#Aandavankattali - A refreshing brand of comedy!

Instead of starting with Aandavan Kattali, let us talk about the man behind the success, director Manikandan. AK is his 4th film in the last two years (includes Kirumi for which Manikandan has written only the script). The sheer difference in all four films is worth noticing, from Kakka Muttai , Kirumi , Kutrame Thandanai to Andavan Katalai  the genre of the film cannot be compared and each film was successful commercially and satisfying to the art. All four films can be discussed separately in detail, but lets stick to Anadavan Katalai for now.

Short Gist:
Two friends gets struck in a fraud travel agency as try to go to the U.K. . The film follows their struggle and what happens to both of them finally. 

I have been following Vijay Sethupathi's films for a while now, the ones pertaining to comedy- Soodhu Kavuum, Kadhalum Kadanthu pogum, Orange Mittai, Naduvula Konjam Pakatha Kanam all the above were different genre-comedy films but if we watch closely the comedy element is not performed by a single person. The common trend what we see in the last five years was a single comedian be it Vadivelu, Santhanam or Soori will be responsible for the complete act and the protagonist will support his act but this is not what happening now, If you see AK the comedy is throughout, everyone in the film plays a part and its quite refreshing to see this happening after many years. It was like reliving a Crazy mohan drama or sorts.I feel the beginning of all this was Soodhu Kavuum but the strategy has worked out well till now. The trailer quite evidently shows how all the characters are part of the comedy track.

The film is not out and out comedy, its get quite serious in the end and there is a very sensible love story which goes through the film between Ghandi (Vijay Sethupathi) and Kaarmegakuzhli( Ritikha Singh) and the way the film ends is too beautiful to describe. There is a word in tamil "Yathartham" the literal meaning in english is obvious but thats too blatant to describe. the best way to put the ending is that it's quite real like making a scene which is very much relatable to a real life situation. Yogi babu who has a lot of screen space in this film does some good comedy in the first half and the second half is taken over by Vijay Sethupathi and others in the cast( the way the film goes on in this stage is similar to a crazy mohan film! such fun)

This is a walk in the park for Vijay Sethupathi, even though he plays a dumb person for sometime, he pulls that off with so much ease. Talking about the female lead - Ritikha singh, It is quite a brilliant performance that too considering this as her second film and how she goes into the character of the film. As she tells in the interview, she is quite fearless and talks on Vijay sethupathi with ease. Overall a very good comedy, a bit lengthy but it is okay for the laughs it gives throughout. I must appreciate the director's cost cutting ability, not even a scene shot in london or Sri Lanka but uses the narration to convey what is required. Very Clever !!

Star Cast:

Vijay Sethupathi, Naser, Ritikha Singh, Pooja Devariya, Yogi Babu, Cheenu Ramesh, Singam Puli, Ramesh Thilak