Kondraal Paavam (2023) Review

There is something that happened today before we went to watch this film. We had learnt that me, Mom and Dad were the only takers for the film for the 9.45 show. And this happened previously with Naane Varuven for me. So we waited for some 10 mins when 2 more people came. And then we waited for some 5 mins and 4 more people came. And when we needed just 1 more person so that the film is screened, 2 more people came and the show got confirmed.

There never was so greater an excitement and this is what makes me even happier after watching this film, which is a slow paced yet satisfying and hard hitting film on the effect of greed and poverty itself. The lead family consisting of Father Karuppaiya, Mother Valliamma and Daughter Mallika, is a family in poverty. This is an important causality in the second half. A somewhat well to do family which fell in poverty due to a singular event, gets a prophecy that their lives will change by the arrival of a person. The justifiably pessimistic family, wards him away though, in anger calling him a liar who lies for money. When the stranger does come, things change but not in the way you expect.

This film’s first half is focussed on the setups extensively. Many of the things in the second half have a setup in the first half which makes the first half move slowly, and it is, considering that there is the ‘hero-heroine’-esque song coupled with 2 more montage songs. It isn’t helped by the fact that the events in the first half are rather flat and hence don’t excite you as much though the performances are great.

Easwari Rao as the mother is brilliant. In fact, we get a deeper sense of the family’s situation in a scene where we just see her reaction to her daughter’s suggestion for doing something sinister. She doesn’t have the usual goody “Oh No What are you saying” thing. We see her just contemplate it, showing how years of poverty has drained the goodness in them.

Even they might have some goodness, though it is the daughter Mallika, played by a great Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, who represents the effect of the family’s situation. She is bolder, braver but also more sinister due to their poverty coupled with her lack of marriage and her own personal dissatisfactions.

And that’s why when the climax hits you, it hits you like a brick. More than unexpected, it is surprising for the film never takes us in that direction. A simple but small shot of Easwari Rao in the first half, holds the key to the second half.

The filmmaker’s grip on the film is exemplified by the second half of the film. Once the stage is set for the chain of events to be taken place, we are put into constant suspense. Surprising events take place, but our emotions and concern is with the family because of how well their situation is described. And the music is the main guiding source of emotion, though I wish the music was less used so that we could derive the emotions from the image rather than make us feel due to the sound. I really hope this film does well, and through this review, bring it to your attention.

The lead characters of the film are a stand in for the modern day people (unintentionally): We just refuse to wait and see the results of events play out. We just need instant gratification. No doubt this film has pacing issues in the first half, but once you go into the second half, it’s blissful.