A box-office hit that was rooted in a novel of Jane Austen

Rajiv Menon's Kandukondain Kandukondain, a Tamil adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, celebrates 25 years.

To dive into an English literary classic and flesh out a story with a Tamil heart is never easy. Rajiv Menon precisely did that through his Kandukondain Kandukondain, which rested its spine on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Taking a novel from 1811 and using its plot as the basic skeleton, Menon wove a splendid celluloid tale, which turned 25 on May 5. A re-release too is on the cards, while one of its key stars Ajith Kumar is nursing the afterglow of his latest box-office hit Good Bad Ugly.

When Kandukondain Kandukondain was released in the summer of 2000, a few weeks after Menon’s friend Mani Ratnam’s Alaipayuthey hit the screens, there was a creative high in Kollywood. The two classy films, with their common thread of A.R. Rahman’s music, raked in the money, besides being critically acclaimed.

If Alaipayuthey was the quintessential Madras film, Kandukondain Kandukondain used Chettinad as its base before shifting base to Chennai. Menon revealed Chettiar mansions of a layered vintage and equally grappling with intrigue. Within this crucible, he placed women and men searching for a foothold, yearning for that ideal romance, slipping a bit while still nursing hopes.

Menon wielded a massive star-cast, but made the characters relatable. Mammootty, Ajith, Tabu, Aishwarya Rai, and Abbas were part of the mix and even the supporting roles had a proper arc. This wasn’t a film entirely about love, it was also a quest to raise difficult questions like the role of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka. At one point, Mammootty, all gravitas and depth, speaks about how being forgotten is the worst curse in life. As an ex-serviceman with a brooding memory, the Malayalam legend was excellent.

Menon, with some dry wit, even held a mirror to his own film industry, while Ajith chased his creative dreams. This was also about Ajith being vulnerable in a lovely role; and with the film being released in Mumbai with English subtitles, the actor broadened his fan base.

The enigmatic Tabu was brilliant as ever, and her internalisation of bad luck and superstition, before shedding those blinkers, was a high point. Aishwarya held her own within this galaxy of stars and the songs were all chartbusters. Kandukondain Kandukondain ran well in Chennai, in the rest of Tamil Nadu, and across India. Menon made Austen’s theme centred around love accessible to all. There was a sensitivity to the film, a gentle tugging of the heart, that left viewers asking for more, just like how it was with his debut directorial flick Minsara Kanavu, which later became Sapney in Hindi.