Kandaen – Tamil Movie Review

Actor Shanthanu has been clear over his selection of projects. Right from his first film, he has been determined towards taking up films based on romantic entertainers while he rejects the serious themes. Say for instance, Sasikumar’s ‘Subramaniapuram’ in which he was supposed to play the role of Jai. Though, his selection of rom-com was good, he wasn’t able to go for a breakthrough. His very first film ‘Sakkarakatti’ that had lots of expectations bombed at box office followed by ‘Siddhu Plus Two, First Attempt’ that had mixed reviews. But with ‘Kandaen’ Shanthanu gets a new lease of life in his showbiz, though not to a greater degree.

The film is directed by newcomer Mugil, who previously worked with Prabhu Deva as assistant director. ‘Kandaen’ is a romantic story with a hackneyed storyline, but has some twists in the tale with some interesting moments. The film marks the debut of Reshmi Gautham while Santhanam plays a significant role and keeps the film with entertaining factors.

Vasanth (Shanthanu), a software engineer by profession lives a high-spirited life, but is troubled his grandfather (Vijayakumar), a Nattamai, who wants his grandson to marry a relative girl. In order to escape from the situation, Vasanth bluffs that he is already in love with a girl and that leaves him into a speculative challenge.

The protagonist has to find a girl and seek her parent’s blessings to marry her, with a specific deadline – 30 Days.

On his way down in Chennai, Vasanth comes across a beautiful girl Narmada (Reshmi) and falls in love with her. In order to win her sympathy, Vasanth lies that he is blind and somehow makes her fall in love. But when truth breaks loose out of hell and Narmada swears that she’ll never be a part of his life. Vasanth seeks the help of his close pal (Santhanam) and he helps in uniting them. When you think everything is perfect, things go terribly wrong as Vasanth is injured during a clash after boozing and loses his eyesight. What unfolds next is a series of problems faced by the lead pair.

Shanthanu tries emitting the best from his part, but falls into pit by overreacting at some places. But, we ought to appreciate his performance in dance and stunt sequences.

Newcomer Reshmi is a special delight to the eyes as she spells a fabulous oomph factor at places, especially in songs. Santhanam brings laughter tremendously with his one-liners and usual paradigms.

Musical spell by newcomer Vijay Ebenezer reminisces of Harris Jayaraj as the songs sound pretty with the same style. Cinematography by Prashanth has eye-catching visuals.

On the flip side, the story seems to be too cliched and the screenplay remains predictable at few places. But soon Mugil takes a turn and avoids time-worn elements. Though, the logic is completely missing at many places, ‘Kandaen’ is a film that you can enjoy watching it to kill your time.

Cast & Crew:

Production: TCS, Sri Siva Selvanayakiamman Movies

Direction: A.C. Mugil

Star-casts: Shanthanu, Reshmi, Santhanam, Aashish Vidyarthi, Vijayakumar and others

Music: Vijay Ebenezer

Verdict: Passable entertainer