Kutty Story: Anthology is here to replace the horror-comedy, thriller trend, and only Nalan excites with his film

Tamil cinema’s business has always believed in riding along the wave. A few years back, there were numerous horror-comedy films after the huge success of Kanchana. Similarly now there is a trend of making anthology. As much as I want to point out the success of Sillu Karuppati as the reason, the truth is OTT platforms entering into the market after Covid with their originals, which were anthologies. Kutty story was conceptualized and shoot during pandemic similar to Putham Puthu Kaalai. The films are all based on love.

Edhirpaara Muththam by Gautham Vasudev Menon

Every anthology film has a short film directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. He even made a short film in YouTube ‘Karthik Dial Seytha Yenn’ at the start of the lockdown. It’s commendable that he is adapting to the new form of making film, but his style is still stale. He is a director who re-invented song picturization or even the coffee table conversations. But now his style has become mundane. Even in this film, the conversations have excessive use of English which looks very artificial. The conversation scenes between Simbu and Trisha at café in Vinnai Thaandi Vaaruvaya and break-up scene in Neethane en Ponvasantham are amazingly shot and hold solid drama. His recent feature films or his short film lack that.  Vinoth Kishan plays superbly as younger Gautham Menon. Apart from that nothing stands out.

Avanum Naanum by Vijay

Vijay’s short film is about a college student, Preethi (Megha Akash) who gets pregnant. With the help of her friend she goes to the hospital to get it aborted. While she waits in the hospital, she looks at the baby pictures hung around in the walls of the hospital. We also see a couple who is struggling to get a baby. I couldn’t get reminded of Oru Pakka Kathai, in which Megha Akash gets pregnant and the whole issue would be treat so sensitively. Vijay is straight away decided to message against abortion. And the clichéd reasoning he does with the accident of the baby’s father and the baby being a boy is just intolerable. The film ends with a message too. *face palm*

Lokham by Venkat Prabhu

Lokham is a game that allows players to use their voice and connect with other players and play the game. Adam (Varun) is a top player in that game and this is a story of how Adam met his Eve in the Lokham. As a story is straight-forward but set in a game world. The film is majorly fun and light-hearted. But in order to retain his signature of one big twist in the climax, he does something similar here too but it looks wannabe.

Aadal Paadal by Nalan Kumarasamy

Nalan Kumaraswamy is one of the exciting directors of Tamil cinema. He hails from a short film background and hence he brilliantly packs a twist, humour and emotions in the 30 odd minutes. Vijay sethupathy plays this character without his sarcastic style, which is seen in most of his characters he playa. Aditi Balan is another great casting. Nalan stages the scenes in a way that the house is used in a great way. The film has a quirkiness that every Nalan film has. It’s the only good short film in this anthology.

Verdict: Anthology is here to replace the horror-comedy, thriller trend, and only Nalan excites with his film