'Kudumbasthan' Movie Review: Manikandan Anchors A Fun, Frenetic Family Comedy
Filmmaker Rajeshwar Kalisamy's 'Kudumbasthan' is a relatable, lightweight take on life’s heavy-duty issues.
Director: Rajeshwar Kalisamy
Writer: Rajeshwar Kalisamy, Prasanna Balachandran
Cast: Manikandan, Saanve Megghana, Guru Somasundaram, R. Sundarajjan, Balaji Sakthivel
Language: Tamil
It’s hard to keep count of the number of running scenes in Kudumbasthan (Family Man). But its protagonist Naveen (Manikandan) is no runner, and this is no sports drama about him overcoming all the odds to finish first. For a wholesome family comedy set around Naveen and his unending money problems, you’d be surprised at how often we find everyone (including the cameraman), constantly on the go.
It even begins with Naveen and Vennila (Saanve Megghana) on the run as they figure they have just two hours to get married before their parents can stop them. Vennila, we’re told, belongs to a scheduled caste and the parents on both sides do not want them to be together. But when they do get married — even before the opening credits begin to roll — we get the feeling we know them well enough by now, almost as though we’ve seen a mini version of their love story in under 15 minutes.
The pacing is that of a thriller, never allowing you the space to look away. In one of the film’s many spectacularly edited montages (Kannan Balu), complete visual ideas get communicated in under a second. The film can afford to take such an approach with its editing because it has so much going on at any given time. I mean if A24 had produced Kudumbasthan, they may even have considered calling it Everything Everywhere All At Once More.
Not only is Naveen trying to make ends meet as the sole earning member, but he has a list of responsibilities that are constantly clawing at him. This includes his newly pregnant wife, an out-of-work dad who wants money, a mother who wants to go on a spiritual sojourn, and the worst of the lot, an annoying brother-in-law.
Just when you feel Naveen can take a break or relax, his problems keep getting bigger. A small loan amount from a money-lending app multiplies in one month. To pay this loan, Naveen is forced to take another. And then another; his debt keeps mounting as Naveen escapes one trap to enter straight into the next.
It’s not that Naveen isn’t clever enough to understand his mistake. But like millions of others from the middle-class, he just does not have the luxury to say no because he’s already become an ATM to his family.
We may have seen many films earlier about people getting stuck in this financial quicksand, but Rajeshwar Kalisamy infuses so much comedy into these scenes that the film never comes across as melodramatic or preachy. So even when Kudumbasthan becomes serious enough for Naveen to have to break down and find a moment away from it all, he has to do this in a stinky public toilet while a bunch of goons wait outside for him, all sipping from a glass of orange juice.
What gives Kudumbasthan even more depth instead of it playing out like a series of terrible decisions is how the film juxtaposes Naveen’s character with that of his brother-in-law. Played by Guru Somasundaram, we assume that he too is just another person present to create issues for Naveen. But as the film progresses, he too appears to be in a cage of his own, just that his is made of gold. These scenes give you the feeling of watching a film that sneaks up on you, never letting you take it for granted.
This makes everyone in the film a certain degree of relatable. No one is an enemy, just how like how no one can really help you solve your own problems. Stuck in their own treadmill of worries, Kudumbasthan is a lightweight take on life’s heavy-duty issues. So, you don’t worry too much that Vennila gets sidelined after a point. You also don't feel too affected by a longish stretch involving Naveen’s new failed business venture. With so many things going for it, Kudumbasthan is an example of how a clever director-writer can make the most basic of stories resonate with the most basic of emotions.