Movie: Azhagu Kutti Chellam
Direction: Charles
Cast: Karunas , Suresh, Thambi Ramaiah, Akhil, Naren, John Vijay, Riythvika, Thejaswini
Music: Ved Shankar
Cinematographer: Vijay Armstrong
Editor: B Pravin Baaskar
Genre: Drama, Family
Rating: ∗∗∗
What is it about: This is a film which moves around with a noble notion, which involves the most important thing in any couples life, their child. When it comes to a child everyone breaks, even the most inhuman tries to become a human. The film has various stories woven around the same notion directed by Charles with an ensemble of a cast.
Why it’s disappointing: I wouldn’t be very disappointed with the loop holes in the flick, mainly because of the treatment the director gives in the second half which makes it up for that. There were too many characters for the audience to register and at point I saw few getting confused. Well that happens a lot, apart from that the movie stretches for a long run time, which could have been cut short a bit by eliminating few scenes, trust me would have worked more in their favour.
What to watch out for: The movie goes through for a long runtime and makes this one a valuable watch only because of the little ones, yes that’s true the kids outperform the adults in the movie making this a fun outing.
Director Charles has struck the chords at right time with emotions and brought in some delicate moments with great caution, without exaggerating it. This makes the scenes more convincing than dramatic.
What I loved the most is the type of characters he chose to keep in all those stories.
A modern day couple Naren and Thejaswini filing for divorce, which directly impacts their son, which would result in losing their son forever emotionally. A Sri Lankan couple Akhil & Riythvika who have lost their child to the brutality of war. A teacher who is amongst kids all the time can’t have a child, but can give anything to have one. And then there’s a Brahmin couple, where the Husband doesn’t want to leave his parents to live with his wife, but then he compromises it with a glance of his just born daughter. All these instances are happening in day to day life among us lost in the crowd running in race to achieve something. Thambi Ramaiah becomes a good comic relief on and off in the movie.
Among this huge crowd of cast one story which hold its ground is that of an auto driver Karunas, initially gives you an impression of a sadist but turns out to be a loving father disproving that looks could be deceptive. And how can I forget the young grandmaster who falls for love and forgets her career in chess but gets dumped by his love for career, she steps up to become a champion and a doted human being.
With all the commotion happening around there are these kids who plan to do a play at school on the Christmas day and decide to use an actual kid to present as Jesus in it. That leads to finding a just born which in turn leads in to a fun kidnapping of an infant from an orphanage. The last half an hour becomes a laughing riot with the kids running around scheming a kidnapping and teaching the adults a great lesson through their fantastic play.
And the most important thing is the title song “Azhagu Kutti Chellam” one of my favourite sung by Sakthishree Gopalan composed by Ved Shankar. This invokes the parental instinct in you, beautiful lyrics by Na Muthukumar.
If this film had released at the time it was supposed to be, would have struck the right note, unfortunately it took forever to get a screen. A bitter truth of our cinema reality.
Verdict: Charles did a fine job in handling all the characters and kept the emotions intact to convey what he intended to. And he was well supported by his entire cast who didn’t let him down, especially the kids who put their soul in to this film. The different stories lingering around the whole time were carefully brought to justice in the end with a happy ending churning out a good message.
