Kadal, not so deep!

However wide, deep and vast the title may sound, the movie itself comes across as nothing more than a meandering murky stream to me. 

The beginnings of the stream, the very basis of the story-line, is familiar. Age old, is the struggle between good and evil. But as always, we do expect the same wine to be packaged nicely, as with many other products from Mani sir earlier. Thalapathi and Raavan would belong to that category of epics re-told, though he did flirt a tad bit with both stories. With Kadal, something seems to have gone wrong with the bottling plant, if I may say. Is that an experiment gone wrong?

Now before I give the wrong impression that this movie is not worth the 100 bucks (or 400) you pay for the ticket, let me talk about what I liked. There is a new issue tackled here, albeit briefly. A few scenes depict how a public impression is formed on priests and their purported misdemeanors (though there need not be an inkling of truth in it). This is probably not too far from real life happenings. And I was hoping the movie would take shape around that particular issue, from that point onward. But that was not to be. Did the director shy away from more on this to avoid wider protests? Could be.

Tulasi, is like fresh mint. She has done good justice to her role, though the screen space is much lesser. Maybe being a new-bee helped her fit into that role. There seemed to be nothing pre-set in her emoting. It remains to be seen if she is going to remain as fresh in movies to come.

The casting for the most part fits very nicely. Looking back, I doubt if Arvind Swamy could have chosen a better role for a come back. Arjun fits well in his role just as much. 

Having said that the casting itself was good, if we were to look at how well these actors were used, something seems missing. Arjun could have been utilised much better. His characterization comes is quite shallow, with no sound basis to why he anoints himself as the bad guy or to some of his irregular mannerisms. I was expecting a lot more meat to Arvind Swamy's role on his return to the fishing village, as a tougher man. But it fizzles out to the point that it kind of leaves his return unjustified. The reasons attributed to the enmity between the two comes off as quite weak.

Tulasi, with her child's ways for reasons revealed later, has a reasonable character. Yet, it does seem to be a bit of a cliche that a few reels of her innocence should immediately follow the revelation about why she is the way she is.

And if have not written anything about Gautam yet, it is because I am confused about the actor and his character in the movie too. He exhibits various sides of him, sometimes for no rhyme of reason. Is he the hap-go-lucky person he is made out to be when he is dancing around for the song 'Yele Keecha'? If so how did he become one from being the angry young child? If that is the touch of god, why and when did he turn evil before he walks off to take Arjun as his godfather? And then the turn around again when he meets Tulasi... its all a bit too murky. And as an actor, I can only trust Mani sir's judgement for now. I shall wait for other movies before I say more.

Now, here is the main reason why I dislike the movie. Its way too dark for Mani sir's style. Yes, his movies have shown violence before, or have even shown stark reality in some cases. But it was all tacit or untold or unseen. It was never on screen with a bitter taste as seen in this movie. Many scenes could have been just "cut" - keeping in mind the sensitivity of the wide audiences who look forward to a Maniratnam movie. The language was not too far behind either, with a lot of words, that could have been, quite frankly, 'beep'ed!

When I first listened to the songs from Kadal, I felt ARR was back. Back and happening in the Tamil circuit, which I felt he has neglected for a while. I still stick to the same word about the music. What did surprise me a bit was the usage and the placement of the songs. Its typical of Maniratnam to use and reuse a few songs, in short forms so to say. One stanza here and one stanza there. 'Chithirai Nila' was expected to be that way. But I was perhaps a bit dreamy to expect a different visual treatment for the song. 'Pallankuzhi Patha Puriyala' was glaringly misplaced in its picturisation considering the context of the movie. The lyrics perhaps went unjustified too. 'Makudi' was again misplaced not only in the genre of music vis-a-vis the rest of the songs, but also in placement as a part-title song.

I am not sure if Rajeev Menon was really needed for this movie for the kind of shots I saw. Maybe I should see it again to get the real picture, but I felt there was nothing spectacular about the camera work. Perhaps it was because of the clutter in the background, required to depict a fishing village or a small town? Talking of which, the sets were a lot more realistic for sure. Sometimes even raw.

In toto, lost among the darker scenes and foul language, I am tempted to simply ask "En?" ("Why?") in true Mani style!!