Kuthiraivaal Review - A Tiring Experience

Ashwin Ram 

Kuthiraivaal is the fifth venture from Pa.Ranjith's Neelam Productions. The film stars Kalaiarasan and Anjali Patil in the lead roles. Directed by debutantes Manoj Leonel Jahson and Shyam Sunder. Despite no star value, the film got decent notice before release for its creative core idea that was revealed in the teaser. 

Premise:

Kalaiarasan is a bank employee. One morning after waking up, he is shocked to see a horsetail grown on his back. He wonders how and starts searching for answers to his quirky situation, the progress happens to form the rest of the movie. 

Writing/ Direction: 

The core of the film is so exciting, applause to the writers for imagining something new-age. The mood of the flick has been maintained well. There are some interesting stretches that appear as explanations, three plot points strike the right chord and help the story to flow forward. The detailing that's done around the Horse and its tail in terms of writing is likable. The complicated storytelling is a huge letdown. After a major turnaround, a self-explore subject like this can be enjoyed when its screenplay keeps the curiosity factor alive, but this one offers nothing except raising too many confusions in the head. The progression is absurdly dead slow, so even the decent unveil elements don't engage as things get tiring by the time. The film considers itself way too intelligent as the narration is extremely metaphorical at places, but then it feels like the directors realize the issue and try to explain things through simplified dialogues. Plenty of life stuff has been conveyed through words, dialogues in those specific portions and a few philosophical lines test the patience, sadly there are too many of this sort. Also, there is some mandatory Pa.Ranjith brand of society-blaming done by the protagonist for no reason in a scene where a person requests him to take up an Insurance Policy. The second half flashback intends to tell just a very thin backstory, told in an overly stretched manner and bores out completely. Likewise, throughout the film, most of the portions are stuffed with a tiny piece of worthwhile content, but every scene consumes a lot of time because of the unnecessary drags. Direction takes a toll as the emotions get delivered oppositely, the monotonous bank scene in the first half for example. Clarity is heavily missing at most parts that the entire film seems pointless. 

Performances:

Kalaiarasan is a good fit, he does justice to his role by staying serious and focused on what his character is up to. Guess Anjali Patil has been informed to maintain a stone face as the sensational Kaala gal shows no expressions whatsoever anywhere in the film. Unfortunately, her portions are very weakly written and the dialogues she utters create irritation. Apart from the leads, established actor Chetan has a level of involvement with the main subject. The rest of the artists appear only for one scene and go missing. The issue isn't the actors or their performances, it is how half-baked the characters have been penned and how poorly they've presented on-screen. Even the exhilarating role played by Kalaiarasan which had great potential is so underwhelming.

Technicalities:

Music by Pradeep Kumar doesn't offer much, the attempt is there but the sense of satisfaction in both songs and background score is missing. Cinematography is a pleasant surprise as the camera angles were weirdly fresh and that suited for what they've tried to achieve in the narration. Editing is always a collective decision, but yeah the film failed to engage even a bit in its crisp two hours runtime, wish at least some of the sluggish sequences could've been shortened. Great work by the art department, the team helped the vision of the directors by placing metaphorical objects at the right place, the rainbow rangoli especially dropped as a stunner.

Verdict:

The base plot had all the sufficient elements to build it as an exciting flick. But the serious take, that too the damn-slow pace with a narrative that messes with the viewer's mind filling it with queries and confusions make it a tiring experience at the end of the day.

Rating - 2.25/ 5