Kodi Veeran - A Muthaiya template violent saga

M.Sasikumar's 'Kodi Veeran' directed by his 'Kutti Puli' helmer Muthaiya has finally arrived on screens after much controversy over the unfortunate death of its co-producer B. Ashok Kumar. The film is a template Muthaiya violent saga and whether it will strike a chord with its target audiences remains to be seen.

Kodi Veeran (Sasikumar) brings up his kid sister Parvathi (Sanusha) after losing his mother to a tragic suicide. Needless to say the siblings will go to any extent for one another and as fate would have it they jointly save the RDO (Viddharth) from being killed by a group of badmen. There is also Villangam Vellaikaaran (Pasupathy) who dotes over his sister (Poorna) and often murders anyone who goes against her husband. There is (Mahima Nambiar) a college going girl who catches the eye of the hero and she too has a brother she loves which helps to provide a twist in the screenplay. Kodi also happens to be a Saamyaadi who goes into a trance often to predict the fate of the villagers and on one such occasion he blurts out that his own sister's marriage will be one of extreme violence in which she will lose something very dear to her. Did his prediction come true and how all these characters collide in forced confrontations forms rest of the blood dripping screenplay.

'Kodi Veeran' has nothing to challenge Sasikumar and his role is just a mixture of 'Kutti Puli', 'Kidaari' and 'Vettrivel'. As usual he is convincing in the action and sentimental episodes but his antics in the love portions make one want to beg him to stop. Among the three Kerala girls it is Sanusha who has a character with some semblance of depth and has done it well. Mahima looks pretty when on screen and especially in the songs but has nothing more to do to make a mark. Poorna as the antagonist has gone to the extent of shaving her head for her role but the director has decided that a pout from her in various angles could translate into villainy which sadly doesnt. Pasupathy as the chief antagonist is menacing while Viddharth has been wasted in an inconsequential role made even more unbelievable by casting a middle aged actor as his younger brother. Bala Saravanan and the actor playing Maaya Kannan tickle the funny bones feebly in a few scenes.

To be fair to the director he opens the film with a very violent birth of a child which in a way prepares the viewer for all that follows. The main criticism so far on Muthaiya is that his stories are caste based but in this one he has pushed that to the background (background songs to be precise) and has tried to ride on sentiments instead, which work to a certain extent. The first half after the mandatory punch dialogues and hero worship then moves on quite interestingly and having three sets of brothers and sisters on a collision course also raises the anticipation. The interval block is the best part of the film in which Sasi gets all his enemies in one place and delivers them a warning.

On the downside the killer blow on the screenplay is dealt by Pasupathy's character's inconsistency as he is portrayed as an impulsive and indiscriminate killer but lets the hero play cat and mouse with him till the climax. The film nosedives after a well setup interval block and fails miserably to live upto the expectations meandering into one violent episode after another and missing out on expanding on the core story of sibling love between the good and the bad.

N.R. Ragunanthan once again impresses with his songs with his folk numbers "Adi Athe" and "Kalavani" standing out. His background too compliment the theme of the film. S.R. Kathir in charge of the camera has kept the frames simple and clean and scores in the climax water puddle fight. Venkat Rajan's editing, Super Subbarayan's editing and Muthaiya's dialogues are worth mentioning. Muthaiya seems to be trapped in a template and is unable to rise above it even though he shows many flashes of novelty in his story telling.

Verdict : Those who enjoy Sasikumar and Muthaiya's previous films will have nothing to complain about in this one.