Kaadali in Tamil means, Lover. Before entering the theatre that is screening this movie one can think hundred possibilities with what could be the storyline and how will the movie shape up with the publicity hinting at it being another Arya or Arya-2. Well, when a director like Anand Ranga is associated with a movie, we tend to feel may be he could be encouraging someone who is making another Oye, that did not work out in the first attempt but became a cult due to it’s songs and upon repeated satellite telecast. Now, let’s look at this movie by Pattabhi K. Chilukuri.
Plot : The movie mainly concentrates on bringing out the new found freedom of a young girl who has been raised in a highly conservative environment. Her Father still loves to pamper her as a kid while she is one of the orthopaedic doctors in the Government Hospital. Now, she also says that she has been sent to all girls school and college through out her education years! Well, she tries to explain what she does with that but one to find it too outlandish.
Okay, Okay, let us tell you what she did actually first. Bhandavi (Pooja K Doshi) keeps getting rejected as her family tries to find a match for her. Her parents try everything to revert any bad omens in her kundali and try every sort of blessing ritual to find a way to get her married soon. Even though they are hell bent on doing so, she doesn’t look too aged though. Well, with her young attractive looks she finds two boys Kranthi (Sai Ronak) and Karthik (Harish Kalyan) attractive enough to fall for. Whom did she choose to marry? Or is there an invisible fourth dimension to this triangle? Watch it in theatres to know further..
Performances : Pooja K. Doshi has a good smile to go with but she doesn’t seem to have the screen presence or oomph factor to grab the eyeballs of the viewers. It at times gets too hard to believe that she is a matured young adult as the movie tries to project but not a teenager. Even her performance doesn’t help her much. There are some clever potshots aimed at her height as well. Sai Ronak doesn’t make a good impression but he does have screen presence to carry off a scene in his style. He danced like well but did not emote well enough for us to feel for the character.
Even though his character is highly filled with cliches he could have brought in some newness to it by sinking his teeth in. He missed an opportunity here. Harish Kalyan looks alright for his role but he doesn’t have enough energy to look like an unrested soul. Even though writer tries to fill in the gaps with constant dialogues there is not much depth to his character and the actor fails to add some from his side. Rest of the cast members seem to be brought in from any serial land and they do exactly what they do in their respective serials and other films.
Technicalities : In a movie that depends on technical elements more to impress than the performers, even the major crew gave up on the movie after a point. As you start getting intrigued in the proceedings after a point of time, the movie falls flat in the cinematography and editing departments that helped it sustain some interest till the climax. Even though the writing was never a huge plus for this movie, even the other technicalities not helping the director out does make it feel a bit too bore by the end of it all.
Marthand K. Venkatesh delivers a watchable movie for a major portion of it with his clever cuts but he too in the end had to give up on the amateurish level of writing and direction. Shekar V. Joseph brought in good quality images in the budget he has been given but that doesn’t seem to be enough to cover up glaring mistakes in the narrative. He tries hard to give the movie a tone but fails to create and hold interest as the movie proceeds to the conclusion. Prasan tried his best to create some good tunes for the movie. Even though one or two songs are hummable at best, they don’t really help the movie as they seem too old fashioned even in their music arrangements. His work too doesn’t inspire much to write about.
Writer and Director, Pattabhi doesn’t really care for unique characters or does he try to imagine the characters in a new sense. He has potential spark in choosing cast and also trying to present them as cleverly as possible by trying to iron out their flaws but his flawed subject and writing doesn’t help the director in him to bring out the feel he imagined while writing. In a highly flawed amateurish way, he tries to expand on characters that look like walking out from Fountain Head or a Cloud Atlas but doesn’t really have any such vigour or strength to them that they needed to capture us and let us know that they are here. We just look at them in hope to find something fruitful and money worthy as they try to mouth their feelings. Even the writing doesn’t help us to say, the writer had it in him, but the cast ruined it. It is a case of mutual colossal failure even though they had some subject to start with.
Analysis : There is nothing much to analyse in this movie. It is a much better short film to watch with gaps in between. The quality of production does appear rich but production doesn’t just mean the background but it also means the story and characters that engage you. This is just one lousy attempt by a passionate maker who had things going for them by hook or crook but missed on the trick to deliver on the promise.
Rating : 1/5
