Review

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"Anbe Sivam" is an appropriately titled story of Nalla Sivam (Kamal Haasan), an idealist, social activist and communist and Anbarasu (Madhavan), a savvy ad film maker who is back in India to get married to Kiran. Anbarasu meets Nalla at the Bhubaneswar airport on a rainy night and fate holds the blabbermouth Nalla as his travel companion all the way till Chennai for the next three days. They clash with each other over their differing ideologies.

Nalla recaps his days when he was a theater activist opposed to capitalism. His employer (Nasser), a capitalist and exploiter becomes his villain. The villain's daughter in course of time falls for Nalla and they are set out to get married. On the way Nalla meets with an accident, loses his leg and his face is disfigured. When Nalla recovers and comes back in search for his beloved, he is told that she is married. The villain convinces his daughter that Nalla is dead and arranges for her wedding

By the time, Nalla and Anbarasu reach Chennai, they become buddies and Anbarasu invites Nalla to his wedding. The shocking discovery about the bride at the wedding and how things are set right is the rest of the story.

Madan's dialogue sparks the screen. Kamal's versatility has been showcased again with a new look for the film with a broken face split right in the middle, soda bottle glasses and broken tooth! Madhavan has towered in his role of a fussy and self-centered man. His presence is breezy and enlivens the screen. The female lead is played by Kiran, who exposes herself as an actress. The supporting cast has Nasser, Yuhi Sethu, Santhana Bharati, Uma, Madan, Vishwanath, and 'Pasi' Sathya.

Though the typical Tamil movie characters such as a bad rich man, his good kind daughter, poor boy rich girl romance exists, the film has been treated differently. Those who wail about flimsy film plots and formula fare, in all fairness ought to encourage laudable ventures such as these.