Mani Ratnam seems to be tired of people calling his films too mani ratnam-esque so he went out and made Chekka Chivantha Vaanam trying to be as least mani ratnam-esque as possible but he just couldn’t help but have his signature all over the film. Be it associating characters with colours (tones of red all over, monochromatic dresses for single tone and straight forward characters like Varadan, Chitra, Senapati, but more flamboyant for Ethi and Thyagu), the way people talk and respond to questions (as soon as Senapathi wakes up, Chitra tells about Lakshmi in a Kanden Seethaiyai way), power play of characters shown by where they are standing when talking with each other, the list keeps going. And when I have all these things on screen to keep me entertained, I can’t help but be impressed with a film even if the overall story is meh. But in case of CCV, even the story ties all these things together really well.
