Soodhu Kavvum -- Tamizh Movie Review

After the wedding hungama, it was time to relax and wait for the bride and groom to visit our grandma and all of us before they left to the US. The capri cousin insisted that while we waited, we could catch a Tamizh movie which he mentioned was the talk of the town and made Maniratnam shiver in his boots. For the first time in the history of our family, twelve family members agreed to watch the movie and the evening saw us all at the cinema hall. Our family is not a big fan of watching movies in huge groups - in fact, the last movie we saw as a big group was "Willow" in Chennai and we were around 15 members. (Yaa.. that looong ago).

Kidnapping Basics as taught by Das and Shalu

The movie is a lot of things but it is primarily a laugh riot. None of the actors are heroes with an image etc, some are not even well-known but the simple story has so much to offer. Its not a spoof movie, it does not derive its laugh from slap stick type funny scenes, but is so focused on sharing the tale of the four guys that the laughs seem purely incidental. Except for one item number type song which I disliked - the rest of the movie was pure genius. I can understand why Maniratnam is shivering in his boots - with a non-existent budget, this movie strives for greatness and achieves it too.

Image Courtesy: http://www.indiaeveryday.in/gallery/

Every prop that directors employs to make their movie a hit are ignored: A star as the hero, heroine

Kesavan, Pagalavan, and Sekar

wearing water-proof Loreal makeup, picturesque locales, romantic songs about 5 in number to showcase the love between the hero and heroine, item numbers, mother-son sentimentu, action sequences where the hero looks at the villains and they go flying, etc etc. In fact, in this movie, script is king and the taut editing goes a long way in achieving that.

Image Courtesy: http://www.cinespot.net/

Arumai Pragasam in his item number avatar

If you have been bored with the kind of Tamizh movies that we are subjected to, on a regular basis, then watch this and you will change your mind. As mentioned earlier, there is an item song that I did not like as much but it does not distract from the story. There are a number of other songs - mostly played in the background , most notable one being "mama douser..". The movie is raw, and can be a bit unpalatable at times because of the rawness. But, thanks to the amazing editing work, you do not feel it all that much. There is some bad language, some have been blipped out while some remain. The story moves swiftly and it does not seem as if the director inserted the word for effect but more to portray the emotion felt by the actor.

Image Courtesy: http://www.galatta.com/index.html

The lead role is played by Vijay Sethupathy (Das).  He is one of the known actors, having acted in Pizza earlier. That is another movie I am yet to catch. Other actors are fairly unknown but have done a decent job.

Go watch while it is still playing on the big screen!