Vaanam Kottattum

Boasting a star-studded cast that includes real-life couple, Sarathkumar and Radhika, the movie feels more like a TV drama than a feature film. The movie does feature touches of Mani Ratnam-ness (the movie is produced by Mani Ratnam and directed by his assistant, Dhana) in it's minimalistic approach towards dialogues and a simple plotline.

I am of the opinion that the movie's core discusses areas such as the importance of good upbringing, parental guidance and acceptance. Or maybe, I'd assume this is what the director was going for. Sadly, these core themes never get translated to the screenplay and it leaves much to be desired.

The biggest drawback of the film also comes in the fact that the director has chosen to over-complicate a simple narrative. Too many sub-plots featuring the other characters makes the film messy and none of the lead characters have an interesting arc for the audience to feel invested upon.

Technically a strong film, the music department also features debut music director and famous singer, Sid Sriram, scoring the songs and BGM of the film. Take nothing away from this guy's amazing singing capabilities, but the background score of the film was often too loud and could have been more mellow to allow some breathing space for the onscreen happenings.

All in, Vaanam Kottattum is not entirely a bad movie at all; it's an average, uninspiring film with sprinkles of family values and drama woven along the way. Watchable on a lazy Sunday afternoon at home after a heavy lunch.