Kottukkaali Review
Ashwin Ram
Kottukkaali is a rural drama starring Soori and Anna Ben in the lead roles. Directed by P.S.Vinothraj of Koozhangal fame, the project is produced by Sivakarthikeyan.
Premise:
A family of ten decides to visit their clan God to cure Anna Ben from her recent strange activities. Their travel to the temple, what they experience in the due course and finally what is their takeaway forms the crux of the story.
Writing/ Direction:
The team has stayed very true to the decision of making a film without music, there is pin drop silence even when SK Productions title card appears. Leisure pacing as the intention is to deliver a close to reality film, the staging is thankfully done so well. By the time the director decides to spill out the actual conflict, we already have an idea about all the characters, that’s when the raging revelation of Soori turns the table upside down. The writing is so elegant, from the way the characters are naturally established, creating organic comedies in the form of situational dialogues and counter reactions. The film which was unhurriedly progressing on the ground level rapidly jumps to the sky at the pre-interval, the triggering factor was a masterstroke, but the issue is that it leads to conveying the core subject through words out loud which felt a little off on the craft front. The family terrifies after halfway, yet subtly maintained by not exaggerating them just to impose an emotional impact. The temple priest conducting the rituals on women has a shock value, creating immense curiosity for the climax. The last shot of the film is so layered, leaving the final act unfinished for the audience to interpret is probably one of the gutsy decisions taken by a filmmaker, but not many are ready to welcome such an abrupt open-ending.
Performances:
Such a dynamic performance from Soori, calm and composed for the most part, blasts when he has to and is very mature with facial expressions at the very end. Anna Ben just has one dialogue in the entire movie, yet she has carried her role with great display of innocence throughout. The other supporting artists have lived in their roles, it never felt like they were all acting in front of a camera.
Technicalities:
No music as mentioned above, but it was not nagging at all. Live sync voice is used to perfection, supported by outstanding depth in sound design and the much-needed clarity in sound mixing. Visuals are very lively, the cameraman literally took us into the world where the story takes place with many POV shots. Crisp runtime of just 100 minutes, a clever one for an art film of such dry genre.
Bottomline
The close to reality artistic approach that flows at a sluggish pace plus the complicated ending are not everyone’s cup of tea. However it is a solid content-oriented drama with striking confidence and the native humor is sure to work for all.
KOTTUKKAALI – A Good Experimental Attempt with a But!
Rating – 3/ 5
