Movie:  Nilakaalam

Director: A.R. Gandhikrishna
Cast: Ranjini, Udayraj, Dinesh, Walter Dewaram, Bala Singh, Murugesh, & Roja.

With three kids as the central players, director Gandhikrishna has weaved a fairly engaging tale that depicts the world of little minds, their yearning to be loved, their fun filled adventures that soon turns into a nightmare for at least two of them. The film has an ending that is far removed from the fairly-tale endings that such movies normally have.

Nila (Ranjini) is the poor-little-rich-girl, the only kid of popular actress Veni (Roja). A lonely child, she soon strikes a friendship with two urchins, Pulli and Amar (Dinesh - Udayaraj) working in the garage next door. A couple of seedy characters plan to kidnap the girl and hold her for ransom. The garage being their stakeout place, they manage to trick Amar into writing the ransom note. That particular day on Nila's persuasion, Amar takes the car from her house and drives out with Nila and Pulli. The goon on the watch thinking that the kidnapping has been done, as per plan, puts the ransom note in the mailbox. The police are brought in, and they trace the trio, muddied and exhausted, after all the fun they had in the countryside. But the adventure soon turns into a nightmare when Pulli and Amar are accused of kidnapping and molesting the girl, and whisked away to the police station. The ransom note written in Amar's hand, and the wounds on Nila's body are used as evidence. The film ends on a rather sad note, with the little girl safe in her home, oblivious of the fact that her two friends have been convicted and sent to a juvenile home. The rich-poor divide is depicted clearly here.

The director has been able to bring out some very natural and spontaneous performance from the three child artistes. But does a film targetted at children, and dealing with the story of lonely kids having innocent fun, deserve such a tragic ending?