Kanda NaaL Mudhal

There's a world of difference between how men and women feel and express emotions and love. This is very evident from Prakash Raj's "Kanda NaaL Mudhal" directed by Priya.V. I might sound chauvinistic, but I wonder how a male director would have handled this plot.



Prasanna is the hero (as per Tamil movie logic he wins the heroine, Laila), while Karthik Kumar once again plays the loser.

The theme is quite an old one. Its about how two people who hate each other, fall in love, go through the motions and end in wedlock.In fact its comparable to Prakash Raj's previous movie, "Azhagiya theeye". In that it was an accidental marriage that lead to love, whereas in this movie it is a cancelled marriage that unites the lead pair. Poorly sketched characters have ruined what could have been a good entertainer.

Its surprising to see Maniratnam's assistant completely ignore some of the crucial aspects. Except for the "Alaipayuthe" title font she seems to have learnt nothing from her mentor. Neither the initial scene where kutty Prasanna and kutty Laila hate each other, nor the scences where they fall in love were convincingly portrayed. Characters lacked the depth to get the audience involved in the movie.I felt as though I was watching a dinner time mega serial in the first half of the movie until the twist before interval.

Prasanna does a good job in the lead role. He looks much improved from "Azhagiya theeye" both in looks and performance. Laila is as good as the movie. Karthik Kumar irritates in the few scenes that he appears with plastic expressionless face. Reminds me of the joker role he did in "Alaipayuthe". I am a great fan of his plays at Evam, but somehow he doesn't fit well in the silver screen. He plays a business man settled in US. But his accent and dialogue delivery are intolerable. Especially his "wow" in the place of "woooww!!!". Is he imitating a bull dog????? Two of the versatile actresses, Lakshmi and Revathi have been wasted in mundane roles.

The director looks lost at many places in the movie, like the one where the heroine's father complains about his hearing aid, when his wife's had a heart attack or the one where the hero would tell the heroine that her sister eloped because she was preganant, or the one where the hero and heroine go to the limits of egoistic stupidity trying to conceal their love.

IMO, sparing a few scenes here and there, the movie lacked substance. It is certainly not in the league of 3rd rated movies, but has a lot of loopholes to be a good one. Most of the scenes and expressions seemed artificial to me. I want to know how the women audience feel about this movie.

P.S.1 The only thing that made me happy was the "Aaru" trailer during interval.
P.S.2 Guys, If you want to see movies by lady directors watch Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta