A Millennial Love Story served without any Artificial Seasoning | Kaathalika Neramillai | Tamil Movie Review

Kiruthiga Udhayinidhi's recent release Kadhalika Neramillai starring Ravi Mohan and Nithya Menen was a refreshing fusion of Slice of Life X Rom-Com genre. The movie screamed aloud the life of millennials starting from a friends group of 3 - one friend with a different sexual orientation, one who is a boy next door and and there is always a funny one.

Sid, played by Jeyam Ravi and Nithya Menen as Shriya represented the community of Slow Hustlers who believe in taking their time to achieve their goals without compromising on their inner peace. The movie starts with Shriya, recently engaged and throbbing to bring a child into this world and Jeyam Ravi in his cocoon thinking the the exact opposite.

Shriya's coping mechanism to get over her cheating fiance and an impulse decision to get impregnated with a sperm donor was a smooth transition.

It was refreshing to watch her aunt, played by Vinodhini Vaidynathan, adopting the role of a best friend as it is always an understated bond in every household. She was an adorable neutral character in the story that kept the family together against all odds. The scene where she wears a cape in a birthday party, suited her the best as she nailed the role of a "Cool Aunt"

We are used to film treatments where lengthy monologues always precede thought-provoking statements around Feminism, Gender Orientation, Women's rights. In this film, Nithya Menen smokes, drinks, breaks her wedding and chooses a sperm donor over a husband. All of it, without any hue and cry. It is a testament of Kiruthiga Udhayinidhi's faith in her story that made her write the screeplay without any "theatrics".

Though the movie touches so many sensitive subjects like sexual orientation, commitment phobia, pre-marital pregnancy in a casual way, the movie flows on a light vein from the start to finish where no characters are unduly vilified including the cheating fiance and the girlfriend who stood up, played by John Kokken and TJ Bhanu. Both the characters move on from their past as a matter of fact, which is how humans are built.

The movie sticks to its "No Drama Zone" till the end as we watch Shriya's child building a bond with Sid with no dramatic displays of love but with an organic hate that grows to fondness with only a show of comfort in tiny little gestures.

Kiruthika Udhayanidhi is a bold filmmaker as her nonchalance is seen in the words she writes. She has brought to life all those little things that get lost in the spectrums of a human bond and seeing them on big screen was unadulterated magic. She also takes a bold step of starving the audience of a single moment they were awaiting since the very beginning.

And, it worked.