Kadavul Irukaan Kumaru becomes the third attempt for the director Rajesh to prove his mettle again. He has proved himself before in not just one but three films. SMS, BEB, OkOk all stand as proof to his wit and humor sense. But we missed the director in his recent flicks Azhagu Raja and VSOP. We wanted his comeback, for the impact he has made with his previous films were that good.
Who could forget the trade mark dialogues like “Machi, oru quarter sollen !”, “andha vaarthai yen vaayala solla vachiratha !” or the stretch in BEB where Santhanam helps Arya propose his love. The trademark comedy stretches were missing in the last two films of the director.
While in KIK, we can see Rajesh desperately trying to regain his lost paradise. He is so desperate that we can identify the attempts from a genuine screenplay. He is ready to try anything to make the audience laugh their hearts out. But what we finally end up is laughing at the attempts than the actual comedy lines that were supposed to be funny.
In the very first scene the bride groom dances to a Vijay song while getting ready for his engagement. We desperately want R.J.Balaji to come into the scene, because that’s when the real fun ride starts and that’s why we came to the hall in the first place. Balaji enters the frame and we feel that we are in the comfort zone. The entire first half gains momentum only after the initial 20 mins which would escape our minds by the time the movie ends. R.J.Balaji becomes the savior in most of the scenes and the reason that I am stressing a bit is because it is quite evident while watching.
He introduces new kind of body language, which is sure to make the audience go berserk. We should not forget to thank Rajesh for not making the RJ turned actor over do the same? The first half is filled with many fun filled moments thanks to Balaji, Urvasi and quite a few other fun filled scenes which are well executed than well written.
Second half is reserved for Robo Shankar, Singam Puli and Prakash Raj. The movie for some time feels like a road movie and Robo Shankar and Prakash Raj rules the road in these scenes. But after a round of gags, we feel that we are in the wrong place. We feel that we are in midst of a youtube channel which broadcasts both hit comedy tracks from Robo Shankar’s TV stint and Balaji’s hit radio shows.
Prakash Raj has been reserved for the best. We could accept the director’s courageous take on beep song, TV show, the ad for leading Telecommunication giant and even the malar teacher. But does he need to resort to such a change of genre (you will witness the same in theatres) in an almost smooth movie just for a sake of a song. The song is good, but the situation is not. This lame attempt would not have mattered if the scenes has worked a bit in the movie, but it didn’t.
The movie has two heroines Anandhi and Nikki Galrani. Anandhi is soft spoken and cares for the hero while Nikki cares more about her car when it is jammed, rather than the hero who happened to travel in it. At first we think this to be one another gimmick to make us laugh. But Rajesh is serious about their characterizations. Nikki comes throughout the movie only in red costumes where as Anandhi comes in blue. What really stuns me is the director who has got the eye for such detailing fails to show the same interest in his scenes.
We accept BEB and OKOK were not that great in story lines, but the screen play were that grippy that we were able to forget the story and get lost in the interesting scenes. KIK proves that Rajesh has still got it but he is not in his fullest form yet. We do not wish to lose the director who gave us SMS to lame writing.