Anjali
Tags: tragedy, prank

Plot synopsis:
The film revolves around a family of four – a young civil engineer Shekar (Raghuvaran), his wife, Chitra (Revathi), and their two young children named Arjun (Tarun) and Anu (Shruti). The movie opens with Chitra giving birth to her third child, but unfortunately the daughter is stillborn. Two years later, Shekar and his family move to a new apartment complex. The family seems to have moved on from their grief due to the stillborn child incident and live happily. After a few altercations with the kids in the colony, Arjun and Anu are accepted by all the kids as their own. The kids are all for pulling pranks and generally causing a clamor around the apartment colony. One such constant joke they play on a mentally disabled ex-watchman (Janakaraj) of the colony, much to the chagrin of his wife. The only tenant they are afraid of is an ex-convict (Prabhu Ganesan) who lives alone in one of the apartments.
On one particular day, Chitra and the kids decided to surprise Shekar by meeting him at his construction area, unannounced. Nevertheless, on coming to the site, they learned from one of the construction workers that Shekar has left to conduct an emergency matter elsewhere. When Shekar returns home for dinner that night, Chitra casually asks Shekar where he was on that day, to which, Shekar replies that he was at the construction site the whole day. Chitra feels hurt to hear about Shekar lying and leaves the dining hall. Arjun and Anu too sense that their father is lying to them and leave the place. Nevertheless, before leaving the room, Anu blurts out accusations on her father, saying that he's lying about being at the site the whole day. Sekhar apologises to Chitra and consoles her and they both make up.
On New Year’s Eve, Arjun slips out late at night with the older children to celebrate while Sekhar is out of town on a business trip. Nevertheless, while dancing with his friends on the road, Arjun sees Shekar with another woman and is shocked to know that his father has lied to them about going out of the town. Later, Arjun and the other children are hauled by the police back to their homes. Chitra is furious to learn about Arjun's escapade and when Shekar comes back, asks him to punish Arjun. While Shekar inquires him about the incident, Arjun, who was still angry at his father, blurts out that he saw Shekar with another woman on New Year’s Eve. Chitra and Anu become shocked on hearing about the incident. Chitra then starts suspecting that Sekhar is having affair with another woman and confronts him about it but Sekhar swears on both his kids that he is not.
A few days later, while on the bus, Chitra spots Sekhar talking to a woman. She gets out of the bus and confronts Shekar. Without waiting for his explanations, she rushes back home, packs her bags and threatens to walk out of the house with her kids. Sekhar pleads her to stay but she doesn’t stop. Finally, Shekar comes clean.
Their third child, Anjali (Shamili), was born mentally ill and with a terminal illness a few years ago. The doctors did not give the child more than a couple of months to live. To avoid the sadness for a couple of months from an already physically exhausted Chitra and to protect his children from the trauma, he colludes with the doctors to lie to his family that the child was stillborn. But much to the surprise of everyone, the child has made it past her second birthday and is seemingly physically healthy. The woman Shekar was talking to is Anjali’s doctor. Although Chitra is saddened by this betrayal, she decides to bring Anjali back home.
Anjali is not like a normal child and requires constant attention from both the parents. This causes the other two siblings to dislike Anjali. Moreover, the other kids in the colony and school tease them by making fun of Anjali’s condition. One day, the other kids in the colony make fun of Anjali by tying a string of cans behind her. This causes Arjun to fight with the other kids. He gets bruised which saddens Anjali, but a special bond is born between the siblings. Arjun becomes protective of her and challenges the other kids in the colony to a fight if they can’t accept her. The kids accept Anjali and all the kids come to love her.
This causes the parents of the kids to worry as they don’t want their kids to be close with a mentally disabled child. During an apartment association meeting, the parents of the kids demand that Shekar and Chitra either leave the apartment or institutionalize Anjali. The only person to argue for Anjali’s presence is the ex-convict. The parents are afraid of him and let it go. But soon, Anjali wins over everyone in the apartment complex and everyone comes to like her.
Meanwhile, Shekar, during a late-night visit to his construction site with Chitra and Anjali, is witness to a murder. He reports this to the police and the murderer is arrested. The murderer is enraged and visits Shekar’s house after getting out on bail. He physically assaults and plans on killing Shekar. But the ex-convict comes to the rescue and kills the murderer in the altercation when he threatens Shekar’s family and is arrested. The ex-convict thanks Shekar before leaving as Anjali was the only person to show compassion to him.
The next morning, Anu wakes up and goes to wake up Anjali, but she doesn’t wake up. Anjali had died in her sleep. As more and more people come after hearing Anu’s screams, they all are saddened by the demise of the girl who taught them to accept and forgive.

Review: Simply brilliant!.
From this movie it is proved that Mani Ratnam has a knack of different topics of human relations.Anjali is basically a movie about how a mentally retarded kid finds herself suddenly between a family and whole lot of friends in a group of apartments.The family members,played by raghuvaran and revathy(one of my favorite actress) as mother and father of the child "anjali" suited their roles perfectly well.I still wonder how mani sir made the two year old girl shamelee to act so well as a mentally retarded kid.The siblings of anjali,played by tarun and shruthi,adds to the brilliance of mani sir.I loved this movie personally,as it made me upset for the whole day after watching it!!The songs,once more were brilliantly pictured,my personal favorite is the song shot on "anjali" which showed mani ratnam's greatness.I would definitely recommend this movie to you.You will love this..
Watch it for Ratnam's unique way of storytelling.
There are 2 major aspects of this movie which makes it very interesting - 1.
ManiRatnam's unique and brilliant style of movie-making, 2.
Children.The movie actually reminds me of the novel 'To Kill a Mocking Bird'.
And I should say that ManiRatnam has done a great job indianising the novel and making a commercial movie out of it.The characters of Jem, Scout and Boo Radley from the novel have been very well depicted in the movie.The brother-sister relationship (played by Tarun and Shruthi), different kinds of people in the colony, the scarily unseen neighbor(played by Prabhu) who is spied by the kids, how the society discriminates certain people (a mentally retarded sister in this case), how the 2 children take the brunt of their neighborhood kids ridicule and then learn to handle it - have all been very well depicted.Though the screenplay is not perfect and definitely not as good as ManiRatnam's other movies, you would still find it interesting and unforgettable.
All the characters have been very well played (Credit goes to the director for getting it out of the kids).
And not to forget the great music and great cinematography.Overall its a 'must watch' movie..
Illuminating and thought-provoking.
It's common knowledge that Mani Ratnam is considered one of India's best directors, if not the best.
That reputation has come thanks to films like Anjali.
It is entertaining at times and at others, unabashedly poignant to the point of being melodramatic.
But, what it never fails to do is make you think.
Backed up by a fantastic crew comprising of legends like Ilaiyaraja and the precocious performances of the children, the film is a landmark effort in portraying the trials and tribulations of a family when faced with a totally unexpected development.A middle-class family is fairly contented until the wife delivers a still-born child.
However, with her husband's gentle administration and the antics of her other children, the wife puts her grief behind until one day, she is shocked to discover that her husband is "seeing" another woman, as alleged by her son who happens to spy on a secret conversation while welcoming the New Year with a raucous dance party at midnight.
Following a furious argument, the husband is forced to admit that the still-born child is still alive, but in no position to lead a normal life.
Struck by autism, the child's days are numbered and the husband (who happens to be a doctor) seeks the assistance of a specialist (who is incidentally the other woman) to revive the child and help it lead a happy life.
The wife is undaunted by the traumatizing prognosis and takes the eponymous child home to care for her.At the apartment, hell breaks loose with the neighboring kids taunting the unwitting child, whose siblings retaliate with force.
Fortunately, the child is slowly accepted by the other children, but the adults aren't so accommodating.
An ex-convict enters the frame somewhere and hisses venomous threats at the apartment association members.
In due course, the child becomes the darling of the block and all seems well.One fine day, Anjali's elder sister tries to awake her, with no response.
The elder brother tries likewise and to his horror, discovers that she won't wake again.
Husband and wife are equally devastated but the elder sister won't give up.
The film ends up with the elder sister's haunting exhortations for Anjali to wake up from a never-ending sleep.I was 10 when I watched this film for the first time and I remember bawling my eyes out when it ended.
So good were the performances of the three child leads, that they were honored with the National Award for the best child artist.
That said, the film raises some uncomfortable questions: would real-life parents sacrifice so much to care for such an ailing child?
Would society be kind enough to see beneath the obvious illness and appreciate a child for what it is?
Your guess is as good as mine.An awesome effort..
Cheesy, funny and tragic.
This is an unashamedly populist film.
As a result, it's got the occasional cringe-worthy cheesy sequence (and I'm thinking the Science Fiction / Star Wars pastiche here), and it doesn't really grapple with the reality of bringing up a disabled kid.However, it has some excellent and very funny scenes, and it does deal brilliantly with social attitudes to disability.
It features the full masala quotient, with fights, singing, dancing, bad jokes and pyaar-ishq-mohabbat.
It also made me cry like a baby.In conclusion, an utterly excellent film, although not without flaws (as Mani Ratnam himself admits), which features stunning and thoroughly convincing performances.
Should be seen by everybody..
Excellent Reworking of ET.
Many reviewers have said it's 'To kill a mocking bird'.
I feel its story also has lots of E.T in it.
The way the alien is found disgusting, then adorable and then the E.T finds home.
So if 'To kill a mocking bird is also included, I'll give only one star.
It was entertaining and can be seen as a derivative adaptation and not a copy of the two films, there it scores a 8.The music is the highlight of the movie, so are the children.
Just love all the songs in the movie, has got a lot of nostalgic value.Raguvaran and Revathy gave a very well nuanced performance as the mom and dad of Anjali, and Shamili as Anjali was outstanding, should congratulate Manirathnam for extracting good performances out of the artists..
MASTER PIECE.
This film totally deserves a full page in film making dictionary.
Epic work by mani sir & all actors.
We shouldn't mention shamili{Anjali}, tarun{brother}, sruti{sister} and all children as child actors & artists because they are supremely talented as if they worked in industry from ages.
A MUST WATCH MASTERPIECE OF INDIAN CINEMA from SOUTH.
In every category this film teaches a lesson.
cinematography,editing,lighting,story,direction,screenplay etc.,.....EVERY ASPECT is a lesson for film making aspirants.MUSIC !
no need of any explanation.
just one name ILAIYARAAJA .
This film is his 500th film..
Fantastic Movie But ....
20 years ago when I was a kid watching this movie I cried and laughed and had goosebumps from scene to scene.
I have always admired Manirathnam for his brilliance no matter what he does.
Lately watching too many international movies have put him at my top list of directors to avoid.
He cheats his fans by copying from Hollywood.I just finished watching "To Kill a Mockingbird" 1962 movie with Gregory Peck as lead role.
No matter what I said about that guy I always had a thought somewhere in the corner of my mind that "Anjali" movie is his original creation.
The entire sequence of Prabhu in Anjali forms the core theme of "To Kill a Mockingbird"How the kids are scared of a neighbor.
How the kids run at night and knock on his door and run back.
How the kids bet to go there at night.
And finally how this guy is not as fearful as they have always imagined.
I still rate this movie at 4 because 20 years ago I did not know this and he had given be a great feeling then..
Anjali is the most amazing movie i've ever saw.
Mani Ratnam is one of my favoriate director and he have created history as he made a two year child act a very difficult role of a character "anjali".
Revathy have also performed very well as usual and even raghuvaran have performed well.
Hat's off to Mani Ratnam.
The story is of a mentally retarded girl who is brought back to the family and her brother and sister doesn't accept her and tries to disturb her .
But in the end they accept her.
It contains very much sad scenes which makes the audiences sometimes cry like anything and the audience love to see this film i can bet on it that's why it was sent by the India to the Oscars.
And Ratnam again created history.
Mani ratnam will again make this kind of tragic films which touches some hearts.