Everytime someone tells me that Prithviraj cant handle a lighthearted romantic role, there is one movie that I point them towards to. Its Mozhi. I have always wondered why no writer or director in Malayalam could give Prithviraj a beautiful character like Mozhi’s Karthik. Interestingly apart from Vargam and Vasthavam, two of Prithviraj’s best characters from his early part of career has come from Tamil – Kana Kandein and Mozhi. Mozhi was more than a commercial success. It was a pathbreaking movie in Tamil and brought a breath of fresh air from the Tamil movies you had been seeing around during that time.
For once a Tamil hero was not your usual masculine hunk. He was sensitive, caring and he would even cry ! Prithviraj portrayed Karthik with a sense of maturity and composure that we rarely saw from the actor in any of the Malayalam movies till then and he came out in flying colors . Prakash Raj was a revelation where he showed us he could pull off an entirely light-hearted role with aplomb too. He shared an excellent chemistry with Prithviraj which was one of the main reasons we thoroughly enjoyed Mozhi.
For once, the heroines in a Tamil movie were given equal importance ,respect and space as heroes. While Swarnamalya was brilliant , Jyothika left behind a pretty huge mark before she retired from on-screen. Another refreshing aspect was Mozhi did not have separate comedy subtracks running like most other Tamil movies. The subtrack that Mozhi instead had was a touching one where Prithviraj’s love and affection changed a professor who did not want to believe his son was dead and was still living in the past. The songs and background score were all which suited the genre and the mood of the movie perfectly.
Mozhi would always remain a personal favorite. Its not always you could see such beautiful romantic stories that could remain sweet without being candyfloss.
