Movie: Manasu

Director: Abdul Rehman
Cast: Shakti, Oviya, Jeeva, Vijaykumar, Jaichitra, Sanjiv Kumar, Senthil.

Cinematographers desiring to widen their horizon and taking to direction are not a new phenomenon in Tamil cinema. Following in the footsteps of Balu Mahendra, Ashok Kumar, P.C. Sriram, Santhosh Shivan and Rajeev Menon is 'Chinna Gounder'. Abdur Rehman. That he has not allowed the camera to overpower his narration goes to his credit. But Rehman chooses the same old college campus romance with its clichéd scenes as his backdrop.

The narration starts a little jerkily shuttling between the mother-daughter relationship and the college campus scenes. Despite all her protests of innocence, Nandini's mother misconstrues her relationship with college mate Sanjiv and curbs her freedom. To spite her mother, Nandini makes her first move by publicly kissing Sanjiv. The romance picks up from there. A dark incident from Sanjiv's past makes matters worse. When finally matters are set right, trouble erupts from another source. The rowdy elements of their college, whom they had antagonised, make their move. The film ends in a tragic climax well shot at the beach side. The growing estrangement between the mother and daughter is depicted well by the director. The film picks up pace in the second half leading to an engaging climax. Supported by seniors Vijaykumar and Jaichitra, debutante Oviaya and Shakti perform their roles convincingly