Thoughts on this movie?
Just finished it yesterday. I haven't watched Kaala and thangalaan but this is by far the weakest work of PA ranjith.
What could've been a great movie has so much wasted potential. I know it worked out for some people but it didn't for me. I'm going to rant about why cuz I was really excited about watching this movie and disappointed so badly.
Note : this is just my opinion.
- The very problem of this film according to me is that it's misleading and not balanced properly. Let me get into more detail. What I think ranju Saar tried to convey is that love is love irrespective of the couple's caste, religion, gender etc: but society had corrupted it by adding barriers such as caste, gender etc. I was really excited about this film cuz I thought it's gonna speak loud about the LGBT themes and their challenges faced due to the conservative mindset of our country but it's barely there. The lesbian and gay couple hardly had 0.99% of screen time and talked about in literally one scene. And the rest 99.01% is about caste caste caste. Sometimes I wonder if it's ghost directed by Mari Selvaraj. look I don't mind about talking about caste problems as they needed to be spoken out loud. But talking about it soo much all the time like its the only problem is what I think is not working out for me. There are other problems such as homosexual, transsexual romantic relationships that needed to be voiced out as well as they are no movies dedicated to that topic [I haven't watched moothon yet so idk]. But props to ranjith for even talking about this problem.
2.the next problem is that they don't even convey that issue properly. The entire movie feels like a sloggish boring documentary movie about honor killing sprinkled with some LGBTQ. Like all the characters feel like tape recorders telling the same advice over and over again. Most of them feels so lifeless. I was so irritated everytime I see kaalidas and dushara's character and wanted to zip their mouths. The only character I feel slightly sympathetic is kalai's arjun character. (bro is such an underrated actor give him more chances). By the way it's just my opinion but whenever I see kaalidas on screen it feels like harish kalyan for some reason. Am I the only one who thinks like this? Let me know.
- I know this is stupid but I really expected some fun romance. But it is even more sloggish so much so that I skipped the entire part. I know this is stupid of me to ask this as this is not a dark romance. BUT THIS IS RANJITH THAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. bro did madras and kabali both of which had (IMO) some good romance scenes. so I was kind of disappointed.
4.AND the CLIMAX. I don't even want to talk about it. Like what was that. WHY? Just an average paced movie and you had to ruin it all in the climax. It was so cringey my God AVPL 🙏 😑.
With all these criticisms I had. I also have some things they I really liked about this film. The album is so underrated.like I had Paruvame and kadhalar song on loop for like 2 weeks and still not tired. The background music is so good. It gave the vibes of an ominous and gothy aesthetic. IDK what caused ranju Saar to worked with tenma instead of SaNa but this is a really good change of things. I think tenma single handedly carries the film. I also liked the interval scene and kalai's performance is good.
Overall a below average movie, career worst of ranjith for now IMO.idk wwhat he tried to convey but props to him.i really appreciate the fact that he voiced out one of the biggest problems in out nation as of now. I hope more directors will make more Tamil movies/series about LGBT
(my opinion but I think vetrimaaran can make a great movie with a finished source material as I'm a vetrimaaran fan and Really hope I can see a project like this. Other strong directors like selvaraghavan, Mani ratnam and VP can do it but it's too much greedy I think.... )
Do give this movie a shot and let me know if it worked out for you
TL DR : a below average movie in my opinion. The music and kalaiyarasan are the only positives in this movie . Filled with annoying and lifeless characters and a cringe fest climax.but do give it a try.