K.Balachander loved to focus on complex relationships and the complications that arose out of them. Whether it was a father-son pair falling in love with a daughter-mother pair or the other woman intruding into a happy family, he loved to pit strong characters against one another and explore the emotional fissures that created because of that. So when he makes a full-length love story like Punnagai Mannan, it should come as no surprise that its not a candyfloss romance that follows the usual Tamil cinema romance template.

When the film opens, Sethu(Kamalhassan) and Nandhini(Rekha) are lovers who are spending their last minutes together before committing suicide. But when they jump together, fate conspires to keep Sethu alive while Nandhini plunges to her death. A devastated Sethu is convinced to not try and kill himself again by his uncle Chaplin Chellappa(Kamalhassan) but turns into a quiet, moody recluse. On the anniversary of Nandhini's death, Sethu runs into Malini(Rekha) at the same spot where Nandhini died and dissuades her from committing suicide. Malini falls for him after this and enrolls in the dance school where Sethu is working as a teacher.

Someone who watches Punnagai Mannan without being familiar with KB's long resume could be forgiven for thinking that KB was his generation's Bala. Inspite of the cheery title referring to a king of smiles, this is a film that has little for us to smile about. It starts and ends with death, both its main romances are doomed, its protagonist comes from a rather dysfunctional family headed by a drunkard, polygamous father, its heroine is a refugee from Sri Lanka and even the one character modeled on one of the most iconic comic characters of all time, has taken on the image to hide his own sad past. The film is not relentlessly downbeat or depressing like one of Bala's films but no one's going to mistake it for a feel-good romance.

But inspite of the sadness in the background, the film can be considered positive since it is essentially about the power of love. Kamal has loved and lost and become dead emotionally but it is again love that resuscitates him. He goes through an entire gamut of emotions during this journey of romantic rebirth - he is devastated by Rekha's death; he blames himself for being alive; he is irritated by Revathi's actions; and he experiences feelings of guilt about abandoning Rekha as he feels the stirrings of love in his heart once again. But eventually, love triumphs over all those feelings.

Tamil cinema has always trumpeted the once-only nature of love(it was spelt out most famously by Vijay in Poove Unakkaaga as he compared love to a flower which once withered, can never bloom again). Death, rather than the reemergence of love, is the choice if love fails. So KB and Kamal walk a dangerous tightrope with the story here and they navigate it without crashing down. The revival of love in Kamal's heart has been portrayed naturally and believably as it appears against his wishes and the way he grapples with his conscience and guilt adds a new dimension to the romance. The sequence where he finally admits his love is exquisitely handled with Kamal's performance and Ilaiyaraja's music bringing out the mood and situation perfectly.

Within a span of five minutes, Kamal and Rekha manage to show us the extent of their love(what is really amazing they do this though we have no idea of who they are and what their backgrounds are). Kamal is at his romantic best in this sequence. Though Kamal and Revathi have a lot more time, their romance doesn't possess the same depth. But the two do make it easy for us to simply accept it. Revathi is sweet but persistent and we can see why she is able to enter Kamal's closed heart. And Kamal's sadness and confusion are easily expressed in his eyes and body language. The understated romance between Kamal(as Chaplin Chellappa) and Srividya is also a similar kind of love since this Kamal too has lost the love of his life. The romance is spelt out late and the two have only a couple of scenes together. But their characters are so endearing and the car ride during which he expresses his love and she accepts it is so sweet that they seem made for each other and make us wonder why we didn't see it coming.

I have found that in order to be effective, a long build-up has to culminate with a positive payoff(like in Kaadhal Koattai) while tragedy has more impact when it is sudden and unexpected(Sethu is a fine example of this). Punnagai Mannan raises the tension with a long build-up but then disappoints by closing things off in tragic fashion. The impact of the happening is greatly diluted because of the way it is presented(KB did the same thing in his last film Poi) and the end almost feels anti-climactic.

While song and dance have been an inseparable part of Tamil cinema since its beginnings, films that could be termed musicals have been rare. Punnagai Mannan is not one considering the traditional definition of one i.e. it doesn't have extravagantly staged numbers; it doesn't replace dialog with song; and it doesn't make its characters sing to one another when talking would have sufficed. But what it does do is treat the music as an integral part of the movie. Probably realizing that, Ilaiyaraja delivered one of his best albums. The songs here are not separate entities that were composed first - following a template such as 1 intro song, 3 duets and 1 pathos number - and then thrust into the narrative at moments where the director thought viewers could most use a bathroom or cigarette break. They are used to convey emotions at times when words just won't do. Its Kamal-Rekha's urgent passion that is on display in the wonderfully melodious Enna Satham..., Revathi's stubbornness that finds an outlet in the fast Kavidhai Kelungal..., her happiness that she has broken through Kamal's barriers that shines through in the cheerful Vaan Megam... and Kamal's jealousy that is expressed in the fun Mamavukku.... These numbers definitely convey those emotions in a much more forceful fashion that dialogs could've done. Music plays an important part right upto the end as Kamal and Revathi, on the car ride after their wedding, sing a medley of all the songs, with the slow ones transformed into more upbeat versions.