Movie Review: Kalloori

So many movies with youth, love and friendship as a theme have germinated in the Tamil Film Industry (Kadhal Desam, Alaigal Oivathillai, Boys, Kadhal, Autograph, Idhayam, etc.) but what makes Kalloori a feather on the cap? Read more to understand why is a must watch movie.

One needs a lot of maturity and caution while handling subjects on youth and adolescence because any message communicated wrongly can cripple and degenerate the DNA of an entire generation. Kalloori has proved mettle of our directors in presenting sensitive subjects such as friendship and love in a classy manner without any tinge of flesh, city, and selfishness while successfully driving home the value of friendship and community.

Remember, realism when shown properly doesn’t need any top actors, flashy clothes, Matrix like fight sequence or other marketing gimmicks to attract footfall in theatres. The movie moves elegantly in a time frame of 5 years where friends who schooled together from childhood move into college together. They are not just pedestrian classmates, but they shoulder each others emotional burdens, evince interest in lighting each others life, all with unconditional love and no expectations. Through these rural kids director has shown the difference between love, infatuation and friendship.

1. Kalloori brings Madurai Mannvasanai without any adulteration. For city dwellers the much forgotten rural fragrance was recreated in this movie. The rural setting vitalizes the script in terms of backdrop, dialect, rustic cast, make-up free characters, rural innocence/gullibility, absence of flashy clothes and scuttling city life – Completely engages our senses without reaching the limits of cloying.

2. Realistic screen play, tightly knitted plot tightly makes the script power-packed. There was so much of humanity in the script that made every city soul hungry for love and care and left them psychologically struggling. One could see the contrast characters in the city and in rural. Strong silhouettes of pride, community ahead of self, sensitivity, magnanimity, strong sense of ethics and values gave contrasted city from rural in the script. Do people in the city carry any of these palettes of emotions? I asked myself – where did all these emotions vanish? Am I a machine on a journey to make just money? What happened to the feeling of community and togetherness?

3. Each character in the movie carries unique fragrance and flavor which makes the story fresh, distinct and meaningful. Friendship comes in different shapes and sizes and each of us react differently and different values. The freshness in the cast - Muthu, Adilakshmi, Nagarani, Kamatchi, Shobana, Ramesh, Salma, Kayal, Iyyanar are very natural and don’t carry any baggage from the past.

4. Adilakshmi’s western dance piece received uproar in the theatre, Kayal and Salma’s repressed and orthodox thinking fetched them a lot of boos in the theatre. Comedy was finely kitted in the script – absence of Vadivelu, Vivek made it even more interesting and challenging. The duo in the movie put a great show with just a few stares and few repetitive dialogues. Special mention to Kayal and Muthu for their outstanding performance. The performance of glamour less rustic cast outsmarted the perfect, suave city looking Tamanna. Characters have been sculpted with atmost attention – every heart in the theatre longs to be apart of their group.

5. We have reached a stage in Tamil Cinema where one needs to give points for absence of profanity, horror, and blood shed. Definitely Kalloori scores full in this category.

With all kudos to cast and crew of Kalloori there are a few areas for improvement

1. Camera failed to capture the finer beauty of rural life that goes beyond words.

2. Music failed to carry the rural flavor and a few songs sounded like Church choir – Joshua needs to go on a rural trip to catch the lilting tunes of rural India

3. A tighter editing would have saved us from wiggling in seats.

4. The climax in the movie was handled very differently and not digestible. Though I felt it came abruptly and swiftly, but then I put myself in Director’s shoes and racked my brains to come up with a few options. Why would a director have a build a story with such great pains and finesse to let three of the roses in the bouquet wither? May be sometimes life is incomplete and characters come to an end abruptly. It is better you leave the theatre before the climax, because the climax is brutal and doesn’t seem to fit with the movie. It still would make sense to remove the climax from the movie.

After Kadhal people had raised their expectations on Balaji Shaktivel. He has definitely lived upto it, but he needs to excel this in the future. He knows the art of tying down youth for three hours constantly engaging them in laughter and lighter moments all through the movie. He also made many of them walk wondering where their net of friendship had vanished. May be some of them will look out for their clan on Orkut? Kaloori was definitely a soul searching exercise.