REVIEW

The movie is a fantasy rom-com starring Sibi Sathyaraj and Aishwarya Rajesh. Kattapava Kaanom marks the directing debut of Seiyon, a former assistant to Tamil filmmaker Arivazhagan (Eeram, Kuttram 23).

The supporting cast includes Chandini Tamilarasan, Kaali Venkat, Saravanan, Livingston and Chitra Lakshmanan.

Sri Green Productions acquired the Tamil Nadu theatrical rights for the film produced by Madhusoodhanan Karthik, Shivakumar, Venkatesh and Lalith for Wind Chimes Media Entertainment.

STORY

The plot revolves around a Vaastu fish, the titular Kattappa, which gets stolen from its owner Vanjaram (Mime Gopi), a gangster who strongly believes it to be his lucky charm, and ends up at the house of Pandian (Sibiraj), whose string of misfortunes since birth has made his own father call him Bad Luck Pandi. He and his wife Meena (Aishwarya Rajesh), decide to keep the fish, just because their neighbor, a little girl being raised by her dad, believes it to be lucky.

Meanwhile, a trio of criminals (Kaali Venkat, Thirumurugan and Jayakumar) places Pandi and Meena under ‘house arrest’ believing that they were told the hiding place of Rs 4 crore by their now-dead accomplice. And Vajaram employs an amateur detective (Dindigul Sravanan) to trace the whereabouts of his Kattappa.

PERFORMANCE

Sibiraj is perfect for the role of Pandi, an everyday guy who isn’t all brains and brawn, but has enough smarts to get out of a sticky situation. The actor was comfortable and assured in the company of a dog in ‘Naaykal Jaakirathai’ and he is relaxed and cool with the fish for company here. Aishwaria’s early scene reminds one of Hansika’s drunken binge in ‘Bogan, her character-sketch as a bold woman, unapologetic about her behavior, appreciable.

Kaali Venkat makes good use of the double entendres that Mani Seiyon strews all over the script, though the U rating by the censor board bothers us at the back of our minds. And Yogi Babu, even in the brief screen time that he gets here, shows that he could be the next big comedian in Tamil cinema. 

It’s a simple plot with an uncomplicated story-telling style. But the linking of the episodes is jerky, at times seeming forced and contrived. It slackens towards the latter part, and then spirals to a satisfactory ending. The director seems unsure of who his target audience is. At times its juvenile take seems to be targeted at children. 

The humour in the lines makes one laugh. But at times the dialogue is laced in abundance with double meaning and off-colour jokes. The film at the most is a promising effort from a debutant maker.  Music composer Santhosh Dhayandhi’s Hey Penne song is hummable. Anand Jeeva’s cinematography is  strictly functional. The film’s running time is 125 minutes, but feels so long. 

PLUS

Plot  

Lead Actors performance 

MINUS

Screenplay 

Slow Pace 

Too much ‘A’ rated dialogues 

Verdict : Story Of Fish in Snail Pace!!

Stars : 1.5/5