‘Kaalakkoothu’ review: reducing Madurai to knives, beards and violent uncles

The resounding box-office and critical acclaim of the so-called ‘Madurai movies’ was largely down to the fact that it explored the life of people and the culture that gives importance to honour, valour and respect as dictated by the society and its politics.

As a result, the phenomenal success of movies such as Subramaniapuram, Paruthiveeran, Aadukalam and lesser known films such as Madhayanai Koottam spawned a number of half-thought out movies that reduced Madurai to a city that is only populated by gangsters, young women who don’t look up while walking on the road and young men with shabby beards. As if these are the only aspects that defined movies about Madurai and its surroundings.

Directed by M. Nagaraj, Kaalakkoothu, starring Kalai Arasan and Prasanna, is yet another film in that mould. Set in Madurai, the film features every kind of sequence that have been recycled in Tamil cinema: paedophile politician harassing young school girls, thick friends drink like a fish, smoke like a chimney and die together, and young women, whose life choices are dictated by their politically influential and violent uncles.

The film’s knot is this: a local politician’s son harasses Hari’s (Kalai Arasan) sister while coming back from school and Easwaran (Prasanna) attacks him. The film is about what happens afterwards to their lives and their love interests, Gayathri (Dhansika) and Revathi (Srushti Dange) respectively.

It is a rather bland film that makes no attempts to dwell deeper into what makes people in a place like Madurai take up violence in such a brutal manner when dealing with a girl who defies the family or someone who loses self-esteem in scuffle in public.

Kaalakkoothu does nothing more than stack up routine, predictable plot points together and unpacks it in an unimaginative manner. This is the reason why film, despite Prasanna and Kalai Arasan being good actors, has no meat for them to bite into. They mostly enact scenes that surely invoke a sense of ‘deja-vu’. This is true specifically of love scenes — we have seen it all.

Some have said that ‘Madurai’ movie genre has had its full run and it is probably best to retire the genre. Perhaps not. There are hundreds of complex stories — that have happened in the past and going on in the present — that are waiting to be told. But, what filmmakers cannot do is reduce ‘Madurai’ movies to beards and knives.