'Kunguma Poovum...' a damp squib (Tamil film review)

Film: 'Kunguma Poovum Konchum Puravum'; Director: Rajmohan; Cast: Ramakrishna, Thananya, Tarun, Kshatriya; Music Director: Yuvan Shankar Raja; Cinematographer: Siddharth; Rating: *

After its earlier hit 'Chennai 600028', Capital Film Works' new offering 'Kunguma Poovum Konchum Puravum' was hyped as the next blockbuster set to turn the turnstiles with a vengeance.

Instead, it has turned out into a damp squib that looks like a cinematic presentation of Rip Van Winkle arriving a further decade too late.

A village boy Kuchcha (Ramakrishna) falls like a ton of bricks for a poor rustic damsel Thulasi (Thananya).

Circumstances and a crippling accident suffered by Kuchcha force Thulasi to wed a layabout Dharman (Tarun) in the port city of Tuticorin to set the stage for a violent climax by her avenging lover.

To compare this one to Bharti Raja's seventies' hit romances would be insulting the picture-postcard-style filmmaker despite the film being set in Muttom, a scenic locale in Kanyakumari district (a Raja favourite).

All the actors with the sole exception of Thananya are loud hams.

Yuvan Shankar Raja's music and Siddharth's camera work, despite being good, are too little to resurrect the silly movie.