Aandavan Kattalai movie review: A film that's not to be missed!
Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Ritika Singh, Nasser, Yogi Babu
Director: Manikandan
After an award-winning blockbuster 'Kakka Muttai' and his recent impressive thriller 'Kuttrame Dhandanai', Manikandan returns with yet another honest and well-made flick, 'Aandavan Kattalai,' and is aided by a fabulous contemporary story from Arul Chezhian and a wonderful cast, especially Vijay Sethupathi, who is in full form.
Inspired by his neighbour (Namo Narayanan) who makes money frequenting London in tourist visa, a debt-ridden Gandhi (Vijay Sethupathi), a B.Com graduate from Madurai, comes to Chennai along with his friend Pandi (Yogi Babu) to get a passport and visa and settle down in London.
He believes that he can make lot of money and pay off his debts. When he meets a broker who promises to get passports for both for a hefty sum, they adhere to his conditions and fill the forms with fake details including Gandhi adding a fictitious spouse name 'Karmegha Kuzhali'.
While Pandi successfully completes visa formalities, Gandhi’s visa is denied since he speaks the truth (true to his name) at the visa interview. Now, unable to go back to his village, Gandhi decides to stay back in the city and try for a visa again. He starts working as an accountant at Koothu-p-pattarai, which is run by a kind-hearted person (Nasser) who takes a liking for the boy.
A stage comes when the drama troupe gets selected to perform at London, and the owner wants Gandhi to join them. Now, he is in a spot of bother, as he has to remove the false info given about his spouse. His tryst with the passport office starts again and his efforts to get rid of his wife’s name lead to several problems.
To his luck, he finds a girl named Karmegha Kuzhali (Ritika Singh) who is a television reporter. How he convinces a total stranger and takes her help to solve his predicament forms the rest, narrated in an extremely entertaining manner.
Vijay Sethupathi has got a terrific screen presence and being a natural performer, he simply floors you with his effortless feat. Ritika proves her mettle in her second film after 'Irudhi Suttru' where she gave a fiery performance. Yogi Babu brings the roof down with his quirky one-liners and Nasser is superb.
Then there are host of actors like the Sivagnanam Aravindhan who plays a Sri Lankan, Pooja Devariya, Singam Puli, A Vankatesh – all deliver what was expected from them. In fact, there’s no hardcore romance in the film. K’s music goes well with the mood of the film and cinematography by Sanmuga Sundaram is lively and enhances the proceedings.
Manikandan has touched upon all relevant issues like rude repercussions of resorting to shortcut methods to get passports, greedy mentality of house owners, Sri Lankan refugees plight etc without being preachy or melodramatic. He makes an impact through a fun filled screenplay. A film that’s not to be missed!
