Review: Kumki

 Movie- Kumki

Language- Tamil

Genre- Love story

Director- Prabhu Solomon

Cast- Vikram Prabhu, Lakshmi Menon, Thambi Ramaiah... and others.

My first Tamil movie review… excited as the director whose first movie is going to be released (Seriously!).

So straight away moving on to… Kumki.

We do have heard about the name Kumki, else you would have caught the name during its promos done back in Diwali itself, Kumki is a Male tusker which is used to frighten away the unruly wild elephants which stray into the villages and damage the crops.

So basic plot of the movie is simple, it is a love story between a mahout and a tribal girl, it also showcases the relationship the mahout shares with his elephant. So there is nothing much for us in store plot wise. It is simple and straightforward and there are no unexpected twists.

 Story revolves around Bomman (Vikram Prabhu… will talk about the performances later), his Uncle (Mama… Thambi Ramaiah), one assistant boy (the boy who eats everything in Boss Engira Baskaran) and Of course our Manikam (The Elephant). We are showcased the relationship Bomman has with his elephant in the initial scenes.  They do odd jobs with the elephant, attending functions, temple festivals etc. As twist of fate Bomman offers help to Mani (who coordinates Manikam’s work) and is sent to a hill village (Adhi Kaadu) as a Kumki elephant to drive out a dreaded monstrous elephant called as Komban. And here in the hill village our hero falls head over heels in love with the daughter of the village headman called Alli, and decides to prolong his stay in the village which regards him as god, and what happens next, was he able to marry Alli, what happens to Komban, did Manikam drive him out, forms rest of the story and a riveting climax.

Brilliant debut performance by both Vikram Prabhu and Lakshmi Menon (Though Sundarapandian released before, Kumki is the one she acted first). Vikram looks good, well toned body and with beard and a rugged look is apt for the role. He also emotes well, only in the crying sequences I found him at loss, but he nailed it in climax sequence. Vikram with such a debut performace will go places, acts like a veteran. Like Karthi’s first movie- Paruthiveeran, Kumki works the same for Vikram. And all credit goes for Prabhu Solomon, could see his hard work in making the actors do their part well, if not for him, Vikram could not have done this much in his debut movie. A good launch pad for Vikram, and hopefully he uses this and tries to act in some offbeat movies which come across his way proving his mettle as an actor.

Also Lakshmi Menon is superb, we have already seen her acting in a previous movie, but even in her first movie she has done an awesome job. She looks pretty and cute. With natural looks and in village attire she steals our heart and it is good to see her on the big screen. This lass is definitely going to go places.

The most important and the backbone of this movie is the character played by Thambi Ramaiyah. We have already seen him win a National award. He is a natural actor, who has a flare for comedy and in hands of good directors we can even see him do wonderful character roles. And Prabu Solomon being one, we can see his potential being exploited to the fullest. His scenes are hilarious and added with some witty dialogue made the theatre go up in laughter. Thambi Ramaiyah has nailed it once again. He Carry forwards most part of the movie on his shoulders with ease. Kudos to Solomon for choosing such an artist, and hats off to Ramaiyah for such a memorable performance once again.

Other cast too passes muster, like the Undiyal (the Guy from Boss) does credible job. Also the entire hill village too performs well (most of them look like body builders, I don’t know why though). The problem is that only few of them can be called as tribal living in hills, because most of them look like our Royapuram rowdies with a tribal ear wear. And also each of them have their own accent and it is difficult to believe they are tribal. Only the village headman talks in a (most likely) tribal slang. Others just carry on with some sort of in between accent of Madurai Tamil. Our heroine too talks more like a normal girl than the one who grew up in the hills, this stood out like a sore thumb. Otherwise their performances were good.

Manikam the beloved elephant too has many a role to play. As I am not well versed in animal acting and their expressions, I have nothing much to say other than that the elephant looked really big with large tusks. It acted well I guess (nothing much except to carry our hero around!) and Oh! I forgot, at one point I really thought when the elephant saved the heroine and after that when our heroine starts going around with the elephant rather than our hero that this was some kind of King Kong remake! (For the first time in Tamil movie history! (No of course TR is/was not King Kong) But sadly it was not to be). My apprehensions were uncalled for as our hero directly proposes to our heroine, leaving me (and of course the elephant) rather surprised and sad I guess.

Coming to the most important part of the movie- the songs. Imman has done an awesome job. Already the songs are a super hit and personally I loved the album and almost every song in it. Was waiting how it got transformed on screen. I was not disappointed. All the songs looked amazing. Wonderful cinematography captures beautiful locales with all the lush green forest and misty hills, serving a perfect backdrop for all the songs. Watching it in big screen is all together another experience. Super songs and wonderful picturisation makes us want more of it. Only the dancing part in the Soi Soi song could have been avoided, it could have been left as such in the background. Otherwise, there are no other complaints. Back ground score is also good and in most part the songs instrumental is played. 

Strength of the movie is its cinematography. Superb locale shown brilliantly, transports us to those forest itself. The waterfalls looked awesome, and seeing it in the large screen was being taken to the falls itself. There are many panning shots, slow motion effects which add to the strength of the movie. The editing is also good, no lag and movie proceeds in quick pace.

The graphics could have been even better. The climax fight between the elephants was ok. We are not able to identify which is Manikam and which is Komban. It was dark and we lose it in all the hullaboo and the confusion. These could have been very well avoided. Technology has improved and employing in the movies is still lagging especially in our Tamil movies. People are seeing some world class stuff from Hollywood (Avatar, Life of Pi etc.), hence our Tamil industry too needs to wake up and employ latest technologies in movie making which will make the movie going experience of the viewer much better. 

Prabhu Solomon’s work can be seen, from choosing an effective cast, awesome locales, coupled with soothing music, and brilliant cinematography, Captain of the ship has guided this team towards the path of victory. Congratulations to Prabhu Solomon for taking such an effort to make this movie.

Cons: After so much work something was still missing from the movie. It cannot be totally called a love story or even as the relationship shared between the man and the animal. Showing the forest officers in poor light could have been avoided. Also Elephant corridor issue is a serious one; even it was not dealt effectively and mentioned as passing dialogue. The romance is slow in picking up; we get to see the hero and heroine together only in the second half, and it gets over quickly too. Also falling in love with the girl and immediate transformation of Bomman looks artificial and forced. As said earlier the accent of so called hill tribe is not effective. People may also find the movie slow at times, since nothing much happens in the first half and the so dreaded Komban is seen only in the climax. Also the graphic scenes could have been much better. No fight sequence, no punch dialogues, no swaggering, no eloping, no proper romance, no man woman dancing in skimpy cloths you may doubt whether this is a Tamil movie at all.

Pros: Some brilliant performances especially from Thambi Ramaiyah, we do not get bored with him. Vikram and Lakshmi Menon both look cute. The Songs are out of the world and their picturisation is like a moving painting. Wonderful locale captured with beautiful cinematography. Good concept. Novel attempt by the director and team without the usual masala of our Tamil movie. A riveting climax (heard that they will be changing it, not confirmed though) but the climax I saw was good and was a perfect ending; anything other than this would have made the movie cinematic. 

Overall: Quite watchable. Not at all a bad movie, a few hiccups can be overlooked. And this is not the best one of the year and don’t expect this to be like mynaa, you might get disappointed. Go without any expectations, you will not complain while coming out.

P.S- Heard that NEP(Nee thanae en Ponvasantham) is not up to the Hype- hence this could be your movie of the weekend. And enjoy it in the big screen. 

P.P.S- Nee thanae en Ponvasantham review will be posted later...