Oru Kidayin Karunai Manu - A black comedy that questions our morality!!!
Bharath Vijayakumar
Plot: A mishap occurs when an entire village is en route to a temple to sacrifice a goat for their local deity.
It is quite fascinating to watch Oru Kidayin Karunai Manu just a week after Thondan. Both films want to say something about righteousness.But unlike Thondan which took to lectures to drive home the point, Suresh Sangaiah's film wants to narrate a story. It doesn't offer direct solutions but sort of holds a mirror against us and leaves us wondering on what kind of a species we are or have become. But make no mistake. This is not a serious film. It raises serious questions but ensures that we are having a hearty laugh all the while.
The film reminds you of Thithi (that brilliant Kannada film), in its treatment . Much like that film, OKKM thrives on its characters and there are so many of them. The humour is a direct by product of the conversations that arise when these bunch of characters are put together in a place. The film never spoon feeds or even tries to emphasize strongly anything. From start to end there is nothing cinematic about the dialogues. When the hero and heroine (it is actually a sin to refer to anyone in this film as a hero) or let us say the lead pair in the film are introduced in their room, we see a pair of garlands hanging on the wall. We come to know that they are recently married. This is exactly the type of scenes you get in the film. The director is not screaming out there in front of you - Hey! Did you notice that? The characters behave and speak as they would have, even if they did not have an audience in front of them. The lead pair are yet to consummate their marriage and when the entire village is put to halt after the mishap, you know what? They spend the night amidst the ruins of a worn out temple that has sculptures depicting positions that could give today's porno a run for its money. Again this is never emphasized and it could even be a coincidence. But given the eye for detail that the director shows, this is surely another teasing reminder to the hero of the film , when the going gets tough the universe does do its bit in trying to add fuel to the fire!
The film keeps questioning the human race. The characters are on the way to a temple and yet they hardly think twice before committing a sin. Life of someone unknown to them is of no significance. It does not matter if it is a goat or a human. And the biggest irony is the term sacrifice. Isn't sacrifice supposed to be letting go of something that we dearly want. But we are always on the lookout for a scapegoat. We offer God the pain of a fellow or weaker being, so that he showers his mercy on us. If this isn't ridiculous,then what is?
Bottomline:
Another one of those little gems from Tamil cinema that is entertaining, drives the message across but most importantly never preaches from a moral high ground!!!
Rating: 3.5/5