KASADA TABARA MOVIE REVIEW CLICK TO RATE THE MOVIE

Kasada Tabara is a hyperlink drama written and directed by Chimbu Deven, and produced jointly by Venkat Prabhu and R Ravindran under the banners Black Ticket Company and Trident Arts Productions respectively. The film has 6 editors, 6 cinematographers and 6 music composers. It is streaming on Sony Liv OTT platform.

Kasada Tabara is a set of short films - Kavasam, Sadhiyaadal, Thappattam, Pandhayam, Arammpattra, and Akkarai, each one having a separate music composer, director of photography, and editor. Director Chimbu Deven is known for experimenting a lot and surprising the audience. This is one such good attempt.

Kavasam is the first story that has Premgi and Regina Cassandra in the lead roles. With music by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography by MS Prabhu and editing by Vivek Harshan, the film starts on a very interesting note. Whether you are able to believe the logic or not, the film pulls you in right from the first frame. The plot progresses organically, and the mood of the film will make you feel pleasant. But as the short film comes to an end, it leaves you with unanswered questions.

Sadhiyaadal is the next short film with Sampath, Shanthanu Bhagyaraj and Sendrayaan playing crucial roles. The music is by Sean Roldan, cinematography is by SR Kathir and editing is handled by Raja Mohammed. What makes this entire film more engaging is the fact that the questions left answered in the previous short film appear as a twist in the next one. In this case, Kavasam leaves you with a big 'WHY' as it ends, and you get your answer in Sadhiyaadal. And once you know the answer, once the twist is revealed, instead of shock, you start empathizing with the characters involved. 

And Chimbu Deven smartly explains all this information at the start with illustrative examples. He spells out to the audience what the vantage point theory, and the butterfly effect are. Therefore the subtext that runs under all the stories doesn't overwhelm us. The third story, Thappattam has Sundeep Kishen donning the cop uniform while Priya Bhavani Shankar plays his wife. By this time, with the odd twist being the exception, the writing starts becoming slightly predictable. Sam CS's terrific score is one of the highlights during this stage of the film. It keeps you invested in the proceedings more than the plot. RD Rajasekhar's use of a desaturated colour palette deserves praise, as it properly complements the short film.

The next short is titled Pandhayam which translates to betting. This story has Harish Kalyan in the lead role, and the film's weaker moments start here. This is because the story is quite far-fetched and lacks conviction. It's hard to believe whatever is happening on screen. But this serves as a nice segue to the 5th story, which has Vijayalakshmi in the lead. The film's highest point comes in a chase sequence in this short where Vijayalakshmi gets an action hero moment.

It's moments like these that make sure that the film doesn't fall flat and there is some substance still left and it's too early to give up on the film. The final story having Venkat Prabhu in the lead role suffers from screenplay issues and the premise could have been explored better. Despite Venkat Prabhu's solid acting, the melodrama is a bit high, and this affects the engagement.

Among other performances, Vijayalakshmi, and Sundeep Kishen stand out and sell their roles well. The former looks natural while Sundeep's effort is visible and has translated well on screen. The film is technically strong generally, but in the music department, Santhosh Narayanan's score and voice drowns you in pathos. The cinematography of Rajasekhar, Vijay Milton and SR Kathir impresses the most. Overall, the film engages you well and tries to entertain you as much as possible even though it's not a 100 percent strike rate.