Kaaka Muttai and 6 other offbeat films every lover of Tamil cinema simply must watch

Kaaka Muttai, National Award-Winner for Best Children’s Film, has proved to be a surprise hit at the box-office. It’s proof also that the Tamil film fan, endlessly assaulted by mind-numbing formula films – made up of superhero protagonists, glamorous women who are mere hunk accessories and can’t even dub straight, song sequences in foreign locales and violent action sequences – is looking for a change.

Perhaps that change is about compelling stories, real people, rootedness and a refreshing insight, dark, quirky, or amusing, into the human condition.

Here’s a pick of films for those who can’t take any more of Ai, Anjaan, Jilla and the like.

1. Kaaka Muttai

Two Chennai slum boys who call themselves Periya Kaaka Muttai and Chinna Kaaka Muttai, which irks their mother no end, are bedazzled by a pizza parlour that opens near their home. They desperately want to see what a pizza tastes like, but can’t afford one. Soon enough, they come up with a plan. When they save up enough, the pizza parlour won’t let them in. This leads to a dramatic chain of events in which the two little boys become unlikely heroes, but only just.

Debutant director M Manikandan sets the story in the squalor of a slum, but makes no apologies or attempts to glamourise it. The characters – the two boys, their mother played superbly by Aishwarya Rajesh, grandmother, father who is in jail, a man known only as Pazharasan who befriends the boys, local thugs out to make a quick buck – are all finely etched. The movie is packed with tiny vignettes that speak of poverty and its hopelessness, the rich-poor divide and, eventually, the innocence of childhood even in the darkest of places. A beautiful film that tugs at the heartstrings.

2. Soodhu Kavvum

 

In the midst of films forcibly injected with comedy sequences – often unfunny – there is Soodhu Kavvum, possibly the first Tamil film to fall into the full-length noir comedy genre. Director Nalan Kumarasamy takes the story of a botched kidnapping by a motley group headed by Vijay Sethupathi who has an imaginary girlfriend and makes it into a trippy ride. It’s not a story that can be told in a synopsis such as this, for the film, rich in local idiom, is not so much about the action, but about how it all happens. A winner of a film, to be sure. 

3. Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom

The title means ‘A few pages are missing’ and this film by Balaji Tharaneetharan is about the temporary memory loss a young man suffers after being hit by a cricket ball. As it happens, the accident occurs on the eve of his marriage and desperate measures are called for. Naduvula… is one of the stars of the indie films of recent times and is a great watch, even if it isn’t entirely polished. 

4. Pizza

This was the film that made indie film’s pin-up boy Vijay Sethupathi into a mass hero. He played a pizza delivery boy in the film by Karthik Subbaraj and the director won accolades for his unconventional style of story-telling. The film draws viewers into what seems like a horror story and then wacks them with a chilling twist. Taut and thrilling, this one’s a great watch.

5. Idharku Thaane Aasipattai Balakumara

This isn’t one of Vijay Sethupathi’s best, but it’s still a refreshingly good film. The story is made up of three strands and one is about Sumar Moonji Kumar, played by Vijay Sethupathi, who pursues his neighbour Kumudha (Nandita) even as she spurns him repeatedly. There is also Bala (Ashwin) who tries in vain to balance his TASMAC outings with girlfriend time. The third strand is a half-crazy woman who has had her husband bumped off even as she plots an elopement.  The characters are zany and make you laugh out loud as the story builds up to a somewhat sombre climax.

6. Nedunchalai

Here’s a highway story with a difference. Nedunchalai is about Murugan (Aari), who robs trucks on the highway and lives on the fringes of society. His path crosses that of Manga (Shivada) who runs a daba and their destinies merge.  Murugan eventually decides to give up crime, but it might be too late. With its locales shorn of glamour and top-class performances, this film by Krishna – who made the somewhat absurd Sillunu Oru Kadhal – is a compelling film, despite its dark overtones.

7. Mundasupatti

A dusty village called Mundasupatti, the ’80s, a photographer who runs a shop called Hollywood Studio (Vishnu) and his romantic capers, form the substance of this light, frothy film that is truly funny in parts. There’s a bizarre convention in village of his love interest:  it is bad luck to be photographed, but a snap is mandatory when someone dies. This leads to all manner of hilarious situations. Mundasupatti had a distinct local flavour and was a surprisingly good film.

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