Part of growing up in a Tamil
household is constituted of eating ‘thiyr saadam’ (curd rice) with ‘Narthanga’ a bitter and salty savory
pickle. My experience of watching Kadal, Mani Ratnam’s latest, somewhat
brought back those memories. To some, narthanga
is an irresistible savory and to others, it is that necessary evil when
your tummy is upset and nothing digests (or stays in) other than this!
Image from: moviegalleri.net
Based in a fishing village near
Nagapattinam, the story revolves around three men- Sam Fernando (Arvind Swamy), Bergman (Arjun) and Thomas (Gautham Karthik). And oh yes! Beatrice (Thulasi Nair) the female
protagonist. Sam and Bergman meet at a seminary and the problems begin. An
epitome of goodness, Sam walks in on Bergman in a compromising position. Sam
tells on Bergman who gets thrown out of the seminary and vows to take revenge. The
story from here is predictable. Sam, who’s posted in a village full of fisher
folk with no faith, goes on to making them into believers. In the course of his
stay, he takes young Thomas under his wing and makes an honest and
happy-go-lucky man of him. As fate would have it, Sam and Bergman’s paths
cross. The story from here is simple. Bergman implicates Sam, who’s then sent
to jail. Thomas (for some reason) decides to immediately join Bergman in his
evil exploits. Enter Beatrice (annoyingly called ‘Bea’). She is mentally off
somewhere but manages to convince Thomas out of evil.
Arjun’s performance in the movie
is, simply put, brilliant. He convinces you of how evil, evil can actually be!
He plays his part of Satan comfortably and proves his mettle as an actor.
Arvind Swamy, with his boyish good looks and his angelic face played the role
of Sam Fernando with ease for most part. However in the last few scenes, where
his evil side is to take over, he falters. His confusion between good and bad
could have been portrayed better for an actor of his caliber. For a first
timer, Gautham Karthik’s performance is good. His transition from a good-natured young man to a baddie is smooth. Thulasi Nair’s role was limited and
there wasn’t much acting required on her part and so there was probably no
scope to be let down!
The plot is the usual done to
death ‘good versus evil’ and ‘everyone has shades of grey’ angle. However,
where I think the movie could have risen, to an altogether different level,
was in the portrayal of how Thomas, actually stoops to the Satan
(Bergman). Having been raised for 15 years as a good human being, it seems
inconsistent to me that the boy is willing to trade to the side of evil in less
than 2 minutes of reel time! Another moot point was that Thomas's redemption was depicted only through Beatrice's simplistic approach of 'Don't sin again'. It would have been heartening to watch if his redemption was a result of introspection added to Beatrice's love rather than just the latter.
The small nuances in this movie
are really what reiterate Mani Ratnam’s genius. The characterization of
Bergman is set with a clear context of a child born into poverty, who looks to
religion for his next meal. On the other hand, Sam coming from a privileged
home is in the pursuit of God having all his worldly needs of food and shelter
taken care of. The beauty is that this history, which defines the differences
between the two men, is established simply through short, crisp dialogues. No
time is wasted in flashbacks or soppy stories of the past. The consistency of
Bergman’s character is another ‘yaay’ moment. AR Rahman has produced music
which when heard on its own, is soul-stirring. However, in the movie, these
tracks don’t seem to create the same magic.
So, very like narthanga, there are those who would love the movie, the tang of salt that its adds to
an otherwise plain script. Or like me, there would be those who walk out
feeling a raw after-taste of an otherwise potentially good movie.
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