The Kayal duo – Chandran and Anandhi, reunite for Rubaai. The film’s romantic scenes and familiar music from D Imman do little to dispel the feeling that, perhaps, we’re watching a Kayal reboot.
Saattai fame Anbazhagan is the director, and like his debut, this film does have a moral lesson for its audience as well. Money, the director feels, has come to rule our lives.
Money, he says, is not enough.
This thought is reinforced by the three story-lines in this film. Harish Uthaman is a gangster out to get his loot; Chandran needs some money to pay off his debts, while Anandhi and Chinni Jayanth spend their life running away from creditors.
Anbazhagan writes the film like the racy thriller it is. But, he has a popular musician on-board, and so, there are unnecessary songs. Songs that sound nice, really, but are an intrusion.
Meanwhile, Bharani (Chandran) and Ponni (Anandhi) continue to keep reminding us of Kayal. That is, until Harish Uthaman directs one of his fierce glares towards the camera.
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The best thing about Rubaai though is Chinni Jayanth. Shorn of his ‘image’, Jayanth plays the town’s bad luck charm. As Kungumaraja, he is feared by the residents for the bad luck that follows him like a lover. An unusual character, he is the sort of dad who chides his daughter for trying to pay off their debts. “Loans should remain loans,” he tells Ponni in one scene.
It’s unique, this sentiment. But, the film cannot ride along on such quirks alone. Chandran and Anandhi are not experienced enough to carry this movie on their shoulders. Their performance is stilted… gauche even.
***
Recommended
Anbazhagan’s narrative wants to reinforce the fact that money is the source of all evil in the world. And yet, Bharani, Ponni, and Kungumarajan’s troubles come from their own lack of common sense and inability to deal with situations than anything else. The people, themselves, are to blame. Money just speeds things up a little. This conflict in the film’s conceit means that Anbazhagan’s message is lost in translation.
Rubaai, while not quite as in-your-face as Saattai, nonetheless manages to be a nice little thriller, and the better D Imman film this week. This month, even.
*****
The Rubaai review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.