What if The Jungle Book was made into a commercial Tamil film, sprinkled with action, love and a conspiracy theory?
Director Ragava’s Kadamban is the answer to that question. We get an idea quite early in the film - when Arya (Kadamban) is hanging on a rope off a cliff. He has to get nectar for his people and that’s a great chance for the director to introduce him to the audiences – muscles flexing, acrobatic skills at display and confidence that’s as strong as the trees growing in the forest.
That’s where he, and about a 150 other tribal families, belong. The forest is their home; they’re very, very vocal about it. It’s also a set of people who, despite all their unity, have a few differences of opinion.
That’s because Rathi (Catherine Tresa) is unabashedly in love with Kadamban, despite her brother’s reluctance. She’s always pursuing him, seeking his attention.
Director: Ragava
Genre: Action/Drama
Cast: Arya, Catherine Tresa, Murugadas, ‘Super’ Subbarayan
Storyline: Villagers who live deep inside the forests must save their home from a corporate conspiracy
But Kadamban has other things to worry about. There’s an evil forest ranger who, acting upon the instructions of a businessman, is out to destroy the forest and pace the way for some profitable limestone manufacturing. To cut a long story short, Kadamban is essentially the battle between the jungle and the corporate jungle.
Arya looks every bit from the forest, much like how Mowgli (from The Jungle Book) would look had he worked on his six-pack and landed in Tamil cinema. He’s determined in the action sequences, some of them staged quite grandly. The best among them is the
