Kurangu Bommai

Kurangu Bommai (2017): After seeing Balaji Mohan, Karthik Subbaraj, Nalan Kumarasamy and a series of other short film directors making their entry into Kollywood, here is one more joining the club! It is debutante Nithilan, who has directed Kurangu Bommai.Earlier this year, we witnessed Lokesh's Maanagaram, one of the best nonlinear hyperlink cinemas and now, with Kurangu Bommai, Nithilan joins the elite club of promising debutante Kollywood directors of 2017.

Plot: An honest driver Kathir (Vidharth) tries to find the owner of a bag with a monkey sticker on it, supposedly containing money to fund the marriage of the man's daughter, not realising that it was used by his own father Sundaram (Bharathiraja) to move a stolen idol.

My Review: Kurangu Bommai is also hyperlink cinema which involves two major narratives here. One of these involves Sundaram (Bharathirajaa), the elderly head of a family in Tanjore, who works for Ekambaram (PL Thenappan), a saw-mill owner and a criminal. The other involves Sundaram's son Kathir (Vitharth), who lives in Chennai and works as an on-call driver.

The film's biggest strength is its writing by Nithilan which is smartly taken care. The way one scene gives a lead to another scene is very interesting, and it has been knit well. The film moves on a nonlinear screenplay format, but nowhere in the movie, you could find it complicated.

The biggest positive point of the film is its casting.Bharathirajaa is phenomenal as a naïve old man who doesn't mind doing the wrong thing for his friend.here's a scene in the second half, where Bharathiraja tells a story to Kumaravel. That one single scene is enough to tell us what kind of a performer he is.Kumaravel steals the show with his shaky body language and dialogue delivery.Vidharth must be appreciated for continuously selecting good scripts and understanding the important fact that the core story is important than heroism.

Ajaneesh Loknath's background score is one of the biggest strengths of Kurangu Bommai.His score elevates the tense moments and Abhinav Sundar Nayak also deserves a special mention for his smooth and sharp edit. The running time of Kurangu Bommai is just 106 minutes, which is perfect for a crime thriller.

So,Kurangu Bommai is a worth watching thriller with tremendous performances and engaging screenplay.

My Rating 7/10

Movies like these only make Tamil film industry alive. A low budget film without any pomp or extravaganza. But the performance by the all the actors in the movie is strong and realistic. Actually they lived as the characters, devoid of being cinematic. This movie starts like some other movies of the same genre like Moodar Koodam. Only few people can guess the real plot. The twist comes near the end of the movie and it's really shocking as well as disturbing. But this movie glaringly reflects the grim reality of people's extreme greediness which forces them to extreme, unimaginable situations. A real gem that would have buried unnoticed but for the positive reviews by fellow movie fans. Praises to those who had rated this movie positively.

Fans of the recent blockbuster Maharaja, this one's from the same director (Hard to believe he's only two films old and has come up with screenplay masterclass in his very 2nd film, but Kurangu Bommai is where you see him trying out this approach in a thriller that's very underrated.

Crime thriller fans, this should totally be on your list. You'll feel that it's slightly dated, which it is, came out a while back but that's likely going to be because you've watched similar content since this one released. For a 2017 movie, this is definitely brilliant and you can see shades of Maharaja in here.

Kurangu Bommai (2017) : Brief Review -

A Clever Tamil Anthology tells the old story in new way but man.. what a god damn freaking revenge it delivers. Crime anthologies have been made often in South Cinema, especially in Tamil Cinema and to be honest Tamil Industry has delivered some real international level classics in this genre. I mean the same kind of stuff British Cinema makes and is loved by foreign audience. I have seen some major classics recently and i can say it loud and clean that Tamil Cinema is nothing less than British Cinema when it comes to crime drama and anthologies. Kuranga Bommai is another fine example of classic crime anthology which makes my previous statement even more plausible. A loyal worker, Sundaram takes orders from his boss Ekamabaram, even when Ekamabaram asks Sundaram to smuggle a valuable idol in his car. Actually, the story is nothing new or outstanding but like they say in the film in one song, "I am telling you the same old story in new way, it is not Ramayana and Mahabharata".. The storytelling is unique and innovative. The same sequences are repeated in the film to tell us the time differences and what a Major breakthrough it provides to the narrative is surely a thing to watch. I wasn't convinced that it is a classic until the last minute when it shows some real painful and worthy revenge trick. All the actors in the film are fine in their roles. Yes, there are one or two fiascos but forgivable. The background score and the cinematography are major highlights of the film but only if you can understand the creative use of it. The real master behind this brilliant classic is Nithilan Swaminathan. He crafts an ordinary scrip with his extraordinary vision and keeps you hooked for the entire runtime of about 105 minutes. Overall, a new break in old genre and highly successful.

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Good start, excellent narration, excellent acting BUT... A horrible ending!!! Unnecessary deaths and unnecessary twist... to make things worse - there are quite a few blaring holes in the logic towards the end. I am very upset that a good film has been wasted... now I know why the film did not have a good run