'Kalyana Samayal Saadham' has a very friendly-friendly look and feel to it, but debutante director R.S Prasanna, had an undercover "agenda" in his script, which is one of the most discussed about issues among adults. Newly-married, to be precise. With an ensemble cast of supporting artistes and a fresh, young technicians, this Arun Vaidyanathan (maker of Prasanna-Sneha starrer, 'Achamundu Achamundu') produced, did it live up to the expectations ?
First things, first. The lead pair has done a brilliant job, with their performances. The lead pair looked like a perfect match for each other, and its certainly a fresh pairing. Prasanna, must be applauded for taking up this role without any inhibitions, which might stroke the egos of other contemporary Tamizh cinema heroes. He is flawless with his dialogue delivery and has delivered a nuanced performance, underplaying whenever needed. He has improved his timing, in regards to comic sense. Lekha Washington makes a comeback, and she is a very apt choice for the role of a modern, Tamil Brahmin, IT-educated, bride. One wish that she gets more good roles, especially when we have a scarcity of good-looking and an able performer, among the girls ! The lead pair shares a good chemistry as the love-smitten, engaged couple and complements each other's character, quite well. The supporting cast such as 'Delhi' Ganesh, Uma Padmanabhan, Ragav, 'Kaathadi' Ramamurthy, Dr.Sharmila, 'Crazy' Mohan, M.J Shriram, Praveen, Neelu, Srilekha Parthasarathy, R.S Sivaji and etc were really lovable and cute in their roles, especially the seasoned veterans.
The film's technical crew has worked in tandem with the director's vision and presentation style, which is very commendable. Preethi Kanthan's costume designing was extensive, as she has kept the lead pair look very contemporary, yet retained the traditional Brahmin-look among the upper middle class, urban Brahmin community. Lekha was particularly pretty in the traditional attires. Sathyaraj.N's editing was neat and crisp, as he has kept the running time short and also for the excellent work he did in the "Facebook" themed song sequence. Arusamy's production design was simple yet sufficed the needs of the script. The Tamil Brahmin wedding scenarios and the beach-wedding, sets are the highlights of his work, in this film. Krishnan Vasant's cinematography works, is complimentary to the script's style and plot setting. He has maintained a pleasant look, throughout the film and his lighting gives a more joyous look for the second half of the film.
Flautist Naveen Iyer, prominent in the Carnatic circuit, makes his debut as music director, albeit under a different name, Arrora. His song compositions are in sync with the mood and feel of the script and also with R.S Prasanna's presentation. "Mella Sirithai" is the pick of the lot, which is very creatively shot and edited to look like a collage of Facebook timeline postings of the lead pair, with some situational dialogue sequences, interspersed. Brilliant stuff ! "Pallu Pona Raja" is a situational song, with plenty of montage sequences, focusing on the hero Prasanna, facing the 'crisis' of his life, before his impending marriage. "Kadhal Marandhaayada" is also a situational song, shot in a 'sangeet' ceremony setting, with plenty of characters and extras involved, but at the same time highlighting the unpleasant situation, faced by the lead pair. "Kalyanam 2.0" was used in bits and pieces in a couple of situations and "Modern Kalyanam" was used as the pre-climax song, featuring the reception function of the lead pair. Arrora scores well in the background music department too, and is definitely someone who can come up with pleasant melodies. Good debut !
R.S Prasanna must be appreciated for taking a bold, universal subject, which is seldomly discussed among newly weds and also for those who have an active sexual life. What's strikingly nice and pleasant in the film, is the realistic presentation by the director, who has penned life-like scenarios, surrounding the upper-class urban, Tamil-Brahmin milieu. Nothing is over-dramatized or very theatrical with R.S Prasanna's script and the dialogues, co-written along with producer Arun Vaidyanathan, are very subtle, smart, emotional, yet resonate a real-life feel and emotions to the script. The director seems to know the needs of the script very well, and has extracted good outputs from his artistes, who were helped by the director's well-written roles. Each character is very life-like and real, with very less cinematic approach in the artistes performance delivery. R.S Prasanna's screenplay is very straightforward and he has not tried any gimmicks, terms of techniques, which kept the audience at ease. As mentioned, dialogues are certainly good and comical, especially those by the lead pair and 'Crazy' Mohan. The second half seems to slow down a little, but the emotional content was needed to give, a more realistic appeal for the developments of the script.
'Kalyana Samayal Saadham' - R.S Prasanna has handled a 'dirty' issue in a squeaky-clean, light-hearted manner. Certainly delivered what it promised !
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Director Pandiraj, who debuted with the charming 'Pasanga', has dabbled in different attempts before, such as 'Vamsam' and 'Marina'. All three films were different from each other, but he has realized that his forte is comedy, and that's a safe bet in current circumstances, at the box office. With two upcoming small budget, safe-bets in Vemal and Sivakarthikeyan, Pandiraj has promised a clean film with a good dosage of comedy. Did he succeed ?
Vemal was flawless in his role, as it is his comfort zone, playing middle-class, youngster. He certainly has improved very much, in dialogue delivery and voice modulation. He looks more confident in dance and emotional scenes as well. Neat job ! Sivakarthikeyan was exploited of his terrific comedy timing and good mimicry skills. It is second nature to him in delivering 'killer-blow' punch dialogues, since he was a versatile television presenter before. His dancing capabilities are not bad, either. More good films, and this top-notch entertainer, will find huge success in Tamizh cinema ! Bindu Madhavi, plays a good foil as Vemal's pair. She gets to play a "different" Tamizh heroine, contradicting the norms of such backdrop-based films. She gets to bash the hero, for a change and plays the more assertive one, rather than the hero ! Whereas, Regina Cassandra is a breathe of fresh air, and this girl is good in what she does. With her experiences of doing Telugu films beforehand, her expressions and performance have an unbidden nature to it, a far cry from her 'Kanda Naal Mudhal' days ! If she dubs in her own voice, it would do wonders for her. Soori was havoc in the film, with his exceptional dialogue delivery and comedy timing ! He was at complete ease in his role, and delivers the dialogues at the right note, ensuring the comedy hits on the right moment ! This film will be one of his best in his repertoire. The rest of the supporting cast such as 'Delhi' Ganesh, Sujatha, Gopal, Muthuraman, Manoj Kumar and etc were apt for the roles they played.
K.Natraj's costume designing and G.Vijayakumar's make-up sense, was very much in tune with the script. They ensured the lead folks, looked their roles, without being too flashy. Especially for the heroines, as both girls were looking as the simple and sweet girl-next-door. Rajeevan's art direction was spotless, in terms of quality. He created authentic market and bar settings for the songs and the props for the election sequences, were very authentic and immaculate. Athiyappan Siva's editing was smooth, but he could have done a little trimming in the first half, as there are couple of standalone, unwarranted sequences. Rajashekar's stunt work was over-the-top, but it was in dictation of the script and scene. Vijay's cinematography complements the backdrop of the film's setting, and he captures the native look and feel of Tiruchi quite well, with the RED Pro 5.0. His poised handling of the camera movement, adds strength to the scenes, especially those which were shot indoors.
Yuvan Shankar Raja's tunes were simple and neat for 'Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga'. The peppy "Oru Porambokku" sung by him, together with Silambarasan, was picturized on the triumvirate of Vemal, Sivakarthikeyan, Soori and as well as with the other friend character. The song is about the negativeness of drinking and ironically, it was shot showing the characters enjoying drinking and dancing for the apparent "one, final time". Rajeevan's set work, especially the brightly-lit street set-up was very authentic. Vijay's framing sense was apt as well. "Konjum Kili" was shot on the Vemal and Bindu. It was shot in real locations, such as temples, streets and markets. The color tone of the song was suitable and he captured the facial expressions of the artistes, quite well. "Suda Suda" was shot on Sivakarthikeyan and Regina, and has plenty of montages, edited into the song. It too was shot on plenty of real locations such as railway station, market, streets, railway tracks and etc. "Ulladha Naan" has the backdrop of a campaign election, and was shot on the main leads, in their council election campaign. The props and set-up by Rajeevan was top-notch. "Deivangal Ellame" is a situational song, with montages of the difficult moments in the lead heroes' lives. The background score was good as usual, with some typical melodious hook-lines, used sparingly.
Judging from what Pandiraj has done, its quite evident that he has put his bets on comedy. His clarity in it is laudable, and kudos to him for coming up with a neat and family-friendly film, with plenty of fun-filled moments. The strength of Pandiraj, is his witty dialogues. Starting off with Samuthirakani's voice-over, Pandiraj has packed the first half, with gags over gags. The dialogues were very cleverly written, and shines with good creativity. Pandiraj (he does appear in the film along with the editor Athiyappan and dance choreographer Dinesh, before the credits) has come up with novel, but funny sequences throughout the film, and has extracted the correct level of performance from his artistes. His antithetical situations and dialogues reminds us of Pandiyarajan's movies of the 80's and 90's, unmistakably. But, the script takes a sharp diversion in the climax, and out of a sudden, you get to see some melodramatic moments and sentimental dialogues. And that's when we realize Pandiraj's notion of wrapping his intended message, with loads of comedic gags. Also, its a little bizarre to notice his heroines mellowing to the charms of the heroes out of the blue, in the second half, whereas they were in resistance, throughout the first half ! Apart from this minor blips, the film was presented neatly and packaged properly, with the correct dosage of comedy, romance, songs and sentiments, without going too preachy nor draggy.
'Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga' is levity-filled fun film, which is good for unwinding on a stressful day.
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
