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'Kadhalikka Neramillai' Movie Review: A Charming Cultural Update Of 'O Kadhal Kanmani'
Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi gives us a delightfully messy relationship drama that never backs down from what it wants to say.
Director: Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi
Writer: Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi
Cast: Ravi Mohan, Nithya Menen, Vinay Rai, Yogi Babu, Mano, Lakshmy Ramakrishnan, Lal
Language: Tamil
(Spoilers Ahead)
Right from the casting of the delightful Nithya Menen as Shriya, to the picture-perfect houses; from AR Rahman’s youthful score to the way these songs are shot, coded in shades of red and blue; there’s a dotingly recreated design in Kadhalikka Neramillai that is meant to evoke Mani Ratnam’s O Kadhal Kanmani (2015).
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Like the 2015 romance, Kiruthiga Udhayanadhi’s film also is set around two hyper-individualistic protagonists, each with their own sets of rules and quirks. If OKK was about a couple that was marriage-averse, Kadhalikka Neramillai is about two people who do not believe in commitment. But what if you add an extra layer of conflict into their midst by throwing in the idea of having children? That is what makes Kadhalikka Neramillai a cultural update of O Kadhal Kanmani, like a thought exercise that was born when someone mooted, “What if Tara and Aditya from OKK met, but later, when they are in their 30s?”
It’s this bit of tweaking that makes for a more complex film. In a casual breakfast scene set at Shriya’s house, we see her correcting her mother (lovingly called Kanmani!) when she assumes Shriya to still be a virgin. This isn’t a movie about glossy love-at-first-sight moments or syrupy meet-cutes. Well into their adult lives, both Sid (Ravi Mohan) and Shriya (Nithya Menen) have been through enough heartbreaks to realise that love is… a matter of time.
So when Sid meets Shriya for the first time, more than an hour into the film, it’s almost a bit underwhelming. We can sense Kiruthiga asking AR Rahman and her cinematographer Gavemic U Ari to hold back because this isn’t that kind of movie. What impresses Sid about Shriya is her intelligence and the way she presents her ideas at a design expo. Respect comes before love.
And this is important because the protagonists' careers isn’t merely a sub-plot in this film. Shriya is an architect (like she was in OKK) while Sid is a structural engineer working for a rival firm in Bengaluru. In what appears to be a tribute to another Mani Ratnam film Alaipayuthey (2000), we find both of them working so hard at constructing houses, despite not having a complete home of their own.
Later, in one of the film’s many echo scenes, we see how their careers are intertwined even in their understanding of each other. When Shriya walks in on Sid looking through an important document on her laptop, the scene is shot to remind you of how Shriya once walked in on her ex-husband cheating on her. To her, both are betrayals; if one was personal, this is professional.
The writing is rich and fresh, and the script has room for such scenes because it is structured in the opposite fashion of most conventional love stories. This is a film that works backwards with the children coming in even before the couple meet. Pressures with respect to work and family come second, giving us the feeling that relationships are last in the list of priorities for both Shriya and Sid.
This only adds to the film's appeal as we enter the second half. For a narrative that relies heavily on the dramatic irony of the audience knowing something the lead couple does not, it takes clever detours that makes Kadhalikka Neramillai different from the film we expect it to be. So, if we sat around thinking this was going to be a play on the “switched at birth” comedy, we instead get a far more serious drama about the formation of a family in the most organic fashion.
It really is a gusty direction to take when the film could have just as easily stuck to something more conventional. In a lovely scene that takes place after Shriya’s son goes missing, we see Sid assume the role of the tough disciplinarian even when he doesn’t have to. A few scenes later, when the boy runs into Sid’s house to announce a bit of good news, you see Sid celebrating this like it is his personal victory.
Such scenes catch you off-guard, even when the film feels like it’s slipping away. At times, the dialogues distance you from what’s happening, especially when you feel like they’re written around lofty buzz words like 'gay-parenting' and 'environmentally-conscious construction'. But these feel like tiny missteps in an otherwise charming film filled with equally charming performances.
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Nithya Menen shines as Shriya, getting us to empathise with her as she tries to hold it all together in what appears to be an impossible amount of multitasking. This isn’t limited to the tough portions that require heavy lifting; even in a silly scene in which we see her acting like she smokes regularly, she is a performer we cannot take our eyes away from.
And this is the same with Ravi too, who reminds us of just how light and easy he can be when the role is that of someone real and relatable. He is instantly likeable as Sid; in the scenes between him and Shriya’s son, you genuinely feel the chemistry you’d feel while witnessing a real father and son on-screen. All of this is tied together by AR Rahman's score (the interval scene set outside an airport is instant magic) that gives the film the heft of watching an everyday epic, culminating in a delightfully messy relationship drama that never backs down from what it wants to say.