Another promising debutante has knocked the doors of the ever evolving Kollywood filmdom - director Ranjith. Embellished with a clichéd script and narrative, Attakathi still proved to be refreshing largely due to its performances from its debut cast - Dinesh, Nandita, Aishwarya and a bunch of funny and not-so-funny characters.
The story of the movie was set in the year 2000, which was somewhat of a nascent approach from the stereotypical stories that have been thus far told either in the retro 80's style or in the usual present day rural or urban milieu. Traversing through a not so distant past has opened a conducive platform wherein there was an ample space to digest the idiocy of the lead character, which otherwise would have ended up between stools. The movie travels through the life of Dhinakaran (Dinesh), an aimless youth who struggles to complete his secondary schooling to enter college only to realize his dream of becoming a BA history student. He encounters his love interest, transforms himself for her and ends up learning the meaning of life (Well, did he?). Attakathi has also portrayed the lives of the youngsters who travel from the nearby areas in and around Chennai, travelling by foot-board, singing 'Ghana' numbers, wooing their loved ones and other antics showcased by them.
The film neither had very funny dialogs nor an interesting plot, but it largely thrived on its debutantes who hogged the limelight with their natural performances that gelled well with the proceedings. Dinesh's performance as a volatile and a flirtatious youngster gathered applause, while Nandita's performance as the timid yet chirpy heroine brought in warmth. So many other small characters were carefully handpicked and were made to perform with some fine-tuning done then and there.
Another pillar for the movie was debutante Santhosh Narayanan's music and BGM. The melody number 'Vaazhkai Or Pulveli' was soothing, while the experimented ghaana number 'Aadi Pona Aavani' had a wonderful fusion of accordion, tabla and dholaks that created a retro feel and reinstated the humorous undertone of the script. He is a guy whom we should watch out for in his forthcoming outings.
Editing could have been crisper, especially in the second half. There were so many dots which were left loose and disconnected that could have been edited for a crisper style.
Cinematography was excellent, as the camera followed the characters in an intimate fashion thereby bringing the audience closer to the narrative.
The weaknesses were the longer-than-usual scenes and dialogs. The dialogs that were meant to tickle the nerves only ended up being an old fashioned one liner creating little or no impact most of the times.
The movie can be watched once for its fresh and feel-good appeal that could have so easily slipped down as a tragedy but ended up as a satirical take on love and other such flirtatious relationships.
Verdict: One-Time-Watch
Rating: 2.5/5
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