Kaatrukkenna Veli

<p>Manimekalai is a young freedom fighter. During a battle in (northeast coast of ), she is seriously injured in the leg. Her other colleagues take her on a boat and are headed to India. They land in (India). With the help of an Indian Tamil intermediate, they reach a hospital in . The doctor Subhash Chandra Bose, also known as Subhash, first refuses to treat Manimekalai because it is an illegal matter. After seeing her leg’s condition, he finally accepts to operate her but Manimekalai does not want to have her leg amputated. It was a sensitive case, the doctors successfully operate her leg but it’s only temporary. Her leg could be at any time collapsed and she could die of it. Subhash doesn’t understand why she risks her life for her leg and she tells him her past. In the past, Manimekalai was a cheerful and careless girl. After failing a class twice, she left school. One day, the disabled woman Lakshmi had just moved in next door. Lakshmi and Manimekalai became good friends and spent time singing songs. Everything went well until a LTTE soldier got killed by in Lakshmi’s home. Thereafter, the army started to threaten them, Manimekalai ran away from the place while Lakshmi stayed there. The same night, Lakshmi set herself on fire. Later, Manimekalai joined the LTTE. After listening to her tragic past, Subhash promises her to not call the police and he accepts to let her in the hospital ward for a month. The Tamil Nadu police receive very often information letters from the Sri Lankan government and this time it’s about the LTTE group staying in a hospital. What transpires later forms the crux of the story. The film score and the soundtrack were composed by , with lyrics written by . The film was initially banned by the because of its sympathetic portrayal of the LTTE, and negative portrayal of Sri Lankan soldiers. Malathi Rangarajan of wrote, “The way the story has been dealt with is quite interesting — till the last few scenes when the proceedings drag”. Malini Mannath of opined that “Writer-director Pugazhendi Thangaraj’s ‘Kaatrukkenna Veli’ comes as a whiff of fresh air”. Visual Dasan of rated the film “above average”.</p>