Romantic films are no aliens to Tamil cinema. Our audience is very closely attached to romantic films because this is one genre that is close to reality. But unfortunately, Kollywood has not witnessed a full-fledged decently made romantic film in the recent days.
Kadhal Kan Kattudhe is a rom-com that talks about the ups and downs of a relationship between a couple. As said earlier, we have seen many films on romance, but only very few make us convinced about the couple falling in love. K3 is one such film, as the lead pair, KG and Athulya are good friends at first, (we see montage shots), and only a few minutes before the interval, they fall in love. In this context, the falling in love concept is acceptable, unlike a few films in which the hero and heroine fall in love with each other in a fraction of a second.
The whole film carries on the shoulders of KG and Athulya, as they both travel throughout the movie, and it is their transfer of emotions that makes the film, a feel-good watch. Athulya scores easily as her cute expressions and emotions have fetched her fans already. KG’s two friends are a major boost for the film. Whenever the film loses on its engagement, these both save the film to an extent. One friend scores with the dialogues, while another score just with his body language and mannerisms. Performances of other actors like Athulya’s manager, KG’s boss are very artificial and lacks maturity.
Dialogues are so close-to-reality, and it is one of the most important aspects where the film scores as there are no melodramatic lines. Father - Daughter, mother - son, emotions are also conveyed in a subtle manner in a single scene. The K3 team has not experimented anything new, and they have openly admitted it in the film’s final card, which says “a simple love story.”
On the downside, the scenes do not flow in a pattern, and it looks as if different scenes involving various actors are attached. As we have seen films of this kind already, (though the team has tried their best to keep you engaged), the screenplay is very predictable, and you know what is going to happen next. There is love moments, montage shots of their relationship, fights and arguments, misunderstanding, possessiveness, and every other thing, which you will see in a mainstream romantic entertainer.
Had the film been made on a more bigger scale, the output would have been much better. K3 might not work for people, who expect something new or out of the box, as the film’s core concept is something which we have been witnessing for years. Also, the film’s engagement will be a complaint from entertainment movie lovers.
Apart from writing and directing, Shivaraj has also handled the cinematography for K3, whose visuals show the scenic beauty of Coimbatore city. However, the movement shots are a worry, because there is no smoothness in the camera movement. Shivaraj could have extracted better performances from the actors. Pavan’s songs and background score are decent, to an extent. ‘Kadhale’ song, sung by Karthik, is instantly likable, while other numbers don't make a big impact.
Editing could have been a lot crispier, as you feel like the film is too long, though the run time is just 109 minutes (1 hr 49 mins). The subject(actor) in the frame keeps silent for the first two or three seconds and only after that they speak their dialogues. All these two, three seconds should have been chopped off, which would have helped the film.