Kaalakoothu Review

N Nagarajan brings in Prasanna and Kalairasan to portray the male lead roles along with Sai Dhansika and Srushti Dange as the female lead for this movie set in the backdrop of a village in Madurai. Kaalakoothu after waiting for very nearly two years to get the shoot done finally gets released today with a story depicting thick friendship between two young men. With PV Shankar's cinematography, the movie is packed with good visuals and shots. Kaalakoothu spins around the characters played by Prasanna and Kalaiarasan. Prasanna's character Easwar is an orphan who becomes closely affectionate towards Hari, who loses his mother at his very young age. Their friendship thickens after years passes by but an expected event involving Easwar(Prasanna) makes it hard for them and their relation. The core of Kaalakoothu lies in the tensions and events happening in their lives and how they manage to solve the problems that try to stalk them.

Nagarajan who is making his debut with Kaalakoothu has done a good job by having Prasanna and Kalairasan for the Kaalakoothu. Their effortless and natural way of delivering out the characters Easwar and Hari is the key factor of Kaalakoothu. Sai Dhansika and Srushti Dange have also done a decent job as the female lead in the movie. Nagarajan tried to give the best space for all the characters in the movie. When Prasanna, Kalairasan and Sai Dhansika perform their character with ease Srushti Dange's character fails to emote more. Sai Dhansika gives an outstanding performance in the climax with and scores with a highly emotional display of histrionics that actually makes the audience fall for her. 

The director himself has written the script for Kaalakoothu. Commenting on the script, it starts at a low pace but takes speed when reaching towards the interval. He has rightly blended the screenplay with emotional and romantic scenes that were easily discharged by the actors especially Kalaiarasan and Sai Dhansika. In spite of having all these elements, the movie loses its balance at points but he manages to keep the audience engaged with well planned with twists in sequences too. Kaalakoothu brings a well-written climax and as a writer, Nagaraj has done a good job. Justin Prabhakar's magical touch in the songs and the background music elevates the feel and mood of the movie and also at many points reminds the audience of Ilayaraja's alleviating compositions of the 80's. Producer-director M. Nagarajan has chosen an interesting core theme and promising technicians for Kaalakoothu. PV Shankar's composition of frames are a pleasure to watch for its pleasant tones and Selva presented Kaalakoothu with a very nice and decent edit.

 Final verdict: Worth watching as Justin Prabhakaran's music and the performances of the actors bring life to Kaalakoothu.