Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/kadaikutty-singam-movie-review-karthi-baradwaj-rangan/
Karthi plays a farmer in Pandiraj’s Kadaikutty Singam (Last-born Lion), and the most interesting aspect of the film is that it portrays agriculture as a viable profession. The Karthi character, named Gunasingam (any resemblance to the fictional character named ‘Duraisingam’ is purely intentional), earns 1.5 lakh a month, and during a family ceremony, his gifts are chunky gold chains. This is a great, much-needed “message” — and one that’s delivered without preaching. It’s just slipped into conversation. Kadaikutty Singam springs a few surprises like this. Despite the village setting, which our movies usually depict as crucibles of “Tamil kalaacharam” (Tamil culture), the film says that men and women can be friends who simply hang out, and that the old-time tradition of giving birth to children until a boy is born makes no sense because a girl can do everything a boy does.
In an ideal world, that would mean a film like this could just as easily have been anchored by a heroine, but let’s not get carried away. What a film says and what it does are not quite the same thing. Take this heroine, for instance. She’s named Kannukkiniya, and played by Sayyeshaa. For a film that extols the produce of local soil, why transplant a heroine from Mumbai? Why relegate the Mayiladuthurai-born Priya Bhavani Shankar to a secondary role? (She was a news anchor on Puthiya Thalaimurai, so she also knows the language.) But then, even the hero’s profession is something of an afterthought. In a film like Dhool, the hero is a villager, and he faces a Sterlite-type polluting issue, and this is what takes him to the city, and this is what colours the action, the romance (because the heroine is from the same village).
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
bart
July 13, 2018
Ipdi oru tamizh kudumba chithiratha sidhaichutingale saar..
Trollers are salivating and assume many are already on action. I guess, Padam hit aavum. Ungala vidadhu karuppu..😄😄
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Vivek narain
July 13, 2018
A man and woman can be friends but they can’t simply hang out, unless they are ready to get hanged, or the woman happens to be a Modesty Blaise prepared to knife the intruder.
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Ruminating Aesthete
July 23, 2018
I have always admired the way in which you add an extra socio cultural layer to your reviews of “main stream” cinema. However the mention of the word “message” or “meaningful cinema” is disappointing. To me any cinema, even the most banal and mundane concoction is and has to be art. There is no classification as mainstream, meaningful, parallel or arthouse. It is either cinema or not one. I guess every filmmaker’s intentions are somehow driven by his aesthetics irrespective of however commercial the motive. So let us stop looking for meaning in cinema and rather try to revel in the emotions imparted just as one would admire an impressionist art piece. This film is a work of art alright however it is cliched and affected. To be very frank i had a tough time sitting through the film. Guess should have watched koode instead.
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Srinivas R
July 23, 2018
The Vice President has just appreciated this movie- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/tamil/movies/news/kadai-kutty-singam-venkaiah-naidu-heaps-praise-on-karthis-film/articleshow/65019622.cms
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bart
July 23, 2018
Now that the verdict is out, answers to your ponderings below:
Kadaikutty Singam wants to be little more than a time machine that transports you to a certain kind of masala movie-cum-melodrama, but are people interested in spending money on watching an update of films already available on TV and YouTube?
Our actors trot out these films with the logic that it strengthens their B/C-centre base, but it may be interesting to research what those audiences really want. Has internet penetration and 24×7 television changed their movie-viewing tastes?
Or are they still the same audiences — with the same “mindset”?
YES, NO and a YES…
References:
a) https://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies/kadai-kutty-singam/kadai-kutty-singam-box-office-jul-22.html
b) To add insult to injury – https://nakkheeran.in/cinema/cinema-news/tamil-nadu-government-copied-kadaikutty-singam-movie
Corollary:
Annan is (in)famous for Singam series.. Thambi shall do the honors of Kadai Kutty Singam series. Paavam saar neenga..
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Srinivas R
July 28, 2018
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/kadai-kutty-singam-emerges-biggest-grosser-karthi-s-career-85592
Safe to assume more such movies await us.
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