A protagonist, who is not in his charming 20’s, but a man with grey hair and with a psychological disorder. A movie where the lead does not fall in love with a pretty woman he just saw. Instead, he kednaps her and asks her dad if he’ll be able to manage the household’s budget if his monthly salary is paid as ransom. A movie that breaks all the stereotypes of Tamil Cinema.
Nalan Kumarasamy is a brilliant screenwriter. The way he takes us into the scene is something that most directors don’t. Breaking all stereotypes and engaging the audience for the entire 2 odd hours is not so easy. We’ve seen many legendary directors failing in this aspect. Nalan plays a different ballgame altogether. He makes us guess what’ll happen next and says onto our face that the guess is wrong.

The excitement factor in ‘Soodhu Kavvum’ begins right when Pagalavan builds a temple for Nayanthara. Nalan brings out his witty sense of sarcasm here. Throughout the movie, Nalan’s ‘Guess what happens next?’ kinda filmmaking will make you glued to it.
The way Nalan has written-off each character in the movie deserves special credit. Each person is unique in their own ways. A 40 y/o odd man, who talks with an imaginary friend. A 20’s driver who’s fed up with life, so much so that he wakes up every morning, freshens up and starts drinking and rants about the society. Another 20’s guy who came to Chennai without any plan because he built a temple for Nayanthara (Which is every guy’s dream though, TBH). Another 20’s IT guy, who gets fired because he yells at his manager. (Again, every guy’s dream).
A minister who is not corrupt. A son who kidnaps himself and successfully earns 2 crores as ransom. Ultimately becomes an MLA. A dank Chief Minister who eats Pizza for lunch. A rowdy, who is also a doctor, who prescribes his patients to other doctors, who is also directing a film. A cop, who doesn’t talk at all; knows only one language – violence. Fires at himself accidentally. Well, how often do you come across these characters? Just one word for the characterization. ‘Wow!’.

Vijay Sethupathi – The epitome of natural acting. There have been various memorable performances by VJS. But for some reason or the other, ‘Soodhu Kavvum’ always stands out. Wanna know why? Of course, it is because of his brilliant acting. But the icing on the cake is Nalan’s way of presenting the character ‘Das’. If you meet a guy, who talks to an imaginary person, gets drunk every night and kidnaps people for a living, you would term him ‘Crazy’. But VJS made us fall in love with Das. Love for Das brewed the very moment he said “En Kaasu la dhana kudicheenga, appo en kaasu la dhan saapadnum”.

Apart from Vijay Sethupathi, the other standout performer is Karunakaran. Nobody could have pulled off ‘Arumai Pragasm’ as he did. Again, witty sense of humor, devious brilliance with a tinge of innocence too. Who wouldn’t love Arumai? No wonder he became an MLA. Unarguably, it is Karuna’s career-best performance.

Nalan proves to us how he is an amazing screenwriter with scenes, where you had completely no clue that this is going to happen. From the moment when Das says ‘Silra illa pa’, to Das convincing the bank manager and empathizing with him, to Arumai Pragasam planning to kidnap himself, to collecting all the cash with a mini chopper, to Arumai being personally called by the CM and becoming an MLA, to Bramma shooting himself on his ass – along with this, every other scene in the movie is written and shot with the cinematic intelligence of the director and the story writer. Not a single scene where the audience is taken for granted. That’s where ‘Soodhu Kavvum’ stands out.

‘தர்மத்தின் வாழ்வு தன்னை சூது கவ்வும். தர்மம் மறுபடியும் வெல்லும்’.

Well, it was ‘சூது’ all over and no place for ‘தர்மம்’ I suppose. From teaching us the basics of ‘Kednaping’ to showing us how the state’s politicians operate, ‘Soodhu Kavvum’ is a complete package. It’s been seven years since it hit the screens and I’m never over it. In case you don’t like the movie and term it overrated, I would, of course, respect your opinion. Some people have bad taste, you know.