An elaborate act of deception forms the core of Kadha Innuvare, Vishnu Mohan’s sophomore film. Some of the best screenplays employ such methods intelligently and organically to throw a genuine surprise at the audience. In this film’s case, it is neither. The surprise that is conjured up at that final moment does not leave one feeling exhilarated, but somewhat deflated and disappointed.
Going by the happenings in the film till that point, it appears to be contrived to save a film in which the four disparate love stories do not have much of a standing on their own. Though Kadha Innuvare is a remake of the Telugu film C/o Kancharapalem, that fact is not explicitly mentioned anywhere and the director (who earlier directed Meppadiyan) is also credited for the screenplay.
It all begins with the film taking us from one love story to another, shifting back and forth, as in a typical hyperlink format. In the present, the film deals with the budding romance between two middle-aged people, Ramchandran (Biju Menon) a peon at a government office who is still unmarried, and Lekshmi (Methil Devika), a senior official and a single mother. Parallelly, the screenplay shifts to three other stories: the innocent love of two school children; the romance between a liquor shop employee (Hakkim Shajahan) and prostitute Nazeema (Anusree); and that between college student Uma (Nikhila Vimal) and Joseph (Anu Mohan), a party worker.
Kadha Innuvare
But the weak writing and characterisation is evident across all the four love stories. The romance of the middle-aged couple, which develops slowly and out of a practical need appears to be the better-written out of the four, but even this track is disappointing due to the lack of agency of the woman, who literally pleads with her brother to let her marry again and puts up with his violent outbursts despite having the economic independence to stand up for herself. Similarly, though the liquor shop employee’s love is all thanks to the eyes of the woman — who always appears in front of him with her face covered — he perplexingly fails to recognise these eyes when he sees her entire face on one occasion.
As for the school romance, it is mostly a rehash of childhood love seen in many other films. The most problematic one is the love story of Joseph and Uma, which appears to be placed to raise the bogey of religious conversions. Uma, an otherwise rebellious character, caves in without a word following a predictable, guilt-tripping speech from her father about the sacrifices he had made, including not getting married after her mother’s death. But then, one has to understand that each of these stories were being shaped not by factors within the story, but for the convenience of that contrived climax. The desperate attempts to inject a dose of religiosity to many events in the film is also glaring.
The manufactured twist in the tale fails to save Kadha Innuvare, with none of the four love stories managing to create an emotional connect.
Kadha Innuvare is currently running in theatres
Published - September 20, 2024 05:22 pm IST
