Soodhu Kavvum – A Crazy and Genius Falooda

Imagine you sitting down with a really entertainment seeking kid on her bed and just customarily picking up that sentence from that one book that goes “Once upon a time…”, she just goes buzz and what a lousy storyteller you make. Nalan Kumarasamy understands this better and has played a real good gamble I would say. He just picked up a story which is not new, characters that we have seen here and there, but he just makes it new on every single frame.

Soodhu Kavvum has fun written all over it and it is not just about the brilliantly genius screenplay, but one can actually feel how much the crew enjoyed making the movie. There was this ‘come let’s have fun’ attitude. If you had seen Scott Pilgrim vs the World, you will have a similar experience with Soodhu Kavvum too.

If you remember that Kadhala Kadhala ‘lingam’ art technique that uses a falooda, where kamalahaasan turns a Christ paint into something ‘magical’. The screenplay is something like that falooda art; A simple plot that has craziness sprayed over it.

There are two guys who stay together in Chennai, one a corporate and the other a valet boy. Both of them lose their jobs. OK, how? Let me not give any details, they are crazy for sure. A third guy, who is sent out of his village for a crazy stuff he did and lands in the jobless-bachelor duo’s room. Vijay on the other hand plays Das, who is just a new-in-the-business kidnapper, who has just shifted or probably promoted himself (as he explains) from a smuggler. Now, after a random brawl in a local bar, the four (five according to Das) meet and Das explains to them his life as a smuggler and about his new venture as a kidnapper. In the course of their conversation, the three get to meet the fifth character, who is nothing but Das’ invisible girlfriend. An interesting little add to the screen, this invisible character makes it content-filled.

Beginning with an introduction to kidnapping, Das takes in the three into his team. From the way Das blackmails his victim’s fathers to how he collects the ransom by casually walking into a bank manager’s officer like a pizza boy, director Nalan just plays fun. And you can be part of the fun too. Serious work comes in the form of a request from one Mr. Nambikai Kannan, to kidnap the son of a minister for mere vendetta. Das could keep the ransom from the kidnap. Attracted by the huge money, they break their first rule of kidnapping (“kednapping”) which prohibits them from playing with powerful men, and the four (still five for Das) begin their act.

All of the cast easily blend in with ease. Vijay Sethupathi can never ask for more. Why is this guy chasing directors for their stories, many wondered when gossips claimed so, but this character was definitely worth the chase. Third time again we can see him in a really whacky role and he wins it over with such elegance. He suits the character, the character suits him; he’s sleek. Yog Japee plays another interesting character, that of a psyco policeman, who doesn’t speak. Catch the bad guy, kill him. He does nothing more, nothing less. Japee fits in naturally into that character.

Santosh Narayanan puts the smallest of sounds to good use and adds amazing quality to the screenplay. Both music and background scores are done well. The other departments of camera, art, costumes, preproduction score equally well and go hand-in-hand to give you a complete package of entertainment.

A genre in itself, Soodhu Kavvum is FUN.

Paradesi - A Bala class act

From a director well-known for his characterization comprising of the dark side of a good human being, Paradesi sets out to be a little different towards the end (Even though this is not the first time director Bala had tried to move away from his initial style viz. in Avan Ivan the characters were more comically portrayed at most parts of it).

Even though the story is adapted from a novel, Paradesi begins the Bala style though. An unseen set of village characters that seem to be very fond of their love for humor despite the fact that they all are in extreme poverty, form the drama that sets forth the first half of the film.  Rasa (played by Adharva), an innocent village lad who beats the drum to carry messages and earn a handful of leftover food from anyone who might be willing to  give them away, is at the receiving end of constant complaints from a concerned grandmother. She keeps trying to insult him and push him in all ways to make him develop an ego and earn food through a respectable job. The village’s introduction to us begins with a marriage ceremony and the whole village is rejoicing. A funny old man dies and his own wife wants the news to stay away from popular talk to avoid any disturbance to the marriage and the grand feast to follow. The inference here one has to make is about how despite the fact that the villagers are in despair, they are fun loving people who make use of whatever they have to make merry. Angamma (played by Vedhika) is a naughty village girl whose primary hobby is to make fun of Rasa. Even though she teases him a lot, she only ends up falling in love with his innocence. Rasa is pushed to a level of intolerance during the feast and sets out to seek any job that comes along and gets one too, but, only to get cheated. That’s when he meets a tea estate keeper who is on the search for laborers for his estate. Rasa takes him to his village and the keeper convinces many men including Rasa to join his estate. The desperate men who are misguided by the keeper’s words and attracted by money set forth to the mountains that grew tea.

The next half of the movie is one that of the tortures faced by bonded labors of the British Raj’s tea estates. From severe punishments to anyone who tries to escape to sexual harassments faced by the female laborers at the hands of the White officer in-charge of the estate, the helplessness of the laborers is well-portrayed.

Dhansika plays the role of mother who is trapped in the estate as laborer with her daughter. Her role is one that commands respect, much like that of Sangeetha’s in Pithamagan, a bold young woman facing the world alone. She is the only support Rasa earns. The troubles seem to be never-ending when most of them are made to stay citing penalties from various expenses despite their bond expiring. Their bonds gets extended till they are clearly physically unfit to be profitable. Gripping scenes in the second half melt your heart away.

At a place or two I felt things didn’t work well. One was the unnecessary song involving the savior doctor and his white wife, who are brought by the White men to instill faith in the disease-stricken laborer community (later shown that it is all a false drama played by the Whites). This musical style to portray how faith in god was used to get the laborers back on feet could have been easily avoided. A simple screenplay would have been neat. The other thing that was odd was the quality of English spoken by the White men; even their Tamil seemed better!

The movie ends when Angamma comes to the estate in search for Rasa, with his son (they never married though), and Rasa cries out in vain mentioning how they are trapped in hell forever. This ending is how particularly it is not Bala stuff. Even after Dhansika’s death, Rasa doesn’t soar with anger. He is weak and helpless throughout and not a single sign of rage in seen from him at any point. 

Acting of everyone in the cast is as usual one of benchmark standards, something Bala is known to get out of his cast. Adharava, Vedhika and Dhansika stand out with their expressions and screen command. The dialogues are well written. Dirty jokes fill the conversations throughout the first half. One can feel great quality from the richness in the natural sets, the detail in defining a character’s mannerisms, the effort to get humor of a level that matches the intellect of the characters involved, and what everything  that Bala is always known for. His constant effort to bring elements of uniqueness and strong character definitions to Tamil cinema is an ever continuing one.

Kadal - A Philosophical Ride

Not in many movies, the audience of a Tamil cinema skips the applauses for the protagonist only to rise for the Director and an even louder cheer for the Music Director. Kadal began, for many, outside the theatre. It must be really good; it must be a love story that is mixed with an interesting plot that revolves around characters from a sea-side Tamil Christian community with a strong cast in the form of Arvind Swamy and Arjun, they thought. The muse that was created was also because “coincidently” son of actor Karthik and daughter of actor Radha, who were also cast opposite to each other in their debut “Alaigal Oivathillai”, which was a love story revolving around a sea-side village.

But, Mani Ratnam surprises us with a completely different movie that should probably be accredited with its bold attempt with the characterization, dialogues and screenplay. The natural south Tamil slang that is also delivered in a natural fast phase leaves most city audience biting nearby ears for missing out at them. But, what you get is a rarity. Written by writer Jeyamohan, the dialogues thus give you that normalness of life.

With some wonderful performances from almost every character in the movie, except probably Thulasi, the cast is a standout.  Now, speaking of Thulasi, she needs to work on her expressions; they need to be in a fashion that suit her face more. She perfectly suits in the character, but with the whole screen so beautiful, she should have done better. Most audience felt she didn’t look that great, but I felt it was her novice expression that cost her. Arvind Swamy and Arjun do excellently well without any doubt, and Lakshmi Manju chips in with a small little role that is most important too. Ponvannan brings in his experience to pull out a mature performance too. New-face Gautam is not all that new-face at all with the acting part. He is a natural with acting and did a good job too.

The cinematography is splendid and eye-soothing. The sea is like the background to a drama that runs in front. Scenes from the deep sea in the climax are shot breathtakingly. A 10 on 10  for the cinematographer Rajiv Menon.

What probably is the highlight of the movie is the characterization of the 6 distinct elements I saw-the Good, the Evil, the Human, the Angel, the Coin and the World. The Good played by Arvind Swamy, is about a rich ‘Buddha’ like character who seeks peace in devotion and prayer. He completely believes in the power of truth and the Bible. Arjun on the other hand is the son of the Satan, as he claims often in the movie. He like Lord Voldemort knows the laws (here the Bible), better than the Good. With a little tiff that arises when the Good meets the Bad, Arjun goes off to only come back to seek vendetta. He also promises Arvind that he is about to teach him a lesson on who’s path in life is a better one.

In the little game they play, the Human is introduced and he moves from one side to the other. From the hitches of the World, the Human struggles and turns himself to Satan during his childhood. The Good returns in the form of Arvind, who is now the newly appointed priest to the local church. He meets the Human and introduces him to goodness and God. After a series of slow paced developments, the Bad returns only coincidently, but uses the opportunity to finish of the long pending revenge. The World is deceived to punish the Good and the Human loses his hope in goodness too. An Angel would then come to cast love on the Human and the whole story further is for these elements to finally say that, ‘No human is complete goodness or complete evil’. 

I’m not sure if anyone actually saw the movie in such a philosophical view. With an audience that can be really entertainment seeking, this movie can be a tragedy. It’s one of those few movies you might have to see again, without friends around, with an open mind, to understand what it says. Credits to Mani Ratnam for his attitude and valor.

With all this said, what lacked in the movie was that some small things were said in a subtle, quiet, unconventional fashion. Most people easily miss out those details and end up blaming the slowness and the complex story.

Kadal, to me, is an 8 on 10.