A mother of two young boys living in a slum in Chennai who struggles to cope with the mounting financial burden of making ends meet for her family is also struggling to furnish the bond for bailing her husband out of jail. But the two boys live in their own world of no-worries, smiling off their troubles, making friends as they go. Their world is invaded one fine day when one of their hangout spots is sold off and eventually gives birth to a Pizza outlet. The boys’ mind is flooded with just one aim – to feast on the Italian delicacy at least once and their obsession spawns a series of events which is what the rest of the movie takes us through.
Language:
Tamil
Running Time:
109 min
Rating:
U
Release date:
05 June 2015
Directed by:
M. Manikandan
Produced by:
Dhanush
Vetrimaaran
Written by:
M. Manikandan
Starring:
Vignesh
Ramesh
Iyshwarya Rajesh
Babu Antony
Joe Malloori
Ramesh Thilak
Silambarasan
Music by:
G. V. Prakash Kumar
Shot by:
S. Manikandan
Editing by:
Kishore Te.
Distributed by:
Fox Star Studios

What’s Hot

  • The characters of ‘Periya’ Kakka Muttai and ‘Chinna’ Kakka Muttai are instant crowd favourites greatly due to the performances from Vignesh and Ramesh respectively. The duo is just so magnetic and appeals to every section of the audience. Though Vignesh is a little too responsible, Ramesh is the real star with all the innocence lending natural tones to the character on screen.
  • Joe Malloori as the easy going ‘PazhaRasam’ who befriends the kids, is another stellar performer along with Iyshwarya who plays the perfect mother of the two kids with her typically homely looks and appropriate emotions. Ramesh Thilak and Yogi Babu Stir up some really humorous episodes with their mischievous ideas and some witty dialogues from the director that makes the movie enjoyable. The way the kids introduce themselves touches quite the funny side indeed.
  • G V Prakash renders just the right tone of music to suit the grim reality shown about the lives of the slum-dwelling, under–privileged boys having the same desires as that of any other kid their age. The songs and background score blend in well with the slum milieu and make the non-talkie portions as effective as the talkie portions.
  • With the kids taking centre-stage, the dialogues need to be very natural for sounding convincing and the duo of Anand Annamalai & Anand Kumaresan have achieved it fabulously. Little sentences like how a tree has been cut to make way for an idol, how the grandmother argues for Crow’s egg when compared to a Chicken’s stating that it is also a bird but just dark in colour, & the first question that the kids ask on whether a cinema theatre is going to come up in their playground, remain etched in memory.
  • The Screenplay conceived to narrate the story is very effective as the movie progresses seamlessly from the beginning until the very end and is devoid of any distractions. What we get as a result is a smooth experience running under 2 hours with some highlights that include deviation from mainstream cinema defaults like the lack of an intermission sequence that splits the movie into two halves.

What’s Not

  • The story fails to maintain credibility when it tries to infuse unreal characterizations into the life-like theme established. The mild hypocrisy in showing the privileged class as a bunch of opportunists and jerks while the downtrodden remain virtuous and ethical despite harsh living conditions where survival is a challenge in itself, is so very glaring throughout the movie and is hard to overlook.
  • After putting in some serious thought for the major portion of the movie to make it devoid of any dramatics, in order to maintain that air of casual behaviour, the climax comes as a dampener of sorts and threatens to push the movie into the zone of mediocrity. Though unexpected, it is not true that unexpected is always good especially when it doesn’t fit tonally with the rest of the movie.

Badges

Verdict

Verdict Stamp

Kakka Muttai is one of the rare fine movies that break away from the usual lot of the mainstream movies which get the name from the sheer quantity over quality! Despite having its flaws, the movie is a definite path-breaking attempt to make a commercially viable offbeat movie that can be watched with the family, thanks to some impressive writing and equally competent acting – Now that’s what we call a real win-win for both the critics and the mass alike!