Kadaaksham

Medium : Malayalam
Starring : Suresh Gopi, Jagathi, Swetha Menon, Swetha Vijay, Rekha
Director : Sasi Paravoor
Music : M.Jayachandran, Johnson (bg score)

I didn't get a chance to watch films like 'Kaatu Vannu Vilichappol' and 'Nottam'. Though those two films were not that big to be promoted, the second one caught attention due to the placement of 'pachappanam thathe...' song in it. Now the director of the particular films, Sasi Pravaoor had come up with a new project named 'Kadaaksham'. The film is in the news due to the inclusion of a remake song, 'praananaathan enikku nalkiya...' by Irayamman Thampi. More over, this film got the award for the best story in the state awards announced recently. The first scene of the film itself gave a clear picture on the "standard" of the film and its director.

Fed up by the outcome, I am not taking an effort to recollect the character names here, so quoting the artists as it is... The protagonist Swetha Vijay works as a servant in the house where Suresh Gopi, his wife Swetha Menon and their daughter lives. She has to face many mental and physical tortures from many peoples. She is always doubtful by the behavior of peoples around him. The sales man in the shop, the jeep driver, the old man in the house, the servant and the house owner himself became the culprits by trying to molest her in different situations. Her husband (Jagathi) is a drama artist. He is a drunken man always and one stage he even tried to send her daughter forcibly to act in the film, even after she resisted it. Thus to save her daughter from her husband, she sends her to Bangalore for a job. At this time, Swetha Menon leaves to London. The servant takes care of their daughter. At one stage, she leaves the house to Bangalore to bring her daughter back, pretending that she is not safe there. After months, Suresh's wife reached native, they both went to their servant's house, met her husband and the real truth behind her life is revealed.

'Kadaaksham' is a hopeless and intolerable movie, due to its unprofessional presentation and the worst performance by the debutant Swetha Vijay, who did the lead role in the film. Her body language is too awkward and acting is unrealistic. Her running shots (used any times in the movie) resembles the 10 foot taller characters like "Naavi" in the film 'Avataar'. The tall girl is not suited for such a role (may be she will be good in modern outfits, but for a servant character she is a wrong choice). Her lip movements are also not stable and she acts looking here and there. I still can't understand, without doing proper dress rehearsals, how can she be placed in an important character like this, the director should answer this.

The drama scenes featuring Jagathi is too lengthy and will make us restless. The song and its visuals featuring the drama artists are not good. The relationship between Suresh Gopi and Swetha Menon is not portrayed properly. The director had unnecessarily incorporated the romantic bed room scenes by them, it gives a wrong message and might be useful only to attract a few more people to theaters. Another black mark in the movie is the background score used, which should be the back bone for such kind of movies. The experienced music director in the field, Johnson had given a childish and amateur music which had polluted the whole environment. The remake song by M.Jayachandran-Chitra is not good enough to be compared with the old one with Devarajan-Madhuri.

The only positive in the film is the situation happened in the last 5-10 minutes, where the whole story happened so far is shown in a reverse way, all of them being imagination by the central character (a resemblance with the film 'Bhoothakkannaadi').


'Kadaaksham' has got a presentable story outline; if it is done neatly by placing a professional artist as the central character, then the output would have been better and a promotable one.


Rating : 2.5 / 10