Kalathil Sandhippom Movie Review

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For many decades the hero worshiping aspect of Tamil cinema has acted as a great hindrance for story tellers to bake multi starrer films. But now finally, Tamil film makers have begun to look up to penning down multi starrer dramas. Last month it was Master, which had two powerhouse performers Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi pit against each other. This month we have Kalathil Sandhippom with actors Jiiva and Arulnithi in the lead roles. But unlike Master, Kalathil Sandhippom has the friendship angle between its lead actors. Actors Jiiva and Arulnithi who have been looking to deliver a solid commercially successful flick have had a release nearly after a year in the likes of Kalathil Sandhippom. But is the entertainer solid enough to stand up to quench the cravings of the stars? To know that let us get in to the review.

Kalathil Sandhippom follows the life story of two close friends with completely contrasting behavior. Anand (Arulnithi) is short tempered who is always ready to break bones while his friend Ashok (Jiiva) plays it calm and cool. Consequently, the latter plays defense and the former plays offense in the game of Kabbadi. They are mischievous happy go lucky youngsters who come around the town making fun of others along with their sidekicks (Robo Shankar & Bala Saravanan). There is a slightly socially responsible side (how can a Tamil hero be without socially responsible side even if he is playing a criminal) to them as well and hence they help people whenever they could. Anand has recently undergone break up with his girlfriend and is trying to cope up with it. Naturally, his friends are his solace.

Meanwhile, parents of both Anand and Ashok want to get them married to a suitable bride to make them take up responsibility in life. Anand’s mother desires to get her son married to her niece Kavya (Manjima Mohan). But a prank played by Ashok misleads kavya’s parents and they find a different groom for their daughter. When Ashok comes to know about this, he concocts a plan to break the engagement and bring Kavya and Anand together again. So he meets Kavya, exaggerates and tells her that Anand’s is head over heels in love with her. This fuels Kavya to alter her decision. On the day of marriage, Kavya rings up Ashok and tells him that she is not interested in the marriage. Up on which Ashok asks Anand to marry her. But Anand refuses to marry her stating that he is not interested in her. In the meantime, Anand’s ex-girlfriend comes back in to his life again. How are they going to solve the intricate marriage problem is what makes the rest of the flick?

Usually in Tamil cinema, when making a dual hero flick there always exists a tension in choreographing the action or mass sequences. As the director has to work with due diligence to ensure that he gives equal importance to both the stars, irrespective of the characters they play. But here in Kalathil Sandhippom actor Jiiva coolly steps back and allows Arulnithi ahead of him in the mass action scenes. While he takes up his strong suit, comedy. It is so refreshing to see a star letting space for the film maker to frame sequences according to the character. Recently, we saw a similar sort of approach from actor Vijay in Master. Are we getting derailed from the clichéd formulas of Tamil cinema? Guess, it is too soon to come to any conclusions.

Director Rajasekar in an endeavor to bake a proper entertainer borrows done to death plots from films that hit the screens during the 90’s. Naturally, by doing so he has built a plot that might have been a decent entertainer two decades ago. He has been so in to this process that even the comedy scenes in the flick have a heavy 90’s comedy tracks hangover. Along with this there are numerous loopholes in the plot that makes one lose interest in the film after a point. Apart from this, story teller Rajasekar aims to build emotional bromance between actors Jiiva and Arulnithi and make it the highlight of the drama. But his scene sequences to depict that bromance are not convincing enough to make us pin to the characters.

Actor Jiiva has done justice to his role as a jovial young man with maturity. Though lagging behind in the action sequences, he makes up for it in the comical department with his sharp timing. Actor Arulnithi’s strong zone is thriller flicks, and one can understand why he struggles as a mass action hero. Actress Manjima Mohan has bagged herself a meaty role but finds it hard to bring in flavors to it. Actress Priya Bhavani Shankar does not have much to offer in her more sort of an extended cameo role. Comedians Robo Shankar and Bala Saravanan have failed to serve the purpose for which they were brought on board. The rest of the cast have delivered decent performances.

On the technical front, music director Yuvan Shankar Raja is clearly not at his best but adds value with his thumping background score. Cinematographer Abhinandan Ramanujam has covered the flick in the best way possible while his counterpart editor Dinesh Ponraj has done a decent job.

On the whole, Kalathil Sandhippom is the perfect example for ‘the tried and tested formulas’ do not always yield best results.