Karuppu

Scattered thoughts on the new “kadavul” padam.

• With how the world is seemingly going on a perpetual clearance sale for the elite, I feel I’m gaining more capacity and sympathy to digest such utopian escapism without cribbing too much about the mindlessness. Some form of irrational “hopium” as twitter would call it.
• I do believe there’s a better film in this concept, and I got into thinking about all that I perceived as flab. I’m imagining a film without the force-fitted references to other films of the hero, or any other pop reference. I’m imagining what if they’d retained the innocence of the concept and trusted their own conceit to expand their story. I’m imagining doubling down on the central conceit of God walking our world - more anger, more divinity, more emotions of a superhuman among mere mortals.
• Why don’t big-ticket filmmakers trust the veracity of their own ideas? Why do they have to depend on low-hanging fruits of references and pop-culture memes to fill in for entertainment quotient? It’s either that they’re underestimating the intelligence of the audience or they’re simply not trusting themselves enough.
• GK Vishnu’s sensibilities help in propping up moments, but for the unfortunate nature of being a reels-era film, so many of those frames cut away without a respectable, awe-worthy hold. The trio of action blocks - interval, kovil-break, climax - were pretty memorable for me, all married to each of Sai Abhyankar’s rousing tracks that do the job, even if the arrangements seem a tad too busy.
• Suriya has good presence, no doubt, but the film isn’t interested in giving Karuppanasaamy a distinct or unique personality with the actor’s range. It asks him to simply nod and wink at a fanbase, and barely does much with the character designed for this story. What we now have are mere wardrobe changes with rotating hair & makeup. It’s also hard not to look at the climax showdown as an echo of/nod to Kantara (2002), for the amount that this film has borrowed from popular films until the very end.
• There’s more shading done to RJ Balaji’s Baby Kannan than to Karuppanasaamy. I get it, a villain has the potential to be shaded in all sorts of grey, and a god has to be built on simplistic, accessible morals - but what is stopping the mortals around him to pose seemingly complex questions, and at the very least, put him on a train of thought? The film stops trying to be interesting with its concept after resolving the god-but-won’t-use-powers thread. Whatever follows are just simplistic superhuman resolutions that don’t try anything beyond established Tamil cinema syntax.
• The only reference the film does earn is Durai Singam, which also is hampered by bad CG. Because that character symbolically feels more connected to the world-building of this film.