Spoilers ahead…
The main attraction of the film is the cast. Stripped of makeup, Keerthy Suresh dives into a difficult role. And Selvaraghavan is wonderful.
When I saw Arun Matheswaran’s first film, Rocky, I said that the narrative was generic, but the film signalled the arrival of a genuine cinematic voice. I said that the film’s USP was the gorgeously designed and utterly unapologetic violence. I said that after a point the violence becomes repetitive and it begins to look like action scenes or violence for the sake of action scenes and violence. I said that the story and characters are generic, and the premise was just this: You killed someone from my family and now I’m going to take revenge. There’s a brother-sister angle, a little girl angle. There are scenes about time and wristwatches. And the film is divided into chapters with quirky titles.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/saani-kaayidham/
And you can watch the video review here:
Copyright ©2022 GALATTA.
Baradwaj Rangan 
H. Prasanna
May 6, 2022
Theme of the season seems to be good performances, lacking in writing.
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H. Prasanna
May 7, 2022
Spoilers
This was an interesting effort. The curse angle and the mystery hook with the adolescent did not work for me. If anything, i would say there were too many plot elements. Obviously, Arun Matheshwaran’s strength is framing, and staging the violence. The movie would have been better served if he just “cut to the chase.”
I could have used some snark and whimsy too. Incidentally, Selvaraghavan made Nenjam Marappathillai that was a similar story but vastly different treatment. When i saw the torture equipment lined up in the scene where they abduct the lawyer, I thought it might do with something like that. Actually, it reminded me of the scene in kathaanayagan, where S. V. Sekar is being asked how he would like to die: knife, gun, or bomb.
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TamilThanos
May 10, 2022
It’s funny how a month ago, we were all lamenting in the Beast thread about death of quality Tamil Cinema and yet there is hardly anyone here in-spite of a well-made (decent if not extraordinary) movie on top of the movie being available in a popular OTT.
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Lurker
May 10, 2022
@thanos – I know that a few critics are going gaga over this, but I’d be hesitant to cite this movie as an example of what Tamil cinema is capable of. There are some nice touches, sure, but it’s the same tired ‘revenge story’ template beneath the facade of the classy filmography, framing et all. It’s like reading a novel which has delightful prose and turns-of-phrase but a trite, wafer-thin storyline.
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TamilThanos
May 10, 2022
@lurker Agreed. What am trying to say that the movie is good enough (especially considering all the recent duds) to warrant more attention in this post. It is a mainstream film, that too.
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hari
May 11, 2022
Awesome movie this was. As BR said the emotional connect is not there, but I did not mind it. Good performances all around apart from the Main Villain.
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rsylviana
May 11, 2022
@TamilThanos – Please tell me the only two options the general audience and cinephiles have are either badly made commercial movies or hard-hitting/soul-sucking/slow-moving movies. Most of the general audience go to the movies to actually have a good time and take a break from their sorry ass lives. So naturally they are going to give such gory revenge movies a miss, no matter how mainstream the movie is.
I’m also curious, can we actually consider this a mainstream movie? It has mainstream/commercial actors sure, but I thought such gory films wouldn’t be considered as mainstream. I thought even our gorefest-master Bala’s films were considered as mainstream-adjacent because they have their own set of audience and a sizeable portion of the general audience do skip out on them.
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rsylviana
May 12, 2022
Sorry , I meant “Please DONT tell me the only two options the general audience and cinephiles have are either badly made commercial movies or hard-hitting/soul-sucking/slow-moving movies….”
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Anuja Chandramouli
May 12, 2022
Saani Kaayidham is the Tamil version of I Spit on Your Grave, made with more honourable intentions and better craft. But that’s it. The writing is weak, characters are unidimensional and the killing is repetitive, utterly lacking in imagination and mostly bland. The performances are nothing to write home about either. Keerthi Suresh is earnest and strains a lot of facial muscles but she lacks depth and I got really bored with the same deathly stare she trots out at regular intervals throughout the film. Selvaraghavan was not bad but neither of them were convincing as people capable of inflicting great violence on others. It was there in the way they held the weapons (gingerly) as if they were scared they would actually hurt themselves with the bloody things, a certain sense of inhibition when it came to body language… It was all most unimpressive.
And I really wish the worst expletive directed at a man in all languages doesn’t involve impugning the virtue of his mother. We really need to get more creative about hurling filthy epithets at rapists that don’t drag in their mommies.
Still there is something satisfying about watching evil men die in increasingly gory and gruesome ways. Guess the I Spit on Your Grave formula works at some level but that was only at the start of the revenge spree. It got old really fast and I wished they would just hurry it up.
Another issue with this film is that it is not exactly anti – caste or even pro – feminist. Instead it is an unabashed excuse to celebrate violence with boyish glee. Case in point, the ‘strong’ female protagonist comes into her own only after she has been gang – raped & brutally beaten. Until then, she is the typical working gal saint who has endless patience for her loser husband. Even after she embraces her inner vengeful Goddess, she needs a male guardian angel to hold her hand as she goes on rampage. In a cringey climax the heroine worships the male savior as her God 🙄 And it was galling that the heroine who is a cop took an inordinately long time to figure out exactly who betrayed her in the first place. She even allows him to further mess with her head and betray her yet again as she makes a futile attempt to find legal recourse for her woes. All this just goes to show that the so – called female centric films made by men are not that far removed from masala films with loosu ponnu heroines.
Critics (even BR was super kind IMO despite the flaws he pointed out) are raving about this film and I assumed that if you throw in a badly written anti – caste angle in the interest of winning sympathy for your hackneyed gore fest, critics feel compelled to say nice things. It is getting ridiculous that so many Tamil filmmakers are jumping onto this particular bandwagon hoping to hone in on the success of the likes of Mari Selvaraj (Pariyerum Perumal, Karnan) and Vetrimaaran (Asuran) who actually risked something to make brave films tackling the evils of the caste system which were also genuinely good cinematic experiences. Saani Kaayidham is not in the same league. It is just B-grade revenge porn pretending to be better than it is.
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vijay
May 13, 2022
This is more a revenge-fantasy with stylized violence, with Arun channelziing his inner Quentin inspired from movies like Django Unchained, Reservoir Dogs and other such films. Keerthi Suresh threw me off a little bit, took a while to get used to seeing her in that milieu. Thhe fact they smoothly orchestrated everything and went from one kiiling to another without breaking a sweat is what derailed things a bit in the second half. Made it more like an Eli Roth film than a Quentin film.
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brangan
May 14, 2022
Anuja: even BR was super kind IMO despite the flaws he pointed out
My review might have cone thatvway because I liked a lot more than just the narrative. Your rant is almost entirely about Arun M the screenwriter, while not considering his direction of the film with the DOP Yamini Yagnamurthy. So yes, I did consider that aspect, too, and had good things to say. The narrative, after all, is only half the movie. How the film is made is the other half.
This, for me, was an unsatisfactorily written but exceptionally directed film. That probably gave the “too kind” impression.
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Anuja Chandramouli
May 14, 2022
BR: ‘Your rant is almost entirely about Arun M the screenwriter, while not considering his direction of the film with the DOP Yamini Yagnamurthy. So yes, I did consider that aspect, too, and had good things to say. The narrative, after all, is only half the movie. How the film is made is the other half.’
Well I did pay a somewhat grudging compliment to the craft with which the film has been made especially when compared to I Spit on Your Grave. But that said, I am not sure I agree with your assessment that the narrative and craft are equally important. An Auteur’s touch can only go so far without the solid foundation a good script offers and mostly amounts to little more than glittery cinematic flatulence. Style has been known to win over substance from a BO POV but what about from a purely artistic standpoint? Surely good writing is the most important thing? What is the point of pretty framing and exquisite set design if the characters and plot are half – baked?
In Saani Kaayidham I did notice some gorgeous shots but it felt like the director was merely posturing for effect (the better to get some traction at International film festivals no doubt) and that merely accentuated the lack of emotional resonance. But I dunno… Perhaps I am being too harsh. When Ponni’s precocious kid was nattering on to Selvaraghavan about the things she liked (inc. her neighbour’s goat), I knew she was a goner. Even the tragic backstories for Ponni and Sangayya were similar – one’s husband and daughter are killed, the other’s wife and son are killed. I was surprised their characters in addition to the rage and angst were not plagued with Daddy and Stepmom and Mommy issues as well. Oh wait… This sort of lazy writing just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and no amount of magnificent ‘direction’ can wash it out.
It’s no secret that I hate SLB’s films for similar reasons and you on the other hand have a world of appreciation for the man, so I don’t suppose we are ever going to see eye to eye on this subject. 🤷🏾♀️ But that’s fine right?
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shaviswa
May 14, 2022
@Anuja
Good point on SLB films. I have not been able to appreciate any of his films. And always wondered why people rave so much about his film which are just glossy but no real content inside
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brangan
May 15, 2022
Anuja Chandramouli: I am not arguing with you that the script is the most important thing. What I’m not getting is your peeve that others seem to be “kind” towards this film. Sure, you did not like it. But should everyone share your opinion?
And no. I don’t think “gorgeous shots” and “pretty framing” is what this film is about. It’s the MEANING conveyed by these shots, visually, that makes some of us respect Arun M’s work as a director. Especially that expressionistic flashback where the people are hardly seen, only heard, and (visually) we sense the confusion in the young boy’s mind, which links to the “narrative” (dialogue-y) part about why he keeps coming back to Keerthy even though she keeps pushing him away.
I am not sure I agree with your assessment that the narrative and craft are equally important.
If you say, “I am not interested in craft. I only care about narrative.”, then that’s fine. No one can argue about it.
But then, why have a director? 🙂 You just need the cinematographer to capture the images/lines in the script, right? 🙂
(All this, despite the fact that I wrote “The issue with Saani Kaayidham is one that I had with Rocky, too. Arun seems to be a better director than writer, and his characters feel one-dimensional. There are no shades…”)
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K
May 16, 2022
Any reasons why Don has not been reviewed?
An SK film which is receiving positive reviews and which is doing good business has not been reviewed by BR. Eagerly waiting for Don review.
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abishekspeare
May 16, 2022
BR enna idhu weekend break laam eduthutu , like a normal working person
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praneshp
May 16, 2022
@abishekspeare from instagram I assumed he was unwell.
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Madan
May 16, 2022
Oh dear, that looks bad. Take care and get well soon, BR.
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K
May 16, 2022
Got it
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KayKay
May 17, 2022
Get well soon, B!
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Anand Raghavan
May 18, 2022
Get well soon BR
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madhusudhan194
June 4, 2022
Just finished watching this film. Wasn’t a great watch but wasn’t bad at all either. This is a better example of craft elevating generic writing than Gangubai kathiawadi.
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Aash
June 7, 2022
Just saw this movie on Prime Video.
I think the director watered down the violence a little bit. Selvaraghavan was quite good here, in fact, he acted excellently.
Only issue is that Keerthy Suresh looked completely out of place. I cringed at that scene when she whined about her misery to Selvaraghavan.
Why can’t directors cast actors like Sheela Rajkumar (Mandela, Draupathi) or Lijomol Jose (Jai Bhim) in these movies?
Anyways they will never get cast in big star vehicles also.
Also why no tamil origin (like women who look like normal Tamil women, not like Rakul Preet) women gets roles in Tamil movies?
This becomes more intolerable when we have 10567 songs about the greatness of Tamil culture (Aalaporaan Tamizhan) and how black is beautiful.
On the top of this, these “heroes” speak like Mahatma Gandhi in their audio launches.
BR wrote an article about this like years ago but still no change. Luckily they have stopped casting Amy Jackson as a Madurai or Chennai woman.
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