Soodhu Kavvum — Glory of misfits
SOODHU KAVVUM — GLORY OF MISFITS
(Spoiler alert !!! but does it matter?….)
After having watched a plethora of screwball, madcap, slapstick, spoof, insult, and one-liner comedies in Tamil and Telugu cinema, I stumbled upon this fantastical dark comedic gem in 2014, only due to having known Vijay Sethupathi earlier in Pizza.
To sum up the story in short, Soodhu Kavvum is a story about 4 weirdos — Daas, Kesava, Shekhar, and Pagalavan who indulge in small-time kidnaps to make quick money, as they see a safe bet in it. One day, they abduct a politician’s son, as an obligation from a client, thus breaking their cardinal kidnapping rule, of Daas’ 5 strategic kidnapping rules. To the gang’s surprise thus making it easier for the gang, the abductee himself strikes a deal with the kidnapping gang to share the ransom money of his dad and get away with it, to start a life on his own terms. The kidnappers’ life takes an ugly turn when the politician (the abductee’s dad) hands over this case to a badass encounter cop, who is hell-bent on nabbing the kidnappers and chase them to death.
Soodhu Kavvum is a world of 4 inept guys, who are a bit distant from reality, in the sense, that they live in a delusional world that is devoid of practical intelligence. For instance, Pagalavan spends a bomb to build a temple for his favorite actress in his hometown, which could have fetched him a moderate paying job or helped him start a small business. Shekhar is an average IT guy, who lacks the professional aptitude to handle situations, and goes on an expletive-laden rampage on his boss at the cost of losing his job. Kesava, an alcoholic ex-vehicle parking driver, does not mind losing his job and getting police treatment if it comes at the expense of going for a small drive in his favorite fancy car. Daas, the main lead and the brain-cohort of the yet-to-form kidnapping gang, does not bother to tie up the abductee, lock the door of the kidnapping vehicle, is introduced to us through a panic-attacked failed kidnap. (No, he is introduced to us being beaten up black and blue by the run-away abductee). Daas, is both literally and figuratively living in a delusional world. He creates an imaginary character in his mind that toggles its stance between being a guardian angel and a being a love interest. The icing on the cake is Arumai Prakasham — a wayward wastrel son of a politician who bets on his father’s money to make it big in life. Then there is Brahma- a sober grumpy serial-encounter police officer wearing a deadpan countenance, who is a oddball out in this oddball confederacy.
When such peculiar characters are around us, what we anticipate is an assortment of a fun-filled ride, and true to our expectation, we are served a delicacy of absolute dark humor. We often see many movies being tagged and branded as dark comedies but in the truest sense, a movie in Tamil cinema that is close to the genre is Soodhu Kavvum. It detours from many genre clichés of Tamil comedy. There are no over-the-top comical moments. There are no punch lines. There is no wordplay. There are no insults. There are no jokes in the movie for that matter. There is not a single deliberate attempt to entertain the audience. The comedy flows through the characterizations and the hapless situations in their kidnappers’ lives. People are inherently funny in this surreal dark comical world. The untoward situations they invite into their lives owing to a lack of reasoning splits you into laughs and you vouch for their helplessness. This is really a tough genre to crack but Nalan scores brilliantly with this writing, complemented by performances of — Vijay Sethupathi, Bobby Simha, Karunakaran, Ramesh Thilak, MS Bhaskar. If not for these performances, the movie would have fallen flat as it is hard to sell off a dark comedy. Thanks to their reputations as they fit into the roles like tailor-made (the actors are either relatively new to the screen or debuted with this movie having no star image). Karunakaran’s role shares its characteristic traits with Nalan’s own short Nadanthathu Yenna in which he played a character with the same name.
There are numerous quirks in this movie, that are meant to be experienced rather than told. For instance, in the wildest of your dreams, can you expect a dream duet in the middle of police torture, that jogs you of your imaginary lover’s imaginary memories, teleporting you to a surreal heaven like place? and can you imagine a kidnapper, door delivering the abductee, collecting ransom money, and walking with a swagger attitude, that usually comes with a sense of accomplishment? This is just a visiting card to Nalan’s dark comical universe.
Soodhu Kavvum is a darkly funny, bizarre, stylish movie. It’s a story happening in a whimsical world. The characters, look normal on the exterior but with a small peek into their lives, you judge they are oddballs. Amidst the trend of worshiping traditional larger-than-life heroes in movies, this one does not shy away from glorifying mediocrity and shows conspicuous bravery in celebrating dunces.
The story neither urges us to take these characters seriously nor asks us to empathize with their flaws, but accept them for what they are and watch them wobble in a series of comical events unfolding. They are not dumb but are silly and ridiculous and for the most part, these characters are funny. As an audience, we don’t want to be like them but we enjoy them being entangled in a predicament. There is no moral takeaway from the movie and if you attempt to take away one, it is ‘Don’t be like them’.
Santosh Narayanan’s music, a big asset to the movie, is uplifting and adds the necessary dose of quirkiness and eccentricity to this world. Dinesh Krishnan’s neo-noir tone for this comedy reminds us of Guy Ritchie’s crime comedy — Lock Stock Smoking Barell which perfectly fits into the genre for its dark nature.
However, I was not happy with the climax, personally because the movie ended there, giving a closure to all the characters but Das still pursuing kidnapping, and the cliff hanger ending of the story , keeps me waiting for the for a sequel. I would have loved to watch them together collaborating and pursuing more kidnapping adventures in the quest for more fun.
Closing Thoughts: If Nayagan is a masterpiece in Tamil Cinema , then Soodhu Kavvum is Nayagan of dark comedies in Tamil Cinema.
