Kalloori

Director Balaji Sakthivel's Kadhal was an emotional roller- coaster ride. And Kalloori is no different from it.  As the title suggests, it is about a group of school friends in a village in Madurai. They join the same college and the emotion shared by them forms the crux of the story.

Though the movie revolves around the college campus, it doesn't have side-splitting comedy or no love triangle or spoof on professors either. It is a portrayal of life of students in colleges in rural Tamilnadu.

Expectations and hype were high on Balaji Sakthivel after Kadhal, which was acclaimed as one of the best in contemporary cinema. The pressure factor has brought the best out of the director. He seems to have worked well even on the minute details in the movie.

Even small characters like the hero's sister sticks to our heart. Working with a bunch of newcomers, he has managed to extract the right emotions from them.

Joshua Sridhar's background score and cinematography are the backbone of the movie. Chezhiyan's lens captured the barren and dry lands of the village in Madurai beautifully.

Newcomers Akhil, Hemalatha, Balamurugan and Tamanna had essayed their roles with credibility. Being newcomers, the lead characters do not carry an image tag with them. They simply live the characters. Hemalatha as Kayal stands out.

Muthu (Akhil), an aspiring athlete, along with his school friends Kayal (Hemalatha), Ramesh (Balamurugan) and few others join Government Arts College. The new entrant to their gang is Shobana (Tamanna), who hails from a rich family. The friends help each other during times of  crisis and live a happy life until Shobana develops a soft corner towards Muthu. Caught between friendship and love, both Muthu and Shobana find it difficult to express their love to each other.

When the students set out for a education tour, an unexpected event happens. A gruesome end leaves the audience shocked and surprised.

The climax is riveting bearing resemblance to an incident that is in the news now.

Though Kalloori is no match to Kadhal, the fact that Balaji Sakthivel has approached the movie sincerely deserves special mention.

Director Shankar deserves compliments for producing movies that defy the rules of commercial cinema. Kalloori is a brave attempt by Shankar to take Tamil cinema to great heights