Soodhu Kavvum

Das runs small time kidnappings with a team of four; the rule is simple, nobody gets truly hurt. Business is slow and the money thin. Then an offer comes to kidnap Arumai, a politician's son. The team goes and takes the boy, and learns on the spot that he wanted to be kidnapped himself; he had planned his own abduction to squeeze money out of his father. Both sides want the same money and the boy starts advising the kidnappers. Meanwhile a policeman is after the team for an entirely different reason. Nalan Kumarasamy directs; it is his first film and he co-wrote the story with Shrinivas Kaviinayam. Vijay Sethupathi, Sanchita Shetty, Bobby Simha, Ashok Selvan and Ramesh Thilak are in the cast. It is an Indian production in Tamil. The film opened on 1 May 2013 and took around twelve crore rupees. It screened at the Zurich Film Festival, the only Tamil film shown there that year. The matter it treats is class; the criminals have no money and the politician's son they think of as the victim comes out the real winner. The film uses black humour and keeps its violence exaggeratedly light. Vijay Sethupathi reached a wide audience with this film and it became a turning point in his career. The narrative develops the four kidnappers' personalities in detail and none stays a type. The music and songs carry the tone of the story. The ending leaves nobody entirely ahead. Its limit is local context; some references stay closed to anyone who does not know Tamil politics. Who it is for: viewers who like Tamil black comedy and low budget crime films. Who it is not for: it needs local context, the humour is particular, and the ending unresolved.