Kanimozhi doesn't make sense

Pavithra Srinivasan reviews the Tamil movie, Kanimozhi. Post YOUR reviews here!

In Uniq Productions' Kanimozhi, directed by Sripathi Rangasamy, Sathish Chakravarthi's music fits the bill, Chidambaram's camera-work moves in an unobtrusive way and editing by K L Praveen and N B Shrikanth makes for slick pacing. And yet, the film falls flat in a spectacular fashion, ending in a crescendo of disappointment.

You've Rajesh (Jai), younger son to loving parents and an equally loving elder brother who seems to have issues with insecurity in his childhood, which later somehow resolve themselves in a very puzzling fashion. He has great plans of becoming a film director.

Naturally, he runs across the pretty (but vacant-looking) Anu (Shazahn Padamsee). Rajesh falls for her, yearns for her and writes about happenings in his diary that seemingly never occurred at all. In the meantime, there's the third part of the triangle, Koushik (Vijay Vasanth) who has his own intentions regarding Anu, and is pretty much as stubborn about everything as Rajesh.

So far, it seems like the mandatory love-story, and it is, in many ways. Where the movie does tread a different path is with its everyday conversations and everyone's body language that makes you laugh genuinely at the jokes, chuckle over the mishaps and groan in sympathy with the lead characters. By rights, all this subtlety and realism should have translated into a fantastic story. Except that it doesn't.

The screenplay meanders aimlessly at random points before unraveling completely in the second half, and you watch in disbelief as it comes apart in the climax, with characters barely making sense.

The name Kanimozhi appears at the fag end (while having no place in three-fourths of the movie), even as Jai and his cohorts try desperately to tie loose ends. You're still left tearing your hair in frustration at the idiocy of it all.

Jai seems a little out of sorts in the beginning, but gets into the groove (his co-star Michael's doing) as the movie progresses. Michael, on the other hand, is a sheer delight -- spontaneous and genuinely funny. Shazahn Padamsee, for all her impressive lineage (she's the daughter of Alyque Padamsee) has little to do or say. Vijay Vasanth, like Jai, tries valiantly to salvage his part in the show, but it doesn't seem to work much. The secondary characters, however, seem to fit in well.

Kanimozhi could have been so much better if it actually had some kind of story. As it is, it looks like the disjointed pages of a random diary, and makes very little sense.

Rediff Rating: