Kurangu Bommai

Kandan is an honest driver in the provinces. One day he finds a bag on a bus and tries to return it, thinking it holds money a man had saved for his daughter's wedding. But it is not that bag. Kandan's father is a former thief who used it to move a stolen temple idol. Others are looking for the bag and all of them are after Kandan. Nithilan Saminathan directs. Vidharth and the director Bharathiraja are in the cast. It is the director's first film, made on a small budget, and the narrative rests entirely on an object changing hands. The structure is a chain: no character knows what is in the bag and everyone's intention is different. The narrative uses that ignorance as its source of tension. The trafficking of temple idols is a real matter in Tamil Nadu; the theft of historic sculptures and their sale abroad has been an issue for years, and the film sits on that ground. The strand between father and son is its emotional side; the man wants his son not to become what he is, and precisely for that reason puts him in danger. Its limits are length and budget; some passages are technically weak and the coincidences increase in the second half. Who it is for: viewers who like Tamil thrillers and small scale crime narratives. Who it is not for: the means are limited, the pacing is irregular, and the ending is rushed.