Finally saw ‘Kaadhal’ after every other person I’ve met told me to watch it.
And once I did, the heart felt heavy, had a lump in the throat and I just didn’t have anything to say. And I guess that speaks volumes about the film.
Much has been written about the storyline of poor mechanic boy-meets-rich school girl and falls in love. You might think its a beaten-to-death plot if you haven’t seen the film but the freshness it oozes has to be seen to be believed.
What I loved most about the film: How director Balaji Sakthivel makes you connect with every character and empathise with their emotions and yet brings out the paradox of love. Love, when the wrong seems so right and the right seems so wrong too. Love it or hate it, that feeling of love makes you do things you wouldn’t even dream of doing.
Which is why Balaji’s film comes as a brutal reality check on the subject.
There is honesty in every frame, in establishing every character and intent. There is no stereotyped evil father — just a man who loves his daughter so much that he wants her to be happily settled with someone who can provide her the comforts she is used to. There is no taking on or fighting the parents, the girl does love her parents as much and still asks the boy to elope with her.
The film is a documentary on love with the realism that captures its fine subtleties, the nuances of body language and the freshness of life of two people in love and their bitter-sweet pangs of growing up and trying to live together. The moments are too many, they are heart warming, and pure magic.
Which is why it breaks your heart and spirit in its moment of truth. Without revealing anything from the plot, all I can say is that ‘Kaadhal’ is one of those rare classy coming-of-age films that show the triumph of love and the ironic conquests of life!
The ‘Kaadhal’ is the film’s hero and the villain. It is the solution and the problem, resolved only by the hard truths of life — the film’s other hero and villain, of course.
MADRAS INK. 