Movie: Kunguma Pottu Gounder

Director: G. Saisuresh
Cast: Sathyaraj, Rambha, Kausalya, Mouli, Pandu, Vinu Chakravarthy

It is a socially relevant subject. A message-oriented film, with the script sidelining the real issue, and going haywire somewhere along the way! The message that the director intended to convey, about the importance of education and the stringent rules certain prestigious schools follow, is diluted as the director shuttles between the comic and the serious, and gives more importance to the marital discord and the jealous wife story. Sathyaraj is not at his best here, his antics finding neither favour nor sympathy with the audience. Rambha seems to have resigned herself of playing the sari-clad nagging wife, if her recent films are any indication. Mouli, as the school correspondent, comes out well in the few scenes he gets; Karan is wasted and Kausalya has hardly a role to boast of.

Kandasamy's (Sathyaraj) mission in life is to get his son educated in the best of schools in the city. For, his father Kunguma Pottu Gounder (Sathyaraj), a wealthy village bigwig, had been duped of all his wealth by greedy relatives, who took advantage of the fact that the Gounder was illiterate, and wouldn't know on what he was putting his thumbprint. Starting his life from scratch after his father's death, Kandaswamy sets forth to achieve his goal. Realising soon enough that getting admission in a prestigious school was impossible, because neither he nor his wife (Rambha) were educated, as the school rules specifies, Kandasamy persuades his shop-colleague Saraswathi (Kausalya) who is well educated, to pose as his wife. The son is admitted to the school, but the move creates marital discord with Alamelu suspecting Kandasamy of having an affair with Saraswathi. A major chunk of the film is taken up by the husband-wife problems, the real issue being sidelined. Finally, Kandaswamy pleads with the school authorities to waive the rule - mandatory for one of the parents to be educated, if the child is to get admission. And the school obliges. Quite forgetting that Kandaswamy's problems were of his own making!