Devarattam movie review: Gautham Karthik doesn’t seem comfortable in this role, and it’s apparent.Devarattam movie cast: Gautham Karthik, Manjima Mohan
Devarattam movie director: M Muthaiah
Devarattam movie rating: 1.5 stars
I think Muthaiah is a huge fan of family dramas like MR Viswanathan, popularly known as Visu. While his debut venture, Kutti Puli revolved around the lives of a mother and a son, his second film, Komban was about a man and his father-in-law. His subsequent films Marudhu and Kodiveeran were also centred around family relationships. Dare not think he’s got something different to offer with Devarattam. Similar to any other rural outing, set in Madurai, this Gautham Karthik-starrer also has a bunch of loudmouthed-white-veshti-clad-men with handlebar moustaches, who live by an-eye-for-an eye principle.
Gautham Karthik plays Vetri, who takes the law into his own hands. Hey, he’s a lawyer but doesn’t really visit the court or attend to cases, mind you. He is happy picking fights in the area, besides mercilessly chopping off people in broad daylight. He has his own reasons why he does certain things, but they aren’t really justified.
Gautham Karthik doesn’t seem comfortable in this role, and it’s apparent. Dialogues that he delivers, for instance, “Manna thottavana kooda vittudalam, aana ponna thottavana vidave koodadhu” create no impact. The makers could have aimed to project him as the ‘mass hero’ with Devarattam, but they don’t quite succeed in this attempt.
Madhu (Manjima Mohan) falls for Vetri at first sight and says, “Kandavudan kaadhal seiyyalaam. Kandavana dhaan kaadhal seiyya koodadhu.” For some reason, I couldn’t buy someone of Manjima’s calibre mouth such a terribly-written line.
Devarattam has too many supporting artistes, though none of them particularly gets registered in your head except Pechi (Vinodhini Vaidyanathan).
First of all, I don’t understand why the film had a duet number in Kodaikanal. The story would have made perfect sense without even Gautham and Manjima ‘romance’. But what irks me is this: On one hand, we have a hero, who seeks justice for a sexually-assaulted survivor. On the other, the same guy hesitates to consider seeing a woman because he’s told she’s not good-looking.
With rural pockets of Tamil Nadu witnessing a spate in caste-related violence in recent times, it’s necessary that filmmakers exercise enough caution while dealing with stories that are caste-driven. Overall, a major problem is that Devarattam has too much violence for its own good.
