Kuthiraivaal Tamil Movie
All along while watching 'Kuthiraivaal', I had a cocktail of emotions brewing within. Anger and disappointment were the primary ingredients that dominated the cocktail. The primary reason being, if I were to explain the movie after watching it, I would be in a soup. To put it simply, "I DID NOT GET IT"! However, I am curious to gather more from the "intellectuals" who would gleefully decode such numbing experiences.
The movie opens in a field where we see a horse without a tail. Then, the frame cuts to a sleeping Kalaiarasan who wakes up to realise that he has grown a horse tail. It becomes a part of his body. Only he could see it. And then, he tries to decode the meaning of that. He meets vague personalities like a Maths professor, an old lady and a person named Babu (played by Chethan).
None of the characters in the movie were normal people. Everyone was treated with an element of whack. For instance, the man at the cigarette shop has the habit of scratching his armpits and smelling the same. Then, we get to see an eccentric episode in a bank where Kalaiarasan goes berserk with his manager. We then realise that we are placed inside Kalaiarasan's dream as a subconscious fly on the wall (a toast to Parthipan's 'Kudaikul Mazhai', that was more structured).
It requires a lot of patience and conviction to watch the movie that is only 2 hours in length. Directors Manoj and Shyam have a vision that only they seem to understand. Certainly this one is not targeted towards the masses. But, I am curious about the target audiences for this movie. One cannot simply brush it away as a 'festival movie'. Festivals do screen movies that people can relate to.
Kuthiraivaal makes the watching experience tedious and boredom sets in as soon as we are 10 minutes into the movie. Cinematographer Karthik Muthukumar registers his presence in every frame as he starts predominantly with the dutch angle and slowly lullabies into a close-up shot. The shots were smooth and long, with minimal cuts.
Another technicality that stood out was the soothing music by Pradeep Kumar. Though it was played in bits at various points, it was like an oasis in the desert. Kalaiarasan has painstakingly carried his role with a demanding body language that requires him to twitch at times. Others in the cast did their bit, but nothing was outstanding as the content was so complex.
While one can applaud the directors for coming up with such an experimental vision, there needs to be an emphasis on a more user-friendly narrative structure. That in my opinion is the most challenging part of filmmaking, where one needs to connect with a large number of audiences. I don't mean the 'mean masala' movies that have a graduation checklist for a minimum guarantee. There is enough room for a more meaningful and engaging narrative with experimental narrative tropes.
Kuthiraivaal for me, remains a riddle and I believe it was meant to be so for the majority of its audiences. The movie might be a decoder's delight, for others it's a tedious and boring experiment that swallows your time and money without offering anything in return!
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