Tamil film director Rajiv Menon sets a trend with Kandukondain Kandukondain

Rajiv menon's e-mail id is rajivmenon007@hotmail. com. And that's not the only thing the Tamil film director shares with the daredevil secret agent. Menon, 37, is an inveterate risk-taker. In an industry where most men prefer to play safe, Menon plays for broke. And occasionally he wins.

This is one of those happy occasions. A few months ago, Menon decided to release his second feature filmKandukondain Kandukondain(KK) with English subtitles instead of the traditional dubbed Hindi soundtrack. His well wishers warned him that it wouldn't work. But he stuck to his guns.

And he was right.KKis running to house-full shows in its fifth week in Mumbai. It got rave reviews and the word-of-mouth is spectacular: "The reports are consistently good," says columnist Shobha De. In Delhi, it's a similar success story. Running at the PVR-Anupam-4 multiplex,KKis drawing full houses. The film will soon be released in Pune, Ahmedabad and Calcutta.KKhas broken new ground.

It is that kind of a film.KK is a family saga of epic proportions that explores the lives of a widow and her three daughters whose lives are suddenly thrown asunder. Menon's inspiration was both his own life and Jane Austen'sSense and Sensibility. His father died when he was only 15 and his mother single-handedly raised him and his brother. Menon astutely weaves in autobiographical experiences but transposes the boys into girls. Austen provides the rest of the framework.

FIRST FAILURE: The Hindi version (Sapnay) of Minsara Kanavu failed, making Menon determined not to dub his future movies

KK follows the lives of these women. Their loves, their struggle and their eventual triumph over adversity. Says Menon: "The story's certainly not a straight line, not even a triangle, but a pentagon with different corners and angles to it. Somebody's always surprising somebody else." The textured story is complemented by first-rate performances, melodious music and striking images. Writer Honey Irani points out, "For once, everything else matched the cameraman's work. This was very classically done. Hats off to the director."

The success is a vindication of Menon's talent. His debut filmMinsara Kanavuwas a success in Tamil but took a beating in Hindi. Trade pundits theorise that heartland audiences could hardly relate to the heroine's dilemma of choosing between the man she loves and becoming a nun. But it was more likely the awful dubbing. Having burned his fingers once, Menon decided to steer clear.

InKK, Aishwarya Rai admirably matches histrionics with National Award winners Tabu and Mammooty. She says the credit goes to Menon. "He is very good at narrating and he puts a lot of clarity into the character. That made it easy for me to become Meenakshi." Adds Tabu: "He is a complete sport on the set. For him, cinema is not a profession. So he doesn't take it like a task.KKis a labour of love."

For bread and butter, Menon makes commercials. And he is very successful at it. Ads like those of Titan, Bru, Nescafe, Dove and Asian Paints have earned him a national reputation and a sizeable fortune. As his snazzy two floor, lime and grey office in Chennai's posh Alwarpet area testifies. But it wasn't always so. Menon has come up the hard way.