Unfortunately, Sri Lanka has been involved in a very, very long and brutal civil war with Tamilese militants, off and on, for three decades. Seeing the impact all this had on the girl and parents (particularly the adoptive mother) was impressive to watch and sure sparked my interest. Despite a stupid decision and telling her in the worst way, the parents made up for this by agreeing to help her find her biological mother. Soon after this, the parents revealed themselves to be total idiots (one of the complaints I had about the film), as they decided to tell this very young girl the truth about her parentage AND tell it in a way that left the girl emotionally screwed up and confused. Somehow or another, she had been adopted and was talking about her life with mom and dad #2-though she did NOT realize these people were not her biological parents. None of this seems that interesting or important and you wonder what is missing-what about the lady who was about to give birth? My wife and I debated this and we finally guessed that this little girl was actually the child of the lady in the first part of the film. You see her in her home and she talks to the camera about her life and family. The entire focus of the film then changes completely-to a young girl who is about to turn 9 in Madras, India. At a refugee center, you see the lady about to give birth-after which the titles to the film finally are revealed. Months later, the wife is very pregnant and on board a refugee vessel heading to India. At the beginning, a young couple is married and shortly after the wedding, war breaks out in their native Sri Lanka and the lovers are separated.
The context for what was occurring was missing and I am glad I stuck with it. At first, I found myself losing interest in this film because the rather confusing style of filming really lost me. Oddly, it was 137 minutes long-slightly longer than the time listed on IMDb. Last night, I saw A PECK ON THE CHEEK (KANNATHIL MUTHAMITTAL with English subtitles).