‘Kadhalikka Neramillai’ movie review: Nithya Menen and Ravi Mohan are brilliant in a breezy romance that opts for moments over magnificence

A still from ‘Kadhalikka Neramillai’ 
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

‘God works in mysterious ways’ they say, and in a way, love does too. While the romance genre itself is done to death in all art forms, very few Tamil films have captured the intricacies of contemporary relationships and the multiple factors that might have to fall into place for them to work. The latest to join the elusive list is director Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi’s Kadhalikka Neramillai starring the fantastic duo, Nithya Menen and Ravi Mohan.

In Kadhalikka Neramillai, Shreya (Nithya) and Sidharth (Ravi Mohan) are two oddballs with diametrically opposite belief systems, only their recent heartbreaks and profession being the common factor between them. While fate brings them together, the meet-cute leads to a dead end. When their paths cross years later, one is now a single parent while the other gets an unwelcome visitor from their past. Whether they put aside their differences and come together forms the rest of Kadhalikka Neramillai.

Long gone are the times when external factors doubled as conflicts in love stories. In today’s contemporary relationships, the conflicts are internal and Kadhalikka Neramillai captures these inner turmoils and emotional struggles quite deftly. Kiruthiga skims through several topics such as sperm banking, IVF, same-sex parenting, single parenting and voluntary childlessness without getting into their nitty-gritty. In fact, it’s this superficial treatment that prevents the film from being a well-rounded product. But Kiruthiga seems to have intentionally opted for a breezy, light-hearted outing rather than going for the wholesome entertainer tag.

And it works, for the most part, all thanks to the fantastic lead pair and the brilliant minds behind the camera. It’s a Nithya Menen and Ravi Mohan show all the way and the duo deliver some of their best performances in recent times. Nithya, in a role that can probably be called an amalgamation of Tara, her chik and urban character from OK Kanmani — who’s at the cusp of what could be defined as a modern relationship — and Thiruchitrambalam’s chirpy Shobana — who is just too adorable to loathe at even when she goofs up.

Ravi, on the other hand, after a slew of thrillers, feels perfect in a zone that gave him career-defining turns in the early 2000s. It’s these two able performers who elevate even the simplest of scenes — which the film is bounteous with. Despite a lovely supporting cast, it’s the lead couple who steal the show with their endearing charm. They pull it off so well that you ought to not miss the secondary cast who disappear and reappear like clockwork.

Kadhalikka Neramillai is not one of those films that leaves too much for the audience to interpret but drops enough breadcrumbs that get us to read between the lines. In one tricky scenario, Sid, in a bid to cover up his actual identity, jots down his name as P James — the name of Chennai’s famous magician known for his famous guerrilla advertising campaign that was once ubiquitous. Probably that’s to denote how the concept of love itself is ‘magical’.

I also particularly enjoyed how the leads’ profession is an extension of their personality; Shreya is an architect who prefers designing her life rather than taking the road much travelled, while Sid is a structural engineer who emphasises renewable construction and sustainable building (which is the basis of his argument for not bringing a life into this forsaken planet). Unlike CV Sridhar’s 1964 cult classic of the same name that involves couples fooling a rich man, Kadhalikka Neramillai features its lead characters in complex situations where the primary motive seems to be to not fool themselves. The complexity makes way for minor, but momentous stretches… like the scene where a character explains to a child how superheroes are made in test tubes.

Behind the scenes, it’s AR Rahman who happens to be the saviour of the film. His songs — in particular, ‘Yennai Izhukkuthadi’ which is used once as a montage song and again as the end-credit song — and scores, along with Gavemic U. Ary’s aesthetic shots, nail the mood and flavour the film strives to achieve. The biggest takeaway is how, despite introducing a world that only a niche section of the audience might relate to, the film stays away from being preachy; the breeziness with which we experience a love story unfold, translates to how the film itself turns out.

Calling this Kiruthiga’s best work to date is no high praise given she’s only two feature films old. But the obvious jump in finesse in what she wants to convey is apparent in this film.There might be a few predictable sequences, even reminding you of titles like Good Newwz and Miss. Shetty Mr. Polishetty. But Kadhalikka Neramillai goes against the grain on several romance tropes while casually taking jabs at societal norms. Despite its fair share of shortcomings, Kadhalikka Neramillai is a sweet breath of fresh air that plays to its strengths and, in a way, embodies contemporary relationships.