KUMKI - REVIEW
A very remote and dangerous village called Aadhi Kaadu is threatened and disturbed every now and then by the wildest of Forest Elephant called Komban. Every year the villagers seem to suffer, either by destruction of houses or by crops and they seem to become even more helpless when the forest officers refuse to help them bring down Komban. To survive and kill the merciless wild elephant, the villagers decide to bring a Kumki, an elephant that is exclusively trained to silence the wild elephants and keep them less harmful and this is where Bomman (Vikram Prabhu) and his innocent, harmless and soft Mannikam ( a temple elephant that has never been exposed to wildness) comes into the picture.
Owing to situations and to favour his business friend, Bomman brings Mannikam to Aadhi Kaadu saying it as Kumki to substitute the original Kumki and plans to leave the village in two days once the original Kumki arrives. In the mean time, Bomman falls in love with Alli (Lakshmi Menon), daughter of the village head. To succeed in his love, Bomman decides to stay in the village longer than he has planned and continues to pretend that Mannikam is a Kumki and that he is a Kumki trainer. Now, does Mannikam ( who is believed to be a Kumki by the entire village) defeats Komban and saves the village and will Bomman and Alli unites in their love is what forming the rest of the climax.
For a newcomer, Vikram Prabhu has given an excellent and flawless performance right from conveying emotions to humor, while Lakshmi Menon perfectly depicts the role of Alli, a silent and homely village girl, who can get funny in every way. Supporting characters played by Thami Ramaiah of ‘Kazhugu’ fame and Ashwin Raja of ‘Boss Engira Baaskaran’ fame indeed scored tremendous applause for their humour quotient as well as their part throughout the film.
The entire film was set in a very natural backdrop, bringing the essence of nature that makes the film much pleasant to watch. Indeed, Prabhu Solomon and D. Imman once again recreated the magic after their superhit ‘Myna’. Some of the best tracks ‘Kumki’ offers are ‘Onnum Puriyala’, ‘Sollitale’ and ‘Ayayyoo’ which not only elicits romance but the visuals are leaving spell bound. Hats off to Sukumar for framing every shot carefully, to make the film talk rather than project. And surely LVK Doss deserves a special mentioning for his precise editing.
Yes, in every way ‘Kumki’ is one among the rarest and finest piece, nevertheless, the climax could have been much more precise to make it much complete. After ‘Myna’, ‘Kumki’ evidently marks the signature of Prabhu Solomon, indeed making him one of the finest directors, making him a gem picked from pins.
