Angeekaaram (1977)

After a recent conversation with a friend, I got concerned about whether I was slowly normalising teenage actresses getting paired opposite actors much older than them, because of all the older Indian movies I've been seeing for the last year. Thankfully, after watching this movie, I realised that that was not the case at all- I squirmed mightily during those intimate scenes between Sridevi (14) and Vincent (29), and wanted to bash someone's head in the final and completely unnecessary sequence where Sukumaran (who was middle aged in the movie) attempted to r*pe Sridevi (who was a teenager). I mean, Sridevi is amazing as always, but really, they couldn't have found an age-appropriate actress for this role??? Why have men been allowed to get away with this, I'll never understand.

This film was as messy as they come, but I surprisingly was engaged throughout its runtime (not surprising actually, we all know how much I appreciate trash). A lot of it has to do with the strong performances of the leads, barring Vincent, who played Vijayan. In fact, had they cast a better actor in that role, I might even have begrudgingly liked this movie. Prameela and Sukumaran were amazing though, plus I love useless melodrama that could have been avoided with a simple conversation between Sridevi (the Sathi character) and Vincent. Also, it tickled me that this was so close to Lamhe (1991), with Amma playing both mother and daughter here as well. The scenes where she was playing the older, bed-ridden woman (let me remind you that she was 14 at the time of the film's release) made me chuckle so much, but she somehow carried that look too. A true star. 

To end this "review", I would just like to acknowledge that maybe I.V. Sasi does deserve some rights. Don't get me wrong, I am still not over how bad Abhayam Thedi was, but okay, I think I can watch his movies semi-peacefully now.