'Aadukalam' (Tamil)
Director: Vetrimaran
Cast: Danush, Taapsee Pannu, Kishore, VIS Jayapalan, Naren
After ‘Polladhavan’, which was different in style and concept, the director-actor duo of Vetrimaran and Dhanush has got together once again for ‘Aadukalam’. With a script set in the rooster-fight arena, the director has attempted to take the audience through a different experience.
While he has done that well in the first part, the successive part is devoid of anything that one witnessed before interval. The film opens with a well researched narration of the rooster-fight tradition and shifts pace by portraying the feud running between Ratnasamy (Naren), a police officer and the aged Pettaikaran (Jayapalan).
Both vie for top honours in the roosters competition fights and Pettaikaran’s roosters, nurtured by his protégées Karuppu and Dorai (Dhanush and Kishore), have always been one up on his rival’s.
Ratnasamy uses dubious means to win the fights but in vain, as Karuppu wins the former, even defying the warnings of his mentor, Pettaikaran. The screenplay till here is meticulously etched. We get a detailed, realistic sketching of the characters and happenings, all set in a very authentic ambience.
Fitting in suitably is Dhanush, as the actor gets his nuances right. Weaved in is Karuppu’s attraction for Irene an Anglo Indian (debutant Taapsee cuts a pretty picture). Jayapalan, a Tamil poet, impresses the audience as Pettaikaran.
But the director seems to lose focus and grip on the narration after the interval, as the scenes lack conviction. His focus on the humans and their foibles here was less engaging than the rooster fights!
‘Aadukalam’ had a classy authentic first half. But the second half fails to match up to it.