Baana Kaathadi
Cast Atharva, Samantha, Prasanna, Karunas
Director Badri Venkatesh
Rating U
Director Badri Venkatesh's Baana Kaathadi, much like its meaning (Kites) tries to fly high but crashes instead. Using kite flying as a background (though it often seems like an excuse to get some colour into the frames), the film interweaves a romance between a rich girl and a poor boy from the slums of Chennai. The story lacks creativity considering we've seen this plot many times before. The only new angle in this movie appears to be the kite that plays cupid. Chasing a ‘kati patang' (or a kite whose string has snapped) on the maddeningly crowded streets of the metropolis, debutant Atharva, playing senior school student Ramesh, bumps into Priya (Samantha). During this collision, she loses her flash drive which contains a six-month project for her final examination in fashion technology. Her search for the kite chaser, as you would have guessed, leads to the start of a beautiful relationship.
Though one must give fairly high scores for performances, with both Ramesh and Samantha in their element, the story and the script falter beyond redemption.
In this day and age, why would any girl fall in love with a boy who believes that his slow and steady saunter through school (read: failing several times in a class) is the best thing? And who between his bad-mouthing friends and kite-stealing adventures is so clumsy and unkempt that any girl in her right mind would think a million times before taking the plunge. Come on, no girl would want to walk into such a mess.
What I find even more objectionable is the message of the movie: crime can go unpunished! The climax is terribly contrived, and appears like an easy way out of a convoluted confusion.
