Kodambakkam - A Director's life

Cast: Nanda, Diya, Tejasri, Manivannan, Ramesh Kanna
Music: Sirpi
Made by: Jeganji

We watch a film on one fine morning and simply say it is bad. But what goes on all through the process of making a film, how many hardships each and every individual undergo in this process and what a debut director's life is like??? The answer is "Kodambakkam".

May be for intellectual film viewers this is an ordinary film and might even be a crap. But for me, it was a personal diary written on life of people in film industry. It is infact the life story of many movies like "Sethu", where a debut director with an offbeat story struggled for months to release the film and make it a success.

Sugavanan alias Suga(Nanda), an assistant director dreams of making it big in Tamil Cinema. When all producers reject his non-hero oriented, off-beat subject, a village landlord comes forward and produces the film. After too many hardships, disputes and problems, the film gets ready for release but distributers refuse to buy the film. The producer selling all his property releases the film on his own, and unexpectedly, the audience likes the film and it becomes a big hit.

The screenplay takes us through all these events and as a film viewer you get to know how much a debut director suffers in film industry. The major plus is that, nothing has been overmade and everything is believable. Nicely mixed with this main story is Suga's love story and his mother's affection.

Nanda totally brings before you the struggling assistant director of Tamil Cinema. He has done a great job right through the film till the end. Diya as Nanda's love interest Dhanam, Kalairani as his mother and Tejasri as the Mumbai heroine are adequate in their roles. Manivannan as the village producer and Ramesh Kanna as his production manager "Puli Kumar" have done a very good job.

After a long time you get to hear music from Sirpi and it sounds good. "Ragasiyamaanadhu Kaadhal" is a hummable number. There are many stereotypic scenes in the film but still an engaging screenplay makes you forget them.

Jeganji who made his debut with Vijay starrer "Pudhiya Geethai" got rave reviews for that movie. He has again proved himself with "Kodambakkam". Afterall, a debut director only can do justice to this movie. He has indeed made it interesting.

Verdict: A must watch.