Review – Kaathirupor Pattiyal

Film: Kaathirupor Pattiyal
Direction: Balaiya D Rajashekhar
Cast: Sachin Mani, Nanditha Swetha, Aruldoss, Manobala, Mayilsamy, Appukutty, Senrayan, Naan Kadavul Rajendran and others
Music : Sean Roldan
Cinematography: M Sukumar

Kaathirpor Pattiyal is a reasonably good comedy drama that engages you in parts.

The film begins with a bunch of petty offenders being rounded up by the Railway Protection Force on a week day at the Tambaram Station in Chennai.

The RPF officer in charge, Williams(Aruldoss), nurses a grudge that RPF personnel are not accorded as much respect by the public who behave very respectfully with the state police. He believes this will change if the RPF personnel too impose heavy fines and book people at every given opportunity. This will induce an element of fear in the minds of the people, he says and hopes that it will in turn earn them the same level of respect that their police counterparts enjoy.

Among those arrested that morning are Appukutty ( booked for attending nature’s call in public) and the film’s hero Sathya ( debutant Sachin Mani) who is arrested for etching his girlfriend’s name along with his on the train.
Each one has a story to share. While most of them are in no hurry to leave and therefore not worried about the delay in releasing them, Sathya is tense as his girlfriend Megala (Nanditha Swetha) is about to be forcefully married to a boy of her dad’s choice that evening. A call from her in the station confirms that she is waiting for him to come and rescue her.

With Williams in no mood to relent, a strange set of developments result in a situation where it becomes clear that none of those arrested will be able to gain their freedom before 7 that night. However, Sathya knows it will be too late by then to stop the wedding of his girlfriend that is happening in Pondicherry. What does he do?

The film, technically, is a comedy drama. But the jokes are too dumb or extremely crass for the normal audience to enjoy. There is very little that the film has to offer in terms of entertainment, save its music, which is soothing to the ear and appealing to the mind.

Music director Sean Roldan’s numbers are all fantastic as is his background score for the film. In particular, Kaathirukkum Kootathukku…, takes the cake and instantly catches your attention. Its retention and recall value are also high, thanks to some brilliant camerawork by Sukumar.

One wishes Sukumar had maintained the same class, throughout the entire film. Unfortunately, that is not to be. Visuals are simply not as sharp as they ought to be and in some scenes, it is hard to ignore this fact.

One other big strength of the film is its cast. Actress Nanditha does a clean job of playing Megala. The actress looks natural and she re-establishes the fact that she is one actress who can pull off a quality performance, irrespective of the role that she is given.

Hero Sachin Mani is not bad looking either and comes up with a decent enough performance for a newcomer . The actor has screen presence and looks promising.

Moreover, he is ably supported by a host of comedy artistes including ManoBala, Senrayan and Appukutty.

The film’s biggest problem is that it has serious lapses with regard to logic.

For instance, there is a scene in which the hero escapes from a truck through a man-hole. While the person leading the way is covered in slush and dirt, the hero, who enters the manhole after him, is next shown travelling in a car in the same formal shirt without so much as a speck of dust on it.

On the whole, the film is just about okay.