Bomb Review - Doesn’t Really Blasts to its Potential

Ashwin Ram

Bomb is a rural drama starring Arjun Das and Kaali Venkat in lead roles. The film is directed by Sila Nerangalil Sila Manidhargal fame Vishal Venkat and the music is scored by D.Imman.

Premise:

Ages ago, the people in a village named Kaalakammaipatti were all integrated and kind with one another. A few years back, regressive ideologies separated them into two. Their common belief, deity appearing to unify them forms the crux of the story.

Writing/ Direction:

The opening credits with a narrative voice-over clearly explains the generational backstory of the village. We get to witness the introductions of the limitless characters involved until the pre-interval stretch. There is a big confusion in identifying who belongs to Kaalapatti and who are all part of Kammaipatti. The showcasing of their lives is dry, the first hour falls flat as the scenes lack strong writing. A constant question lies in the approach whether it is a parody or a serious one. Promising interval block, presenting the dead Kaali Venkat as the God, but the issue is that his noble intentions never got highlighted when he was alive. Many queries exist right from the basic setup, Arjun Das is said to be the only person who can carry the God, in the earlier scenes we see him carry Kaali Venkat in a particular way, so why didn’t anyone else try lifting him in the same style after he was dead. Kaali Venkat character’s farting factor is overused, it is fine to use it for fun in a couple of instances for an iota of doubt whether he is actually dead, but it has been placed randomly at several places. However many lively satirical moments and montages were created of how people are ready to believe anything and everything as God. Arjun Das’ character is half-baked, we don’t get to see anything in-depth regarding his childhood trauma other than a repetitive short glimpse, the forceful usage of the star’s famous Lifetime Settlement dialogue just to garner some momentary claps. Punishing Poovaiyar’s character, continuously cursing the pregnant couple are some of the worthy plot-points, delivering those arcs were essential but they sadly land in a cringe manner. The fascinating fireworks idea is spoiled by notorious execution, heavily depending on VFX and even the people suffering were mindlessly brought to screen. Nasser is the one who is holding the conflict together, but his portions are weakly written. It never inspires as a cinematic experience, but only as a story because everything is orally said through dialogues. The heart of the subject lies in Kaali Venkat’s selfless thoughts of how he wants the people to evolve and the village to be a better place, but that too is not visually displayed like the broken bridge is fixed and things are progressive now, the director simply opts to convey the same with words. On the lines of Mandela, but the courage in storytelling is absent as everything is conveyed through metaphors that are not-so-aesthetic as well.

Performances:

Kaali Venkat is the show-stealer, his character’s honest intentions drive the film and delivers an earnest performance as a dead person. This is Arjun Das’ first rural backdrop subject, but it doesn’t feel like seeing him in a new avatar, however some parts of the writing plays to his strengths. Typical heroine characterization for Shivathmika, she suits well for the role though. Poovaiyar’s innocence uplifts a particular night sequence in the first half, which is very well made. Bala Saravanan’s humour with respect to his YouTube channel tries hard to match the trend, but ends up being old-school, his general one-liners evoke some laughter. There are infinite characters other than the above mentioned like Singampuli, Kicha Ravi, Abhirami, Nasser, TSK, etc are all underutilised with middling character writing and hence they don’t shine anywhere closer to their actual potential.

Technicalities:

The sounds in the first half was quite refreshing, but the exaggerated areas later on where the music needs to go upbeat goes the usual D.Imman way, overall a mixed bag. Monotonous camera work, the film mostly has a dull tone, certain celebratory sequences are overly colourful with a variety of lights, the worst of all is the pathetically looking climax fight which is filmed using day for night technique. No big fumble in the edit pattern, thankfully the experienced Prasanna GK keeps it grounded.

Bottomline

An interesting premise that conveys a noble message. Sadly lands flat due to dry staging and a second half that had the potential to shine but misses in execution. Also, the details are mostly in the dialogue-form forgetting the visual craft.

Rating - 2.5/ 5