Review: Kuruthi Aattam is a good opportunity missed by director Sri Ganesh

Even though we miss the 8 Thottakkal-quality of good writing in his latest release Kuruthi Aattam, Sri Ganesh’s flair is seen in parts of the movie, like in the attack on Durai (Radha Ravi) in a local bar.

The movie begins with an impressive performance by a five-year-old girl played by Baby Divyadarshini.

Her dialogue delivery in the scene where she waters a plant moments before taking an exam mesmerises us.

Within the next few minutes, the film registers three different events involving more characters.

Sakthi (Atharvaa), a student who is all set to take an exam, a teacher Vennela (Priya Bhavani Shankar), and a fight inside a jail are all introduced in a short span of five minutes.

Soon after, Sakthi enters into a fight with Arivu (Prakash Raghavan), the son of Durai.

There are more characters like Muthu, a friend of Arivu who later becomes a friend of Sakthi, and Gandhimathi (Radhika Sharathkumar).

The scenes with Durai, Arivu and Sakthi remind us of Polladhavan.

However, most of the characters and events in Kuruthi Aattam are interesting.

Each character has a flashback which is revealed through the narrative.

We can see a shadow, positively though, of Mysskin in some shots too.

“What is more important if the person we love commits a mistake – the mistake or the person we love?”

There are few good dialogues like these that tug at the heartstrings of the audience.

#KuruthiAattam is all yours now ☺️❤️ Streaming in @ahatamil

Thank You Team, Audience, Press & everyone. Will cherish the memories, experiences, Learnings from the Film. @Atharvaamurali @priya_Bshankar @thisisysr sir @Rockfortent @kbsriram16 @DoneChannel1 @FiveStarAudioIn pic.twitter.com/hYIFmQu2GK

— Sri Ganesh (@sri_sriganesh89) August 26, 2022

Few well-written characters

Most of the acting is good. I was amazed at how well Atharvaa deals with the action scenes. His energy and agility are very good and he deserves good scripts like these.

Radhika Sarathkumar as a “good” kingpin in Madurai is perfect.

Kanna Ravi as Muthu is my pick. He is a talent to look out and has delivered a good performance just as in Mandela.

Priya Bhavani Shankar’s talent is wasted. It appears as if the writer couldn’t decide on the personality of the role she played.

Vatsan Chakravarthy makes a chilling villain. Prakash Raghavan is good in a character quite similar to the one played by Daniel Balaji in Polladhavan. His character is well-written too. The rest of the cast is solid.

Short scenes fail to connect

Sadly, Kuruthi Aattam has many drawbacks. Deficient editing in scenes like the theatre action sequence spoils the party.

The movie could have done wonders with such well-written characters, but Sri Ganesh tries to include too many aspects at once which fail to make an emotional connect with the audience.

The scenes are too short and fail to carry the emotion. Events and characters keep appearing and disappearing before building an emotional connection with us.

The makers should have stuck to the core subject and explored the relationship between the characters.

The friendship between Sakthi and Muthu is the best part of the film, but that too is not explored much.

Another problem is with the generic finale act. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s background score is decent, but the songs are forgettable. The action sequences are hit-and-miss.

The main plot is unraveled nicely. We can sense that a solidly-constructed puzzle is to be solved, but then it fails to take that forward.

Overall, Kuruthi Aattam is a missed opportunity. It disappoints more because it comes from the man who made 8 Thottakkal! The film is now streaming on Aha Tamil.