Kadali Review

Behind the Movie Kadali: There are several reasons on why this dubbing flick has become  much awaited in Tollywood. There are Maniratnam, AR Rahman, Rajeev Menon, Arjun, Arvind Swamy, Gautham and Thulasi. Let us see, how artistic is this touch of sea?

In the Movie Kadali: Bergmans (Arjun) and Samuel (Arvind Swamy) are two different attitude intelligent persons training at Christian seminary to attain priest-hood. While Samuel is good and dedicated towards serving the people with religious preachings, Bergmans is the evil thrown out from the seminary. However, Bergmans promises to take the revenge and thus comes the new character of Thomas (Gautham). 

Thomas is an orphan who grows under the shelter of Samuel in a small fishing hamlet on sea-side. He has tremendous pain and numerous complaints over the society who finds solace and solutions in Samuel. Meanwhile, Thomas is attracted towards the evil influence in Bergmans. At a time when he becomes so brutal, thus comes in angel Beatrice (Thulasi), daughter of Bergmans to show him the path of redemption. How did Thomas fight against the bad to win his love is the rest.

Values of the Movie Kadali: Maniratnam is synonymous to creative cultivator. He is a master story teller which is proved numerous times in the past but this time one needs to have enormous patience to go on this sea voyage. The concept written by Jayamohan is atypical and the same applies to comatose screenply, lazy direction. Second half is a huge disappointment as boredom reaches the peak. It's the top notch cinematography of Rajeev Menon (especially in songs) which keeps us alive. Sreekar Prasad's editing also further slowdowns the patience. Sashidhar Adapa's art work perfectly suited the backdrop selected by Mani. Dialogues by Ramakrishna were also just average. AR Rahman's music is just fantastic leaving a very strong impact. Production values of Madras Talkies were also seen throughout.

Performance wise Gautham Karthik along with Arvind Swamy and Arjun were the show stealers. The young boy has the natural instinct to react as per demands of story situations and he can be grommed into a definitely good actor. He is just very promising. Thulasi Nair hasn't got any big scope to exhibit her skills yet she is pretty in whites. Arjun as usual delivered extra ordinary performance with his own voice dubbed adding to the force. Arvind Swamy is still so handsome with serene looks strengthening the Father character. Manchu Lakshmi's one scene appearance is okay. Remaining others nothing to mention about.

Out of the Movie Kadali: As usual Maniratnam relied the most again on technical fronts to make his film look so beautiful on screen. The way, movie takes off in first half an hour is just spellbound. Very soon, everything turns very slow and time killing. Romantic thread comes very late only in second half and that too with a hectic message. For Telugu audience, there is always a lack of conviction in this kind of over-realistic approach from Mani. But, this is how his films are made up of. Never to mention, there is nothing to entertain here for fun loving movie goers.

Overall, only a section of Maniratnam's die-hard admirers might enjoy this flick for technical brilliance from all the departments working behind the screen. Commercially, 'Kadali' will be a sure-shot washout in Telugu. 

Cinejosh Verdict of the Movie Kadali: Stay Away from this Sea-Storm.

                                             Cinejosh Rating: 2.5/5

                                                                                   Reviewed by Srivaas