Kattapava Kanom Movie Review

Language: Tamil

Director: Mani Seiyon

Cast: Sibiraj, Aishwarya Rajesh

Everything in this film has to do with fish. The plot. The name of the antagonist: Vanjaram (Tamil for seer fish). Or even the title: Kattappava Kaanom (Kattappa is Missing). The object of everyone's interest is a fish named after the most fascinating character in Baahubali.

Every other thing in this film has to do with breasts. There's this character called Surprise Sheela. She likes to, you know, surprise people. True to her name, she lands up unannounced at the house of Pandi (Sibiraj) and Meena (Aishwarya Rajesh). It's a rather large house for people who keep complaining that they're broke, but that's the least of the problems in Kattappava Kaanom. Surprise Sheela asks the couple to guess what her surprise is, and she offers Pandi this clue: "Whether it's big or small, you'll like it." You don't have to be a cryptographer to crack her code. You just have to have seen a certain kind of Tamil movie.

At first, I thought this film, directed by Mani Seiyon, was going to be a wee bit grown-up about women. After all, Pandi and Meena meet in a bar, and the film does not judge her drinking. But she knocks back one too many, and when she gets up to leave, she trips and falls. Later, as Pandi walks her home, she blames her footwear. He says, "They're really big, your two… heels." Thereon, it's just a hop and a jump to a TV set screening Veera, the scene where Rajinikanth dreams of dropping a goldfish into the blouse of the girl he loves.

There's nothing wrong with sex comedies, but instead of a balls-out attack on good taste – as in the resolutely A-rated Trisha Illana Nayanthara – Kattappava Kaanom goes the sleazy wink-nudge route. It says it wants to be a crime caper. (The plot gets going when, well, Kattappa goes missing.) But the resulting shenanigans are a storm in a D-cup.

Watch the trailer here: