‘Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal’ movie review: A sincere Vijay Sethupathi and a superb Samantha deadlift this safe love triangle

She thinks he is hers and hers only, as does she. 

This tug of war gradually snowballs into a wrestle, where the two women fight it all out for the man. Our man, on the other hand, tries to diffuse the situation, pacifying the ladies, sometimes taking the blame on himself. This is not Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal starring Nayanthara, Samantha and Vijay Sethupathi but Panchathanthiram that featured Simran, Ramya Krishnan and Kamal Haasan in the terrific ‘Vandhen Vandhen’ song. 

This parallel between these two films is also where it differs. Unlike Panchathanthiram where a love triangle was just playful and suggestive, it is direct in Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal. And this steadfastness is what makes the Vignesh Shivan directorial scarcely enjoyable and utterly superficial. Oh, there is another parallel: Simran in that film was presented as a ‘homely’ woman, while Ramya Krishnan was the vamp. Though Samantha (who looks gorgeous and deadlifts most of the film) isn’t written as a vamp, her character does come across as an object of desire with very little emotional authenticity.

Let us face it: Vignesh Shivan is not a transgressive filmmaker. Actually, none in mainstream Tamil cinema, is. So, if such a love triangle were to be made in Tamil, exploring the mental state of a man and two women, the only logical resolution to your film would be to have a convenient ending, where the moral boundaries remain untouched and ideas exist merely as contemplations. Somewhere you would be aware that Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal wouldn’t be even half interesting of what K Balachander or Balu Mahendra had done in their films. But again, this isn’t a film that wants you to think but expects you to join in for a jolly ride, with a nadaswaram-heavy score by Anirudh. 

Sure, but is the film at least entertaining? Absolutely not. Except for a few well-thought-out ideas, Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal ( KRK) remains firmly bland. This is a crime for a film that has three brilliant actors in Vijay Sethupathi, Nayanthara and Samantha who do not have much to do for the simple reason that the screenplay itself doesn’t have enough oil to keep the engine running. 

Give credits where it’s due: Vignesh Shivan sets up the premise quite well about a boy named Rambo (Vijay Sethupathi), who is born to a Muslim mother and a Hindu father. After Rambo is born, his father dies and the mother gets a paralytic attack. He is soon regarded as the harbinger of bad luck and despair. So much so that rain stops for him, when Rambo steps out to get drenched. This superstition turns into belief. But Rambo’s mother (oddly named Minah Khalif) reminds him that “when it rains, it pours”.

There is a superb moment in KRK when Rambo gets to experience rain for the first time without being apologetic for who he is. The way Vignesh Shivan treats this moment, it is as if to suggest that Rambo is finally cleansed of his curse and kissed by the rain gods. This happens when the women of KRK — Kanmani (Nayanthara) and Khatija (Samantha) — express their love for him. Rambo calls them his “angels”, although one believes that the demon must be the lack of a weighty script. The first half is so long that, at one point, you lose track of what’s happening and start thinking about the calculations, given that the film has two top actresses. 

So, while the ‘homely’ Kanmani gets the soulful ‘Naan Pizhai’ song, the pub-going Khatija gets the groovy ‘Dippam Dappam’. Of course, Rambo is in love with Kanmani during daytime and with Khatija at night. I hope you know why. Each of them gets a scene where the hero comes to the rescue of his woman. The manner in which Vignesh Shivan has conceived the women of KRK raises questionable doubts. Nayanthara as Kanmani can be seen as a representation of the everyday woman from the previous generation. She is single, has a sister and a brother with a developmental disability, and has an ancestral property under debt — if only the late actor Sujatha was around. Samantha as Khatija, on the other hand, is written as this generation’s woman dealing with issues such as domestic abuse from her boyfriend and lecherous looks from men. Even the way these ladies fall in love with Rambo feels like an easy route to solve the screenplay problems. You don’t have to look elsewhere. The 2020 Telugu film Krishna and His Leela handled this oddity rather beautifully.

But then there are a few instances when KRK comes truly alive as what Vignesh Shivan might have imagined, courtesy Vijay Sethupathi. There is a scene when Kanmani and Khatija confront Rambo in a temple. They ask him why he has been avoiding them, not knowing about the two-timing. Vijay doesn’t answer them. He just steps backwards, prostrating before them in the guise of seeking blessings from God. No other male actor would have agreed to this. The audience went nuts. There are some laugh-out-loud moments when Vignesh imagines popular love stories as a love triangle with his actors. Who would have thought that the iconic Titanic pose would have three instead of two? See, that is what KRK should have been. You also get a few scattered laughs here and there but these are definitely not enough to sustain your interest.

This aside, something needs to be said about Vijay Sethupathi and the astonishing ability he possesses to remain sincere to the character he plays. Just watch out for him in the end when someone asks how he could love two women at the same time. Vijay gives a lame explanation using the film’s title. But something about his voice, the way he says it, makes you feel it comes from the heart. He makes you believe. Perhaps people were right in pointing this out. KRK would have been even more interesting had it been a romance between Nayanthara and Samantha. Maybe.

Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal is currently running in theatres.