Kabadi

A sport that has a small connection to an epic like Mahabharata, also widely played in many states across India, a prominent sport in Bangladesh. Yes, its Kabadi.

Director Susindran has perfectly executed a script based on Kabadi with simplicity and finesse. This is not like Chak De, Lagaan or any other sports movies like Goal or Victory. This movie has a completely different take on Kabadi. There is no money, glamour and fashion. The game itself has little popularity among the masses. We hardly find anyone talking, which probably makes it easy for the director to have a small village like Kanakkanpatti as the nucleus of this movie.

A group of youngsters, who have different backgrounds, in terms of caste, work, status, are great friends and stand united only because of Kabadi. Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu is what they call themselves and they take pride in attending the local kabadi competitions. Winning is almost like a nightmare to them and to keep their heads high amongst their villagers, they play the weaker team from the next village. Their ultimate aim is to win a tournament so that they can walk inside the village with their heads high up.

A movie where almost everyone is a newbie, maybe a budget of a few hundred thousands, no expensive props and mostly everything natural is what makes VKK so special.

Mari, the uneducated young lad who is a goat-herd, is the principal character in this movie. Other than a very sad background about Mari, what we get to see is only his inclination for the sport and his love for the anonymous girl Saranya Mohan, who comes to the village festival from Madurai. Its interesting to note that the director has beautifully brought out the love between the two without even letting out the girl's name. Also, its awesome to note that they never exchange any contact information. They decide to wait till the next years festival. It works like that in villages. How difficult but at the same time, fascinating.



The other characters have been neatly sketched. Each one has an interesting background and they bring vibrance and color to the movie. Kishore, as the Kabadi coach, sets the pace in the second half of the movie.

Comedy is not a separate track. The kabadi players by themselves are an enthusiastic crowd. Moreover, being villagers, "nakkal and nayyaandi" comes automatically to them, atleast the director has made sure that there is no need for an extra character to bring humor to the screen.

Music is quite a plus to this movie. The songs are simple and melodious. No powerful instruments to make you feel jolted out of the blue.

Overall: MUST SEE