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‘Bottle Radha’ movie review: Guru Somasundaram delivers a sharp drama that’s based on heart rather than intellect

inauguration of bottle radha This is an overhead shot of Chennai, with a speaker playing ‘Thanni Thotti’ from somewhere Sindhubhairavi (This is a major wine song in Tamil). The film has over a dozen scenes of liquor being poured into glasses, and men drinking bottles one after another to such an extent that you wonder how they are even alive. At the end, there is a bar song in which the men are dancing happily. But before you jump to conclusions, this is not a film that celebrates prohibition.

Debutant director Dhinakaran Sivalingam’s film is a two-hour drama that focuses on the prevalent issue of alcohol addiction. That bar song I mentioned? It’s an interesting strategy to send a deeper message in a medium that often uses such songs to celebrate alcohol.

Radhamani alias Soorakkapalayam Radha (Guru Somasundaram) is a middle-aged man who spends most of his time and money in a liquor shop, chugging bottles and getting into petty fights. He is a man with no redeeming qualities, and Sivalingam makes no bones about portraying his hero’s flaws. Radha is also seen drunk at his work place, and his work as a construction worker is an irony in itself. He knows nothing about building a house – which you build with affection, responsibility, longing for peace and comfort and a million other little things – but claims to be an expert in building houses – blanks made of bricks, cement and sand. Structures that are brought to life by families. As he makes a home for other families while ruining the future of his wife Anjalam (a brilliant Sanchana Natarajan) and their two children, it makes a subtle point about who alcohol addiction often affects, and how hard-working people are. Why and how does its prevalence occur among the upper-class (in several instances, the film humorously points out how many addicts refuse to take responsibility because “it’s the government that has a liquor store on every corner,” but it also shows That’s what easy access can do for addicts in recovery).

In an unexpected twist for Radha, his wife, tired of trying to talk some sense into this ill-mannered man, forcibly gets him admitted to a unique de-addiction centre. Dozens of drug addicts live in a dilapidated room. Most of these early parts are presented with humor, and many scenes featuring Lollu Sabha Maran make you laugh. However, this drug rehab center is where the problems lie bottle radha Also start. At first, many of the characters we see in this drug rehab center add nothing to our understanding of how these places work, or what’s going on in the mind of an addict.

Bottle Radha (Tamil)

director: Dinakaran Shivalingam

mold: Guru Somasundaram, Sanchana Natarajan, John Vijay, Lollu Sabha Maran

Order: 146 minutes

Story: An alcoholic gets caught in a whirlpool that takes away all the happiness from his life, and ends up having to seek help at a de-addiction center.

Ashokan (John Vijay) runs the place with a firm, fair hand – he minces no words when patients justify his actions and reprimands his subordinate Elango, a strange man with a compulsion for cruelty. But apart from one patient’s sharp comment on the Centre’s budget, we are never told how Ashokan feels about the worrying state of this strange place. As much as they help the film’s humor, the patients add little value to Radha’s story. Also, what was the point of that romance between two bosses that goes nowhere? Certainly, Elango’s case and the plight of his victims paint a clear picture of how these centers work, but what good does it do if we don’t understand what lies behind Elango’s hunger for power. is the reason? You also have to wonder whether Elango’s violence towards a patient should have been so extreme. Something similar happens in a scene too The Shawshank Redemption Played at centre; Although you’re impressed by this fresh take on a timeless classic, you may be left uneasy about how the sequence ends.

bottle radha Chooses the heart over the intellect, relies solely on drama to do all the heavy lifting, and offers scattered returns. In a difficult part, Radha has been consumed by darkness, anything resembling light has been consumed by her almost life-threatening addiction. Her bloodshot eyes turn all that self-loathing into contempt for the world, and you almost forget it’s an act. There is no emotion left on Guru Somasundaram’s face, and in many scenes the artist reveals his heart. Yet, in another scene, when he overhears a man talking about how alcohol destroyed his family, Somasundaran appears… only as Somasundaram. Make no mistake, it’s not about the actor; In fact, he is what gives the film the power to become so much more than what it sets out to be.

The performance appears to be so because the didactic exploration of the story gives rise to many imaginary situations and scenes. The film is so focused on taking us through the ups and downs of Radha’s alcohol addiction that it forgets to make her whole. This is disappointing because in one scene he tells Anjalam how despite starting his day determined not to drink, ‘something’ pulls him back to the bottle. This is sometimes external – such as her friend Shake (Pari Ilvazhgan) whose idea of ​​a grand death is to drink herself to death – but except for details about her childhood, we don’t get much to understand Radha’s internal conflict. Get it. The film tells us again and again that every time he feels sad, he hunches over and has not seen what lies beyond the bottle. But why does he pursue alcohol addiction in the first place? Is it after a sense of security? Or, does it come from growing up without a proper support system? Or maybe a disease is just a disease and can never be understood; Maybe it’s a whirlwind of amnesia, but if so, why can’t we see Ashokan speaking about all that?

A scene from 'Bottle Radha'

A scene from ‘Bottle Radha’ Photo Courtesy: Think Music India/Youtube

Also read:‘Kudumbasthan’ movie review: Manikandan continues his winning streak with this entertaining comedy

Instead, all we get is a rehash of Radha drinking, regurgitating and other things, and after a point, you hardly care about what happens next. Interestingly, you are more drawn towards Anjalam’s story and how she deals with this uncertain marriage. Her article surprisingly highlights how prohibition, like most other social crises, affects women from poorer sections of society. In one of the early scenes, a police officer warns Anjalam of punishment, and puts the responsibility for her husband’s behavior on her; In another heart-wrenching scene with superb acting, she heartbrokenly confesses all that she had gone through in the absence of her dead husband. How her arc takes shape may be a little predictable, but what she says forces you to look beyond the film’s flaws.

However, the flaws do not diminish the importance of a film like this bottle radhaAnd for a feature debutant, this is a commendable debut by Sivalingam. Like a beautiful scene between Anjalam and Radha in the rain, several moments point to a filmmaker with a big heart and ambition.

Bottle Radha is currently running in theaters

(TagstoTranslate)Bottle Radha Movie Review(T)Guru Somasundaram(T)Dinakaran Sivalingam(T)Bottle Radha(T)John Vijay
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