Kodambakkam

Back-to-back reviews.. ippodhaikku pudhu idea edhuvum agapadalai.. so here I go..

Kodambakkam is the story of an aspiring young assistant director (Nandha)who dreams of making it big in Kodambakkam. He has his love interest (Diya) and his mom (Kalairani) back in his village praying for his success. He gets a rich and typically simple village man (Manivannan) to produce his film. Soon he realizes that his maiden film would be make-or-break for not only him but for several others associated with him.

Unlike some other movies which have projected the members of cine-field as baddies and spun a net around the good vs bad conflicts, Kodambakkam is an honest attempt to portray the obstacles involved in making a movie. It exaggerates the events just a little to create the cinematic cliches but otherwise the director uses several familiar incidents that we have read/heard from the horses' mouths. The climax is kinda predictable but an anti-climax would have shown the director at his pessimistic worst.

Nandha, along with Prasanna and Vishal, is one of the prospective bright faces of Thamizh cinema now. With luck and more emphasis on right emotions, he can achieve second level of stardom. He doesnt disappoint in this movie. Diya raises hopes for a better role in the film after her move to Chennai but it just serves the purpose for a song. Manivannan is so believable as the rich but one of those who are totally unaware of the way cine industry works. His daily updates to his wife appear funny in the beginning but later it helps bring a nice piece of love and emotions.

The support cast of Tejashri, Ramesh Kanna, 'Ganja' karuppu, Kalairani, et al. do a good job, though Kalairani gets onto our nerves at times. The music has nothing much to write about. The director (Jaganji, Director of 'Pudiya Geethai') has shown that he has some good ideas in a few scenes but lack of a brisk screenplay and the songs tend to drag the movie.