Set in the lush picturesque locale of a hill station, with the backdrop of an elite school campus, ‘Kulir 100’ centers around a group of high school students. The friendship and rivalry, the bullying and ragging, and the violent dangerous turns it takes, forms the plot. Anita Udeep who had earlier produced, scripted and written the Indian English feature film, Knock Knock, I’m looking to Marry, ventures into her first Tamil feature film here.
The film opens with Surya (Sanjiv), son of estranged parents, being packed off to an elite school by his distressed mother. She wanted to wean him away from the negative influence of his father, a gangster. Surya enters a new world of strict rules, discipline, and snobs. Bablu his roommate and buddy, shields him from seniors like Rohit and Akash, who infuriated by Surya’s refusal to cow down, targets him for some merciless ragging. Support comes from an unexpected quarter, when the spirited Tanya (Riya) sister of Akash, takes him under her wings and tips him on how to counter the bullies. But when ragging takes a gruesome turn, Surya decides to hit back at his tormentors in the same coin. Poetic justice prevails, when Surya leaving behind his undetected crimes, returns home to his mother, and realises that there is a payback time for every wrong act done.
While Anita’s debut English film had a lot of gloss, it had looked more like a warm-up practice match. Anita here seems to have evolved as a more mature and a confident maker. The scripting is fairly neat, and the edginess and jerkiness has given way to a much smoother narrative flow. Sanjiv plays Surya with a natural take, and the rest of the freshers too blend in well. Bubbly Riya (a Delhi model) as Tanya breezes in and out of the story, her character ambiguously etched, leaving no impact on the happenings.
Weakly etched too are the familyscenes of both Surya and Tanya.
Fairly engaging and targeted at the urban teens, Kulir… has a western sensibility and scores on elegance and style. Some more pep and zest, and a better conviction in its scripting and story telling, would have worked to the film’s advantage.
expresso@epmltd.com