Direction: Venkatt Raghavan
Cast: Sundar C, Poonam Bajwa, Satish, VTV Ganesh
‘Muthina Kathirikai’ marks the return of Sundar C in front of the cameras. Directed by his associate Venkatt Raghavan, the film is a remake of Vellimoonga – a Malayalam picture that oozed of charm and delicacy. And in the footsteps of the original, Muthina Kathirikai (MK) takes up a few aspects of our society that are often lost due to their fleeting nature: problems faced by an ageing person both personal and professional. And with Sundar C taking up this mantle, one could be assured of decent amount of fun with the packaging done keeping only commercial aspects sans logic in mind.
In the film, Sundar C plays Muthupaandi – a middle aged unmarried man who is just struggling in all aspects of life. His small time political activities fail to make much headway, as they are constantly thwarted by his rivals Bullet Marudhu and Vanjinathan (VTV Ganesh and Singam Puli) who are brothers (themselves are rivals to each other). Amidst this career struggle, personal problems arise as well. Muthupaadi falls for a girl Maya (Poonam Bajwa) who is young enough to be his daughter. On top of it she is the daughter of his ex crush Madhavi (Kiran, back after a gap) and his relationship with Maya is a troubled one. Desirous of marrying her, he comes to find out the meaning of the deadly adage that ‘the personal is political’: his enemies fix her up with someone else (Vaibhav Reddy in a cameo). Whether Muthupaandi can get his life on track and sort out these mammalian forces form the reminder of MK.
Plenty of performances stand out and Sundar C carries the bulk of the load. His acting combines comedy and seriousness, and he is sensitive without being sentimental. Maintaining such a delicate balance alone is reason enough to earn him the performance award. Poonam Bajwa as his love interest has literally nothing to do besides to smile and wait patiently. Although one would expect a laugh-fest from VTV Ganesh and Singam Puli, some of the comedy falls flat and sidetracks the film from its original charm. Satish as Sundar’s friend is enjoyable except for his fake moustache. Yogi Babu appears in two scenes and evokes laughter.
Music by Siddharth Vipin is adequate while cinematography by Bhanu Murugan is functional. One of the ways in which MK differs vastly from the original is that this remake is largely stripped of the pastoral element. The screenplay could have been paced a lot better and some of the visuals look really dated and not of this time and age. Go for it for the comedy and Sundar C’s showcase.
