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.
