Rural film specialist Muthaiah has said that his films would always be about relationships. His first, Kutti Puli , was about a mother and son. Komban was about a man and his father-in-law, while Marudhu was about a man and his grandmother. Just when we thought Muthaiah was running out of family members to base his scripts on, he has returned with Kodiveeran .
And if one’s wondering which relationship this film was going to address, here’s what Kodiveeran ’s opening scene looks like. A pregnant woman catches her husband cheating on her. Dejected and depressed, she commits suicide by hanging from a tree. Even as she’s strangled by the rope, she gives birth.
But this baby doesn’t grow up to become the titular hero of the film. It’s a baby girl and her young brother takes it upon himself to raise her. Kodiveeran is obviously a brother-sister story.
- Genre: Action drama
- Director: Muthaiah
- Cast: Sasikumar, Pasupathy, Mahima Nambiar
- Storyline: A man’s efforts to save his brother-in-law from a gangster.
But what’s not that obvious is just how many brothers and sisters make up this drama. It’s not just Kodiveeran (Sasikumar) and his sister Parvathi (Sanusha). There’s also an upright RDO (Vidharth) and his sister Malar (Mahima Nambiar). And then there’s also the evil Villangan (Pasupathy) and his sister.
Not confusing enough? From a story about doting brothers and their headstrong sisters, it expands to include another relationship... that of these men and how their love extends to their brothers-in-law as well.
Even the film’s central conflict, between Kodiveeran and Villangan, has got nothing to do with what happened between them. It’s just Kodiveeran trying to save his brother-in-law (the RDO) from Pasupathy and his brother-in-law (because the RDO has filed a case against him).
Of course, none of them believe in any conflict resolution. Every issue is discussed and solved with violence. And that’s what reduces an interesting family drama to just another generic, rural entertainer. Even what the director calls his strength, his ability to add ‘nativity’, comes undone when one ritual/custom/tradition follows another ritual/custom/tradition.
Despite all this, it is still quite interesting to see the women in Kodiveeran . The three main female characters are not just pivotal to the plot, but they also call the shots in their brothers’ lives. That might not sound like much, but it’s a lot coming from a film where Sasikumar gets to dance... not once, but twice.
