Kallappadam Review

A place in the dream town is still a dream for many people as the competition within the film industry is huge and one got to really work hard to cement his/her place in the dream town. There are thousands and thousands of people, who keep narrating their script with the same vigor for years in and around ‘Kodambakkam’ and ‘Vadapazhani’ every single day. But, only few of them gets the chance to wield the megaphone, and even if they do, their success is not guaranteed, because, they got to counter attack the post-production, marketing, a perfect release date, and guessing the pulse of the movie goers.
 
Movies based on ‘Meta Cinema’ genre is not a new one for Tamil cinema, as we have seen movies like, ‘Azhagiya Theeye’, ‘Kathai Thiraikkathai Vasanam Iyakkam’, and a few more which registered the pains of aspiring director and technicians. ‘Kallappadam’ do travel in the same path, but the treatment is a refreshing one.
 
Plot:
 
Vadivel and his friends have been struggling big time to crack the code to create their pet project for three years. At a point, Vadivel decided to indulge in a heist to produce his dream movie and convince his friends as well to involve in the con job. On the other hand, Lakshmi Priya, a star, who had hey heydays in the cinema is forced to be a keep for ‘Aadukalam’ Narein, a big shot producer in the industry. Lakshmi Priya decides to loot a lump sum from ‘Narein’ and so does Vadivel and his friends, because, Narain rejects Vadivel’s script once. Which team wins the rat race to loot the money from Narein and whether Vadivel succeeds in producing the film, which he loves the most forms the rest of the story.
 
What’s good?
 
The screenplay, choice of actors, and the dialogues. Vadivel has presented an engaging screenplay with some intelligent twists. Singam Puli, Narein, Senthil, and the Inspector have given their best and fits like a glove to the movie’s proceedings. The dialogues deserve a special mention, ‘Inga yaaru epdi jeichaanganu mukkiyal illa.. jeikaradhu mattum daan mukkiyam’.. ‘Avan avan Hollywood padam, Korean padam nu suttu padam edukaranga, naama verum idea va daane da sudrom’ are destined to get huge claps. The director’s effort to throw some light on the dying art ‘Koothu’ is laudable and he cleverly made use of a song to narrate the meta cinema portions in the second half. K’s music falls into the above average category, and so does the camerawork.
 
What Not:
 
The first twenty mins of the movie, where Vadivel gets rejected everywhere, because his script doesn’t carry the usual elements of Tamil Cinema. Well, the same has been picturized multiple times in various movies and the editor could have chopped off the first song. The movie takes its own sweet time to settle down before accelerating and the same happens in the latter half of the movie. The courage to do an independent movie is highly appreciable, but the obvious production constraints pull down the movie to some extent.
 
Verdict:  You can let ‘Kallappadam’ to steal your time and money. 
Rating: 3/5