Kudumbasthan
Introduction
When you are first introduced to Naveen (Manikandan) in the Tamil film Kudumbasthan, he is about to get married to Vennila (Saanve Meghana) who belongs to Scheduled Tribe community. On visiting a local astrologer, Naveen gets a feedback that his life will be as breezy as spring, even as the camera immediately cuts to the dusty lanes with the entry of the parents who are against this marriage. In many ways, Naveen’s life does follow a similar trajectory too – it is never rosy and ridden by the middle class issues. This is particularly a vital plot-point because it is said to be a crime if you belong to the middle class, simply because the power dynamics never work in your favour. This serious heavy-duty drama is presented as a comedy here, but there the outcome isn’t as smooth as you would expect. The reason being that while the comedy remains a hit and a miss in many ways, the major defaulter remains the emotions, or rather the lack of it that don’t quite reach you at crucial junctures in the screenplay. In fact, the comedy is at times so loud and overwhelming that it literally drowns the satire of unemployment and its impact on the middle class which quite honestly remained the crux of the film. In that regard, the film falls!
Story & Screenplay
At its heart, Kudumbasthan is a grounded story of Naveen who is recently unemployed while promising to take care of the daily needs of his household. This includes promising his father to renovate the house, assuring his mother to fund for her religious trip, and funding his pregnant wife who is preparing for her UPSC examination. In many ways, Naveen represents most of us who only have a speck of importance in our household while we are earning, only to be reduced to junk when we aren’t. And this sentiment allows Naveen to lie about his unemployment, particularly with the fear of being taunted by his brother-in-law Rajendran (Guru Somasundar), who apparently suffers from a superiority complex.
The situational comedy kick-starts right at the beginning when Naveen stands up for his friend while having no qualms in slapping his client who had in turn slapped his friend. The echo of the slaps is nicely cut and intersected in the very next scene when his friend stands up for him by slapping his boss. These scenes are outright hilarious while setting the tone of the drama, and setting up a foundation for the writing to build on. But one little complaint that I had with the execution was that the link between one incident to another did not feel quite organic (like it did in say a film like Dragon (2025)). It felt like a random amalgamation of scenes that partially worked individually, but the coherent aspect of the filmmaking remained compromised. So a subplot involving Naveen’s tryst with a loan agent threatening to inform his family about his failure to repay them, works individually but doesn’t quite add up organically to the main plot. This, while the sequence stretches in unchartered territory while introducing a cock fight out of nowhere.
The writing purely works when it sticks to the basics, but it has a consistent trait of trying to overdo things. In the process, the emotions in the drama remain untapped and you don’t quite feel the pain and angst of the protagonist who is neck-deep in debt. I liked how the heavy-duty issues were presented as a comedy but there needed to be a balance in the writing, to truly elevate the drama. For instance, the entire sequence at the halfway mark involving a major revelation to Naveen’s family about his status was a solid interval block, particularly because the game of one-upmanship between Naveen and Rajendran formed the events leading up to this block. This included Naveen’s friend disguising himself as a boss to strike a deal that accounted for a lot of laughs. But, the same period did not account for the diminishing bank-balance of Naveen that would ideally have a spiralling effect on his psyche. In that sense, the drama remained on the surface.
What spirals downwards in the second hour is the writing that tries to do too many things, all at once. It was almost like the middle class version of Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) with respect to the character of Naveen that tries his hand at anything and everything to survive. This includes his tryst with a bakery shop that is cut down by a local competition next door, or a lands deal that goes awry. Yet, these felt repetitive in nature simply because the concept of unemployment was already established in the first hour. So this plot-point didn’t necessarily elevate the stakes in the drama too while accounting only for a few laughs along the way which wasn’t enough as per me.
The interesting aspect of the drama remained the characterization of Naveen and Rajendran – two seemingly different individuals, one suffering from the inferiority-complex and the other from a superiority-complex. Yet, both these characters were similar from a financial standpoint, something that is revealed when Rajendran being promised an assignment in China hilariously begins to eat and talk Chinese, before being cancelled out for another candidate. And the unemployment issue did extend to him as well, thereby making him similar to Naveen. That said, the mad rush in the drama just overlooks some key plot points – how did Venilla crack the prelims of UPSC while being pregnant, and being reduced to a household that didn’t look at her beyond an SC candidate and a kitchen worker? This was important because her eventually job after passing the exams would be of great help to Naveen too. So while the ego-clash of Naveen is decently well highlighted, the dynamics between Naveen and Vennila are downright flat.
The events leading upto the final act are quite cliched and convenient given how simplistic they turn out to be, while resolving issues in a matter of minutes. But what really underwhelmed me was the lack of emotions in store that never chose to elevate the drama beyond the standard bouts of comedy. The transition just wasn’t smooth or organic, almost accounting for a dodgy resolution that just catered to the feel-good vibes with zero emotions. Overall, the screenplay has its moments but is severely underwhelming!
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues account for a few laughs in patches but what stuck out like a sore thumb was the inconsistent tone with respect to the lines. While the lines were devoid of any emotions, even the comedy felt loud and desperate to gain laughs, that didn’t allow the sentiments to land smoothly. The music and BGM remained average while never accounting for the underlying layer of emotions that were left brimming on the surface. The cinematography remained adequate with frames that try to highlight the ecomomic condition of the protagonist. The editing comprises of fast cuts but almost too fast to the point that it didn’t allow any emotions to reach me at any given point of time. Director Rajeshwar Kalisamy doesn’t nail the execution here. The major issue that I felt in his craft was in the scene transitions that did not account for the tonal consistencies in the drama. Hence, what seemed like a coherent script on paper turned into a reel-induced cinema with individual set-pieces that were a hit and a miss. Even the emotional quotient in the drama just didn’t come through at the end (remember Dragon and that terrific final act?), that made his drama work partly with comedy but also quite forgettable overall.
Performances
The performances are pretty good here by the members of the cast. Balaji Sakthivel as Mohan Ram and Jensan Diwakar as Amir have their moments to shine. Nivedita Rajappan as Anitha is sincere and earnest. Sundarrajan is a mixed bag here, good in parts but loud otherwise. Saanve Meghana as Vennila has a good screen presence and does a fine job. Guru Somasundar as Rajendran is hilarious and quite easily the pick of the actors for me. His body language and demeanor had me cracking up at unexpected junctures, even while Guru did not go overboard with his antics that required him to be consistently nagging. Manikandan as Naveen does a good job too although this remains a lesser performance as compared to the previous two ventures in the form of Lover (2024) and Good Night (2023). The reason had more to do with the writing and execution that didn’t allow him room to showcase his pain, while only focusing on the comedy aspect of his character (and I am aware of how most middle class men hide their pain in the midst of humour, but the viewers still need to feel that pain).
Conclusion
Kudumbasthan is a middling heavy-duty drama packaged as a hit and a miss comedy that tickles in parts but is devoid of emotions thereby making it largely underwhelming. Available on Zee5.
