Kattappava Kanom movie review: Not wacky like Soodhu Kavvum, but funny nonethel...

Kattappava Kanom
Director: Mani Seiyon
Cast: Sibi Sathyaraj, Aishwarya Rajesh, Mime Gopi, Chandini, Kaali Venkat, Livingston
Rating: 2.5/5

Debutant Mani Seiyon’s Kattappava Kanom is fun for the most part but it isn’t funny enough and the lack of it isn’t a bad thing. It’s just one of the films that would have worked big time if it was funnier and wackier, say, a la Nalan Kumarswamy’s Soodhu Kavvum.

Nevertheless, with an interesting premise about the lives of a few characters that revolve around a Feng Sui fish-and not a heroine for a change--it’s an amusing diversion from the regular Tamil cinema, and that’s a change that deserves to be welcomed even if it’s not worth celebrating.

It’s slightly disappointing that the film doesn’t capitalise on an extremely fun, double entendres-filled second half. After a sporadically fun-filled first half, as a viewer you’re taken by surprise by the course the second half takes and the adult humour leaves you in splits.

If only the writing was as fun as it was in the last half hour of the film, we would have had a thoroughly entertaining film till the last minute. But still there’s so much to like about Kattappava Kanom, and Kaali Venkat and Yogi Babu are so good, they warrant a trip to the theatres.

Kattappava Kanom also works because it treats its actors as characters. The hero takes a good beating; he doesn’t fight back and instead thinks how to get out of a situation.

The heroine meets the hero for the first time in a pub. She doesn’t think twice about breaking up a prospective alliance. She’s independent and likes to live life on her own terms.

However, the issue with most characters is that we don’t quite empathise with them at any point. Mime Gopi, for instance, plays the antagonist and the story revolves around his missing Feng Sui fish, but we don’t understand its importance in his life. All we see him do is scream and sulk when his fish goes missing. A small back-story about why the fish means so much to him would have made sense.

The writing, too, isn’t tight enough. The pace of the narrative is lethargic, almost testing one’s patience. If not for the well interspersed comedy at regular intervals, it would have been a tiresome watch.

Even with some concerning issues, Kattappava Kanom rises above mediocrity and shines due to excellent comedy and a unique premise.