Kaalakkoothu Synopsis: Two school boys become thick friends after a shared life experience. They grow up and fall in love with two young women. Just when things finally seem to be going their way, tragedy strikes.

Kaalakkoothu Review: By now, the sub-genre of the 'Madurai movie' has almost reached its end point. The trend, which began in the mid-2000s with Kaadhal and Paruthiveeran, and reached its high with Subramaniapuram, but even by the start of this decade, had begun to lose steam. Kaalakkoothu, which was begun in the fag end of this trend, in 2015, has finally hit screens after being stuck with production issues for a while. It ticks off the requisites of this genre - the rough-on-the-outside hero with a heart of gold, heroines sporting very little makeup, romance developing on the bylanes, the customs of the place, the Madurai slang, and of course, the violence.

The film begins with a lengthy prelude which sets up the friendship between school boys Easwaran and Hari (to drive home the point, in the opening scene, we actually hear Natpathigaram being taught in the school). This is the best stretch in the film as we see the boys, who start off on a wrong note, but end up getting close - Easwaran's parents are dead and when Hari's mother dies, they bond over the shared tragedy in their lives. We then see them as twenty-somethings. The happy-go-lucky Hari (Kalaiyarasan) is in love with Gayathri (Sai Dhanshika), a college student. The quiet Easwaran (Prasanna) works as a mechanic, and Revathi (Srushti Dange), a girl in their locality, is wooing him. When Hari convinces Easwaran to accept the girl's love, everything seems to be going well in their lives. But a politician's son who tries to misbehave with Hari's sister, a dashed romance and an unexpected engagement turn their lives upside down.

The problem with Kaalakkoothu is not just the fact that it is a little late to the party, but that its every beat is predictable. The writing is so simplistic that there's hardly anything to hold our interest. In fact, these days, even TV serials have begun to take up similar subjects, and the filmmaking here reminds us exactly of that. To compound the problem, in the name of foreshadowing, director Nagarajan repeatedly gives away how things are going to turn out for his protagonists. The four young actors try their best, but their broadly written roles hardly give them the chance to elevate the script and their characters with their performances. By the time the film gets to its inevitable climax, we have become so accustomed to the been-there-seen-that vibe that the sad fate of the characters hardly registers. And that is a bigger tragedy than the one the film is after.

UNDER PROGRESS