KADHALIKKA NERAMILLAI - MY 2 PAISA DISAPPOINTMENT

                                                  

Truth be told, I sat for Kadhalikka Neramillai, the Kiruthika Udhayanidhi directorial with some big expectations. Everything from the first song ‘Yennai Izhukkuthadi’ to the trailer cut, the visuals screened therein are to blame for that. Maybe it is that, or atleast a huge part of why the movie did not reel me in completely (Izhukkala). 

The movie stars Ravi Mohan (none other than our Jayam Ravi, who has dropped his cinematic mononym) and Nithya Menon as the leads, while Lal, Yogi Babu, Vinay and TJ Bhanu (Modern Love Chennai fame) do the supporting characters. A child artist also plays an important role in the movie, whose name I am unaware of. Sorry, I am not a professional reviewer of any sort, I just write to spit out my brain slimes after a movie. Every character has been played amply good, but somehow, the performances just do not feel enough. Both Ravi and Nithya have put in their best works as usual, giving out exactly what must have been required by the director, but the incomplete chemistry between them does not let their performances blend on screen organically, something which we have seen in Thiruchitrambalam for Nithya. That pulls down half the efforts put in the film as the audience do not get the grasp of the lead pair chemistry. It may not feel utterly lousy, nonetheless feels like it lacks the sincerity stemming from writing. Yes, the writing.

Kiruthika takes a subject completely untouched by Tamil movie directors so far. And with a premise this new, comes not only a humongous amount of scope for exploration, but the demerit of having no references to look up to, atleast language bound. Now, I will have to give her the claps for handling such a heavy subject easily, supposing it to a breezy treatment, that keeps the general audience interested in the subject, which is new to almost every one of them. Pardon me for putting up spoilers, but I am very sure that anybody that wants to watch the movie won’t be reading this, and even if they did, my opinions will not weigh in so much to move them away from the decision anyway. The movie talks about single parenthood, the challenges faced by the children growing up in such a family setup, the complex nature of today’s relationship scene, heck it even touches upon homosexual relationships! Though on the surface, most of these topics may seem taboo-ical to Tamil film audience, the treatment that has been given to these makes one go,’Hmm, perhaps not very alien’. And you have to hand it to Kiruthika for doing that. In no part of the movie, these complex topics are belittled, put under the wrong lens, shown in ways which made the audience dance in their seats. There are even jokes written around them, but with a clear demarcation of comedy and humiliation. TLDR, a very politically correct movie, Kiruthika. Well done.

But, that is seldom enough to like a movie in a cinematic sense and we have seen these from time to time. Among the complaints I have on this movie, the prime ones are on its screenplay. It starts off with a high-bang and falls flat mid way. Only if the director had found a way to keep the audience spirits high all through the movie! The movie at times refuses to move. It goes on to test our patience at times. The interval has been placed so illogically, that it just feels unnecessary. The draggy pace of the screen play can be felt very evidently in the second half, post intermission. I just wanted the movie to end. Oh, and did I mention the director's conscious efforts to make the movie look like it's from the same shop as 'O Kadhal Kanmani'? Even the picturisation and editing patterns of songs, 'Yennai Izhukkuthadi' in particular feel like they have been looted from the Mani Ratnam's hit film, with the latter explicitly throwing similarities to 'Mental Manadhil'.

The film’s shabbiness could not be saved even by AR Rahman’s music, who himself needs some saving. The music is mediocre at best, and the BGM, though excelling in parts, feels dull and redundant in others. No offence to anyone, but the music work felt as if it was Anirudh tapping away his keys, half asleep. I heard somewhere that ARR is going on an year’s sabbatical. Ideally, I would have wanted to stop him, and sob hard that I could not, but after watching this movie, I’d gladly let him go. Dear Rahman, please take that break.

All in all, to sum up, Kiruthika deserves ovation for the boldness in picking certain concepts and the way she dealt with them in the movie. But, it feels hardly enough to satisfy my ticket.

Diamonds?

2.5/5

⭐⭐½