Kadal

Kadal is a story about sin and redemption, about faith and humanity and revolves around the life of Christian Fishermen, set against the backdrop of a sea side town near Tuticorin. Though the basic plot is about good and evil, Mani Ratnam clearly is not interested in narrating this in a simple manner. He is completely let down by the screenplay in the second half and the one dimensional characters. Sam (Arvind Swamy) and Bergmans (Arjun) are part of a Christian Seminary. An incident that occurs in the early part of the film makes Sam and Bergmans to choose different paths of life. Meanwhile, in a sea side town, a young boy Thomas (Gautham Karthik) loses his mother and grows up as an orphan in a harsh, uncaring and violent environment. Thomas and Bergmans daughter Bea (Beatrice played by Thulasi Nair) meet and destiny entangles all the four that changes their lives forever. In the first half, all these work together beautifully. Scene where Sam asks Thomas to record his voice and Thomas records the choice of swear words eventually breaking down asking for his mother, or the scene when Thomas after meeting Bea for the first time requests Sam to have him baptized.And then the slide begins. In the climax fight that takes place in a boat in the middle of a storm, I felt it would be better if the boat capsizes and all of them drown. I think Mani Wrong this time.