With the COVID pandemic still very much prevalent, the world has woken up to the fact that we will have to find ways to live within especially since the vaccines isn't still around. Even if it does, it would still take significant amount of time before it would be made available to each one of us. One of the things that has taken center stage during this COVID time was the use of social network for both professional & personal interests. The film industry has also realized its potential & joined hands with OTT platforms to showcase their celluloid creations. Seeing the talent on offer, Amazon Prime roped in five maverick Tamil directors for an anthology titled "Putham Pudhu Kaalai". The trailer surely looked interesting & everyone would be curious to know whether it is indeed the dawn of a new beginning.
As mentioned earlier, it is an anthology of five stories whereby the characters in most of the segments are holed up at home due to the lockdown. None of the five directors needs introduction as they have all done impressive work in the past & has done more of the same here as well.
The first segment 'Ilamai Idho Idho' was about love between two senior citizens, Rajeev (Jayaram/ Kalidas) & Lakshmi (Urvashi/Kalyani). This was helmed by Sudha Kongara while it was penned by Francis Thomas & Shruti Ramachandran. Both Jayaram & Urvashi was impressive as ever & the idea to have Kalidas & Kalyani (who did have a good chemistry) showcase as to how they felt young at heart despite their actual ages was good. However, I really wished there was more of the seniors on screen.
This was followed by 'Avarum Naanum-Avalum Nannum' where a grandfather, a retired scientist (M S Bhaskar) & granddaughter, an IT professional Kanna (Ritu Verma) try to iron out their strained relationship. With all due respect to Gautham Menon, I was pleasantly surprised to see him in this avatar as we usually relate him with romance. But he has treated this subject penned by Reshma Ghatala in a matured & subtle manner and his eye for nuances of the characters was fantastic. MS Bhaskar was brilliant as we make us empathize with his feelings & he was given credible support by Ritu as well.
The third segment, 'Coffee, Anyone?' is about three daughters with varying problems of their own meeting up with their comatose mother. Directed by Suhasini, this felt like a family reunion as almost all the artists were related to each other in real life. She has addressed quite a few topics in her section be it familial discord, late pregnancy, dyslexia etc. Though it was relatable & taken aptly, I felt there was something about the performances (especially Suhasini) which didnt seem as authentic.
'Reunion' is about two school friends, Sadhana (Andrea Jeremiah) & Vikram (Gurucharan) who accidentally meet & catch up on the old times. This was the segment that I wasnt impressed at all as Rajiv Menon's creation just failed to make any sense. He wanted to convey that music can be a healer which as such seemed fine, but did not gel as much with the story that was put together. The choice of artists were really good be it Gurucharan, Andrea & Leela Samson, as it felt they were tailor made for the characters and they have done reasonably well.
The final part 'Miracle' has two thieves, Devan (Bobby Simha) & Michael (K Muthukumar) who is looking for a huge payday. Karthik Subbaraj made sure that we had a good laugh before the movie ended as I thoroughly enjoyed this comic caper. Both Bobby & Muthu has done a fine job & kudos to Karthik for a segment that had a story & kept us entertained.
Verdict: The anthology definitely had a couple of ups & downs, but on the whole I felt that it was a reasonable effort that does manage to keep us engaged. There is another Tamil anthology also in the making "Paava Kadhaigal" that also has an amazing array of directors & would be releasing in the near future on Netflix. As for this flick, some of the segments might not be to your liking but it is still worth a try!!!
Rating: 2.5/5
Regards...Ben
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