Kaadu Movie Review
Director: Stalin Ramalingam
Cast: Vidharth, Samuthirakani, Samskruthi, Thambi Ramiah
Film making is not just about having a message oriented story line, picturesque cinematography and slick cuts. A director should hook us into the film and make us to feel for the characters. Sadly debut director Stalin Ramalingam's Kaadu didn't even have one scene where you feel for the characters and put yourself in the protagonist's shoes.
Kaadu is all about two friends who have different ideologies. One, wants to improve his financial status and he is ready to do whatever it takes to become a forest officer while the other friend (Vidharth) is innocent and he wants to protect the forest.
At one point of time the narcissistic friend does a crime by looting sandal woods and deceive the innocent one to go to jail, so that his dream forest guard job will not be in danger. The rest of the story tells us about how the innocent Viddharth turns into a revolutionist and save his people from the opportunistic friend turned forest guard who is trying to loot the forest wealth.
To be honest, Kaadu has a promising plot and it could have been a revolutionary subject like SP Jananathan's Peranmai or E , provided the director had done his homework. The director speaks a lot about communism and he also shows the protagonist is romancing a school student. What kind of communism message, we are speaking here?
As the director himself having a lot of dilemmas in handling the script in commercial or artistic way, we couldn't consider anything seriously.
Kaadu's biggest strength is its cinematography and songs. Despite the mediocre execution by the director, music director K and the cinematographer deserve a pat for not compromising on quality in their respective departments.
Overall, this Kaadu is a tinder-dry forest.
