Magics won’t happen too often in life. There is no reason for a coincidence to be reasonable. Yet, when we see such magical coincidences on screen, it may come off as too superficial, or rather pretentious. But, Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi’s treatment of the characters is so pleasant and acceptable at a glance. The suspension of disbelief becomes alive as you watch the cinema as you pleasantly enjoy the breeziness of this musical.
Shreya Chandramohan (Nithya Menon) and Siddarth (Jayam Ravi) both work at architect firms, waiting for that perfect moment in the screenplay for them to meet. Till then, we are given just enough time to get into the characters and you might already start rooting for them, especially Nithya Menon’s role. She wants to be a mother but her partner cheats her. So, she decides to be a mother through IVF of a random sperm donor. That sperm donor happened to be our hero, whose lover leaves him on the day of their engagement. The hero and heroine meet and greet but very soon leave. Yet, they meet again after 8 years. And, there begins the pursuit of love, happiness, football and a family.
The biggest asset of the film–apart from upbeat melodious AR Rahman’s music– is the characters that are progressive without any signalling. Yes, there are a few generational differences shown. But, they are largely thrown out as tongue in cheek humor. We get the scenes where Siddarth and his friends, Gowda (Yogi Babu) and Sethu discuss about gay parenting and freezing of sperms. It is a pleasant welcoming move to have these casual discussions without signalling about the so-called taboo topics.
Initially, the sudden return of Nirupama (Siddarth’s Ex-girlfriend, played by T. J. Bhanu) into the happy-going life of Sid and Shreya came off as taking too much creative liberty to inject too many coincidences. But, the character of Siddarth, filled with low self-esteem, needed someone to push him, someone to tell him what is the right thing, someone to keep him in a situation. So the realisation hits him– of leaving the job to start a new firm and being with Parthiv (Shreay’s son). Therefore, the choices are cleanly justified retrospectively. But still, it doesn’t feel out of place despite being a rehash of an old idea. The short-spanned and quick movement of scenes edited by Lawrence Kishore aided a lot to the breezy flow of the film.
I don’t want to use the word “progressive” for the characters in the movie for the reasons of polarised understanding of that idea. But, the characters in the film are very rooted for an urban class society. Shreya discovers his partner cheating on her, and you expect that too. He wasn’t made the bad-boy of the story. Yes, she throws a bottle of wine at his face. But, Kiruthiga handled these characters with the dignity of a human who made a mistake, not a never-forgivable crime. The same kind of delicacy can be seen when Kiruthiga was writing Shreaya’s mother role (played by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan). The role– which is devoid of stereotypical sentimentality–behaves as a typical Tamil-Brahmin mother who can allow only to a certain level. That’s why it’s rooted in its own world.
The world of Kadhalikka Neramillai is also something you often don’t see in Tamil cinema. The scenic design of the production done by Shanmugaraja is very fresh for a Rom-com in Tamil cinema. The music by A R Rahman also feels like nothing you’d hear in relationship cinemas of Tamil. The music is very modern and has a very nice upbeat mood to it, especially the Yennai Izhukkuthadi, Lavender Neramae and If you Hear Me Now tracks that come off into the movie effortlessly, again, like a breeze.
Kadhalikka Neramillai very calmly explores the relevant questions of marriage, husband, kids, homosexuality, single-parenting etc. Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi achieved all these with such an ease that makes you feel comfortable like a cool breeze on a sunny evening.
TF Rating: 3.5/5
Kadhalikka Neramillai is now streaming on Netflix.
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