Kadapuraa Kalaikuzhu review: Starts with a strong note, but falters eventually

In Kadapuraa Kalaikuzhu, director Raja Gurusamy attempts to present a feel-good story.

The movie is about a man who dedicates his life to the cause of preserving and promoting traditional folk dance forms.

Sadly though, the director makes a mess while narrating the story and ends up delivering a film that does little to sustain your interest in it.

Synopsis

Pavadasamy (Munishkanth) is an altruist who looks tough but has a kind soul. He runs a folk dance troupe and treats all its members as his own family.

Though Pavadasamy intends to marry and have a family of his own, he doesn’t find a suitable match.

The man’s ambition is to buy a piece of land and use it to set up a school where those from the next generation can be trained in the traditional folk dance forms.

It is under these circumstances that a youngster in the troupe, Tamizh (Harikrishnan) falls in love with a girl named Kalaiarasi (Swathi Muthu), the sister of singer Pencil Meesai Perumal (Supergood Subramani).

As expected, Pencil Meesai Perumal opposes their love. He complains to the village panchayat president Iswaramoorthy (Mime Gopi) who worries about nothing but his position and power.

Iswaramoorthy also has an axe to grind against Pavadasamy. How he looks to settle scores with the dancer and how the dancer gets the better of him is what the film is all about.

Starts on the right note

To be fair to the director, he starts Kadapuraa Kalaikuzhu on the right note.

There is a sequence right at the start where a man is shown whipping himself in front of the crowds in a bid to make some money. As he begins to ruthlessly whip himself, a few coins fall on his plate.

At one point, when he realises the collections are not going to be good enough to feed himself and his wife, he draws a knife and begins to slash his hands.

When others in the crowd are hardly bothered, it is the protagonist who begs the man to stop. He buys him food and asks him why he was doing this. The man says that he was a musician with a folk troupe but is now out of work.

The sequence powerfully captures the sad state of folk artists across the country. However, that is the only bright spot in the film.

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Haywire plot

From that point on, the director loses focus and the plot goes haywire.

A series of events are shown, mainly to underline the altruistic nature of the lead character. But otherwise, there is no tangible connection between one incident and the other.

A considerable portion of the movie goes by in this fashion.

It is only late in the second half that you begin to see a semblance of a plot appearing on the horizon.

To cut a long story short, Kadapuraa Kalaikuzhu struggles to make a point.

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Performances

One feels bad for the two outstanding character artists in the film — Kaali Venkat and Munishkanth. The efforts of both actors, who have exceptional skills, have been wasted as a result of a weak script.

The film has some decent music from Henry and some clean visuals shot by Vinoth Gandhi.

Final take

In all, Kadapuraa Kalaikuzhu is a ship without a rudder.

(Views expressed here are personal.)