A crucial factor determining a film’s box office performance, as it pertains to Tamil cinema, is how fresh or engaging a script has the director chosen to build a movie around. When financial constraints peg a movie back for years, the script also turns into a film’s single biggest threat; a story line that feels dated hampers a film’s success percentage right off the mark.
Such movies — like Kee in 2019; most recent example: Paramapatham Vilaiyattu , which failed to release yet again — are dime a dozen in Tamil cinema. However, Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal is an exception.
What director Desingh Periyasamy gives you is an engaging film but Kannum Kannum ... gets off to an odd start. Little do we realise at the beginning that Periyasamy is conning us into thinking that a stereotypical story lies in store. To be surprised by a filmmaker bold enough to take chances with the script and its characters felt like a breath of fresh air.
Kannum Kannum... follows the story of Siddharth (Dulquer), Kaleesuwara Moorthy aka Kallis (Rakshan), Meera aka Madhumitha (Ritu Varma) and Shreya aka Varsha aka Thenmozhi (Niranjani Ahathian). From the many aliases, it should be evident that what we have is a story of and about con artists.
At the start of the film, we are led to believe that Siddharth and Kallis are two happy-go-lucky youngsters, who divide their time between pool parties, clubbing, video gaming and drinking at home. The intro song starts with the hero taking a somersault dive into a pool not long after he tears across the city in a sporty car.
Siddharth, we are told, is an app developer while his friend Kallis is an animator. Meera, who Siddharth is smitten by, is introduced as a beautician who is stingy with her money (she rides a Sunny; who rides a Sunny these days!). She takes him to an orphanage, discusses growing up an orphan, lectures a shopkeeper about the importance of “tendering exact change” to a customer and not chocolates. So, naturally, Siddharth has to fall for Meera, as is customary with the many uninspiring and “ ippadiyum kaadhal varalaam -type” of romantic backstories that Tamil cinema has given us.
He professes his love, which she accepts. She introduces her best friend Shreya, a tomboy, to the duo and Kallis falls for her immediately. We are treated to corny dialogues; at some point Siddharth asserts: ‘It is all a little filmy, right?’ and we think: “Duh, if you say so...” Honestly, I would expect nothing less from any one else other than be taken aback by the ‘oldness’ of these stereotypical circumstances of when a boy-meets-a-girl in Tamil cinema, and think, “Why Desingh, why?”
- Director: Desingh Periyasamy
- Cast: Dulquer Salmaan, Ritu Varma, Rakshan, Niranjana Ahathian, Gautham Menon
- Storyline: Two con men fall in a seductive trap laid out for them by two con women, but the quartet reconcile. However, things take a turn for the worse when a cop gets involved, which leads to a pursuit. Will the fraudsters evade arrest?
As we wonder if it is time to dive into a pool ourselves to save us the embarrassment of having to sit through more corny stuff, in walks Prathap Chakravarthy (Gautham Menon), the obligatory cop in any film featuring con artists. He is presented as suave, cold, calculative, smart, and other similarly complimentary adjectives, which all really mean that he is a cool cucumber of a police man, and that more cops in Tamil cinema should be like him (or was Gautham Menon playing one of the cops from his films?).
Prathap, we are led to believe, is chasing after Siddharth and Kallis, as he stumbles upon an elaborate scam involving electronic goods sold via e-commerce platforms. At the interval mark, in what we have come to understand as the “plot la twist- u “, we discover that Prathap was in fact chasing after a different duo. The plot from this point till the end, except in few places, seldom drops intensity in terms of the audience engagement factor.
Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal is an interesting con story. It is two types of frauds rolled into one: technology and the good old con of seductive damsels. Dulquer Salmaan, the self-confessed automobile and gadget freak that he is in real life, is a perfect fit for the character . As the wide-eyed girl with a charming face, Ritu Varma breezes through her portions along with Niranjani Ahathian (who is also the film’s costume designer). It is also refreshing to see a commercial film factoring in decent screen time for not one, but two lead female characters; however, the fact remains that the female actors’ characters are not fleshed out nearly as enough as the male leads.
More impressive is Rakshan as Kallis, the VJ who seems to have made the transition rather seamlessly to the big screen. His one-liners, screen presence and even his choice of costume brings a smile to your face. It is something that Tamil cinema reviewers have, of late, suspected to have gone extinct from films: comedy.
Rakshan is genuinely funny, and seems to be a find of the decade — provided he chooses films wisely. What also works in his favour is that Dulquer Salmaan does not mind stepping aside for the man who very clearly possesses better flair in comedy to take the centrestage.
More than the visual elegance of its storytelling, there are other factors that seem to have combined well for Kannum Kannum ... such as the costumes, for one, is a big reason. The lead quartet all wear appropriate outfits that gel well with the mood of the film at that particular point of time. The background score is another plus.
Desingh Periysamy, who also worked on the film’s script and screenplay, seems to have researched his cons well. The con jobs are not outlandish; they are believable and presented in the simplest possible manner that anyone with a fair exposure to technology and tech fraud can relate to what is unfolding, which, for all the plaudits it earned, was not the case with Irumbu Thirai.
It also makes sense for the “visiting artiste” in Dulquer to do more films in Tamil cinema; this industry needs more performers of his calibre — who are secure in their craft and standing as actors — and who understand the importance of stepping aside, and let the script be the hero.
