Saani Kaayidham Review - Is all about form and is quite sharp in that aspect!

Bharath Vijayakumar

Arun Matheswaran’s Saani Kaayidham begins with a warning that the content is extremely violent and viewer discretion is needed. The very first scene makes you take this warning seriously. Someone is murdered in a gruesome manner. But little do you realize at that time that this is one of the lesser violent and gory scenes of Saani Kaayidham.

Narrated using chapters, Saani Kaayidham is predominantly linear, cutting to short scenes from the past in black and white. These scenes are used to establish the origin of the troubled relationship between the two primary characters, Ponni (Keerthy Suresh) and Sangaiyyah (Selvaraghavan). You breathe a little easier during these portions because whenever the film gets back to the present day in the colour mode, you are going to be seeing a lot of blood at its brightest.

A simple one liner about an underdog (or two of them) taking brutal revenge against a group of notorious men, Saani Kaayidham is almost always about the form. Arun Matheswaran is in no mood to be unpredictable or keep you anticipating on what happens next. It is the audio-visual form that he is interested in and that is what he wants you to be interested in as well. In that aspect, he succeeds, because you are left glued to the screen even if you are not comfortable or interested with that is happening with the story. The cinematography, music and performances come together to compel you to stay with Saani Kaayidham. Keerthy Suresh is terrific. And if you consider the fact that she has always looked the soft person on screen, this is an interesting casting choice and Keerthy delivers the goods. Selvaraghavan too makes his mark. The duo could have easily gone overboard and it would have backfired. They remain intense but always give you a sense that a certain level of sanity remains. This is why the violence becomes what it is. Seemingly normal people unleashing this kind of violence is what could be disturbing.

The violence is the USP of the film. So, I am unsure if any of what is shown on screen could be termed gratuitous or torture porn but the film does focus on the violence elaborately. Ironically, one of the best moments in the film is an action sequence involving a matador that has the least gore and is superbly staged. If you have watched films such as I Spit on Your Grave and Revenge, the violence in Saani Kaayidham is almost in that territory. (C.V. Kumar’s Gangs of Madras was a Tamil film that ventured this path). A female protagonist giving it back to the bad guys is the common thread in these films. In Saani Kaayidham, there is the caste angle too. It is a revenge tale of the oppressed gender and oppressed caste, where they give back the violence that they have been subjected to.

The one line maybe thin but Arun Matheswaran does ensure that we are rooting for Ponni and Sangaiyyah and are emotionally invested with them. Then there is a nice little suspense angle and a terrific payoff with a visually challenged character (Sudalai). One underwhelming aspect is that the villains who are shown powerful become toothless all of a sudden. It all seems too easy for Ponni and Sangaiyyah. But again, the modus operandi of Ponni and Sangaiyyah is not what Arun Matheswaran is interested in.

Bottomline

Whether showcasing such brutality on screen is fine or not and could it be detrimental at large is something that the experts have to decide. But taken as a genre as such and considering the films intentions, Arun Matheswaran has successfully delivered what he was going for.

Rating: 3/5