‘Karumegangal Kalaigindrana’ movie review: Screenwriting blues cloud Thankar Bachan’s earnest story

A still from ‘Karumegangal Kalaigindrana’ 

It seems like filmmaker Thankar Bachan, known for his flair in weaving intriguing interpersonal conflicts in stories, was confident in how he wanted to tell the story of Karumegangal Kalaiginrana. The story he has written, to his credit, is wonderful; looking at the world through a kindly lens, he strives to tell a cordial tale of two fathers searching for their daughters, and a son who seeks to redeem himself.

However, the film (that comes across as a work of literature translated to screen) opts for a specific technique of narration, one in which the necessary details are held back for far too long in a bid to keep us hooked. So much so that more than halfway through the film, well past the irreverent intermission break, all you know is this: three subplots are finding their way, like a puzzle, to make a big picture.

A 75-year-old retired Judge Ramanathan (Bharathiraja) — after an unfortunate incident involving his lawyer-son Komagan (Gautham Vasudev Menon) — leaves his home for good and gets on a bus to Manamadurai; just ike his near and dear, we too don’t know where he’s going and in search of what, but Komagan pursues after him. A middle-aged man named Veeramani (Yogi Babu), working at a parotta stall, is troubled by the memories of a young child named Saaral who calls him ‘appa’, and after her repeated attempts to contact him from the authoritarian orphanage she lives in, he caves into his emotions and goes to meet her only to get beaten up by the child’s father with whom he shares history. The third subplot involves a woman who works at the orphanage (Aditi Balan) and the mystery surrounding her past, and the death of her father during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Slowly, moment by moment, Thankar tells us who these characters are and you realise this is a story that needs to ‘show’ the nuances of the complicated situations these characters are in. Hence, deciding where to spend all the attention on becomes pivotal, and brevity should be the friend you need in these times. Unfortunately for Thankar, the screenplay loiters in a lot of spaces where it could have scurried. The ease with which he juggles the three storylines gets lost somewhere in the middle, and it’s puzzling how some of the lead characters even vanish for major portions of the film.

What keeps you going is the camera work by NK Ekambaram and how Thankar likes to capture human emotions. As the title — which translates to ‘scattering dark clouds’ — denotes, this is a story of hope and the world looks kinder through Thankar’s eyes. There are several moments that make an impact, like how a kind samaritan helps a man in need, how a unique friendship births between a man and a child, or the emotional depth in the shot of a teacher hugging a crying child; the extraordinary and the mundane get their due on screen.

You wish the dialogues in Karumegangal Kalaigindrana did more justice to such moments, but along with the unnecessary melodrama, they only dampen them. It’s also sad to see GV Prakash Kumar’s soulful scores and songs be used and placed in such fashion. When the narration shifts between the many subplots, the themes are stitched together along with the scenes, and sometimes a specific piece made for a specific mood abruptly leads to a contrasting one.

Now, what must truly worry a viewer is an unnecessary stretch involving the police executing fake encounters to kill four alleged rapists in custody, and though poetic justice gets delivered, the space and cinematic embellishments given to the police’s justifications are baffling. This film could have done away with such murky territories.

But if I were to remember Karumegangal Kalaigindrana for one thing, it would be for the heart-achingly brilliant performance of veteran actor-director Bharathiraja; the veteran brings his A-game and truly makes you feel for his character Ramanathan. But watching him in a film that repeatedly fails to hit its own targets only adds to more disappointment.

Karumegangal Kalaigindrana is currently running in theatres