‘Dookudu’, but in the entire film, not a trace of emotion whizzed by her face. But you don’t expect a Saroja Devi or Soukar Janaki kind of heavy duty performance in such films.

Anyway, with all its subtle but steady hype, the film made its way to the theatres. Goutham looked good. Arvind Swamy looked good and acted well. Arjun was the surprise package. In all Mani Ratnam films, the male actors usually look very good. So, this film was no exception either. Cinematography was excellent too. If you could look the story in isolation, it was actually a good one.

But, the heroine was a major disappointment. Music (songs as well as BGM) was intolerable. And, when the positive attributes, namely excellent male actors, good cinematography and interesting story, were brought in, they simply failed to gel with each other.

Had Samantha starred in it, her career would have suffered a traumatic blow and she would have probably been branded as South Indian cinema’s first ‘onscreen cougar’ – in her first big hit, she was seen romancing someone younger than her; in this film she would have been seen romancing someone who looked much younger than her…

The actress is probably thanking her stars now!