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Kudumbasthan Movie Review: The film fails to deliver the laugh riot it aspires to be, often resembling a series of YouTube sketches stitched together.
Kudumbasthan is a Tamil-language comedy drama film directed by Rajeshwar Kalisamy.
KudumbasthanU
2.5/5
Starring: Manikandan, Saanve Megghana, Guru SomasundaramDirector: Rajeshwar Kalisamy
Kudumbasthan Movie Review: Kudumbasthan’s premise taps into an evergreen theme in Tamil cinema, which is the struggles of a middle-class protagonist trying to make ends meet. The film’s title itself evokes memories of classics from filmmakers like Bhagyaraj, Visu, and actor Saravanan, who have explored similar themes in their comedy dramas across generations.
The story revolves around Naveen (Manikandan), a typical middle-class youngster from a small town in Coimbatore, who is newly married to Vennila (Saanve Megghana). Naveen works as a designer at a local marketing company, earning just enough to sustain their modest life. Meanwhile, Vennila prepares for the UPSC exams while managing household responsibilities and battling caste-based discrimination from her mother-in-law. Their lives take a turn when Naveen, in a moment of self-respect, slaps a client and loses his job. What follows is a downward spiral of financial struggles, debt, and deception, with no apparent way out.
Debutant director Rajeshwar Kalisamy, known for his work with the popular YouTube channel Nakkalites, brings his signature comedic style and familiar faces from the channel to the big screen. However, the transition yields mixed results. While the comedy segments occasionally land well, Kudumbasthan fails to deliver the laugh riot it aspires to be, often resembling a series of YouTube sketches stitched together rather than a cohesive narrative.
The film unfolds in disconnected segments—starting with Naveen and Vennila’s marriage against their families’ wishes, moving on to Naveen’s conflicts with his brother-in-law Rajendran (Guru Somasundaram), a chaotic wedding anniversary celebration for Naveen’s parents and his misadventures in real estate. Each segment feels like a standalone skit, lacking seamless flow and emotional depth.
When the humour works, it does so effectively, but the success rate is inconsistent. The film constantly strives for laughs in every scene, often at the expense of emotional beats that needed space to resonate. Even during the climax, the makers introduce parallel comedic tracks that undercut the film’s emotional weight. Additionally, Kudumbasthan struggles with tonal consistency – one moment portraying moneylenders as menacing villains, and the next reducing them to caricatures. A fatherly boss is turned into a clown with a slap, only to be redeemed via a phone call.
Ultimately, Kudumbasthan sacrifices narrative coherence for humour at every opportunity. The film attempts to balance comedy with serious themes like caste discrimination but handles them with an uneven, lighthearted approach. It wants viewers to empathise with Naveen’s plight while simultaneously mocking him, making it difficult to stay emotionally invested. While such an approach might work for short online sketches, as a full-length feature, Kudumbasthan needed to take itself more seriously because comedy, after all, is serious business.
