Kaadhal Konden (2003) Reviews

• Excellent movie, but not pathbreaking (Possible Spoiler)

  rangaa2004-01-22

  My best Tamil movie of the year - simply because there have been so many outlandish and mediocre ones these days. The plot is not totally original or revolutionary, but the movie never lacks in pace. It begins with the story of an orphan (Dhanush) moving to the city to study, where the fashionable people think him to be uncivilized and boorish. A kind girl (Sonia) takes sympathy on him and they become close friends - a relationship Dhanush mistakes for love without realizing Sonia's love for someone else. When you think the movie is going to be another love triangle, it takes an interesting turn - Dhanush has been a victim of child abuse and will do ANYTHING to win his lover! Great acting by a relatively new set of actors, decent music score, and for a change in Tamil movies - A Story Line! I would give it an 8/10, among my favourite Tamil movies of the year.

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• Sweet, yet disturbing, Kaadhal Konden takes us on an emotionally haunting yet cherishing journey into lonliness and love

  shyamiyer2018-02-23

  Selvarhagavan has proved yet again that his style of directing and rendering romance on screen can be very sweet, sad and realistically plausible at the same time. The chemistry and love between dhanush and sonia agarwal is refreshingly deep,delightful and heartfelt. This is not due to any one factor such as acting only or dialogue, but a brilliant combination between great, understated acting, thoughtful and uniquely directed scenes and gossebump inducing music from Yuvan. At the same time, the transformation of Dhanush's character Vinod from a lonely, isolated but intelligent boy to a violent man with sociopathic tendencies is very organically done. One can easily sympathise with and understand Vinod's lonliness and emotional constraints as his character is established very well and played by Dhanush in a very gut wrenching manner. This is one of the biggest strengths of the film. If Dhanush didn't draw empathy from the audience, or if Sonia agarwal failed in her acting, or if the chemistry between them was offbeat then the film would have failed. As well as this, the sequences where Dhanush's obsessive love and psychotic tendecies are displayed are very intense and effective without being over the top violent. It also helps that both portions are done very uniquely. An example is, take the scene from the first half where Vinod is sleeping in a maths lesson and the angry teacher throws the duster at his face. One half of his face is littered with chalk, whereas his other half is empty. This symbolises both the lonely, isolated side of Vinod which yearns for love and the slowly growing monster of anger and obsession within dhanush as a result of the way in which society has branded him. Or take the very charming scene where Divya offers Vinod her upma, and he starts ravenously gobbling it but stops when Divya looks at him, and starts eating agian when she isn't looking at him. Or even take the sequence when Vinod subtly kidnaps Divya, into a cave but surprises both her and the audience with his cooking and the way in which he gets water, puts on a bed etc. Yuvan's soundtrack is absolutely brilliant as usual. It encompasses everything: Vinod's search for love, his sexual desire, his lonliness, his anger, his scars and Divya's compassion for him. Vinod's flashback is very well meshed into the screenplay and doesn't feel out of place like most flashbacks in other films, and is also uniquely done with the shock and sense of creepy unsettlement deriving from our knowledge of what could have happened rather than directly showing the images on screen. There is a particular scene involving an orphanage revoluting in a very "French-revolution-bastille-day" way that is totally badass and bloody whilst still being grounded in reality. The only flaw with the movie I would say is Aadhi's character. His performance as a playboy yet lovable college student is very charming and believable, but his characterisation lacks the depth of Vinod and Divya. The love triangle works because of Sudeep Sarangi's acting as Aadhi otherwise I don't think it would have been effective. If Aadhi's character had more depth then I think this film might have been absolutely perfect. Overall, a brilliantly directed, and acted film that stays with you long after you finish it. One of Dhanush's best performances, and of Tamil cinemas best movies.

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