‘Kadamkatha’ has little to proffer apart from a few faux insights that make an appearance towards the very end. And it’s a very long wait indeed for that final statement, with a screenplay that runs along a done-to-death trail for almost all of its running time.
There is one face, and one charmer of a smile that Senthil Rajan’s ‘Kadamkatha’ leaves behind. Young actor Roshan Mathew, in a role that is no great shakes, puts up a sparkling performance in a film that otherwise takes to a prosaic and passable path, neither holding any surprises nor shocks in store.
‘Kadamkatha’ has two men – Cleatus (Joju George) and Giri (Vinay Fort) – who have had it up to their neck with debts and liabilities, and who strike up a deal with mysterious man Sreekumar (Renji Panicker), to bump off a popular RJ (Roshan Mathew), for a reason that sounds a bit odd. The duo agree to get the job done when Sreekumar offers to clear off their financial millstones.
The title card sequences of ‘Kadamkatha’ have been imaginatively shot, and so has the opening credit sequence that lasts for about a minute. Without doubt they send your anticipations regarding the film shooting up, which however is hardly ever met by the story and the sequences that follow suit.
It’s a very middling tale that ‘Kadamkatha’ narrates, and the script takes an insanely long time to get the two chief characters settled on the plot plane. It takes about an hour and up till the halfway mark when Cleatus and Giri finally meet, and all the while the spotlight remains fixed on the hefty load that the two carry on their backs.
There is Giri who has to deal with a pestering house owner (Prashanth Alexander) who insists that he pays up his dues or the money lender Sreekanth (Saiju Kurup) who is after him to make him pay up the interest that has accumulated over the months. Cleatus on the other hand, faces the threat of having to abandon his workplace, where he has been living for a while with his buddies Thampy (Manikandan) and Josemon (Sinoj).
There is hardly anything unforeseen or inventive about the first hour of the film that appears rather like a missed opportunity all around. The mystery element is brought in, albeit a bit late, and yet the chief revelation that one comes by round the corner is not one that would have you gasping in excitement, but one which dampens your intrigue.
‘Kadamkatha’ could perhaps have been an altogether different film, with a script that made an effort to live up to its name. The riddle element, or perhaps the lack of it, is where it fails to deliver its promise, and one is left with those occasional flashes of radiance from a debutante director who could have worked wonders with a different material.
While Roshan is the clear winner when it comes to the actors, Joju George follows up his exceptional performance in ‘Ramante Eden Thottam’ with another bravura feat. Vinay Fort, as self-assured the actor he is, has maintained a monotonous dubbing profile throughout which make all his characters sound alike. The either muffled or pitched out dialogues resonate just the same, and its time he paid a bit more attention to how he sounds on screen.
‘Kadamkatha’ has little to proffer apart from a few faux insights that make an appearance towards the very end. And it’s a very long wait indeed for that final statement, with a screenplay that runs along a done-to-death trail for almost all of its running time.
Verdict: Disappointing