Seethakaathi Movie Review – Vijay Sethupathi – Balaji Tharaneetharan

After 40 minutes, Seethakaathi takes a different turn, and you are introduced to another genre altogether. It takes immense guts for Vijay Sethupathi to pick this one as his 25th film — given that he is not ‘seen’ throughout. But hey, you ‘feel’ his presence definitely. As a septuagenarian, Sethupathi shines — no doubt. But that doesn’t seem enough. I am sure he has spent long hours in the makeup room to wear the prosthetics, but there was still something missing.

The film does have its enjoyable moments. If you liked Balaji Tharaneetharan’s debut film Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (NKPK), you would naturally like Seethakaathi. (I am talking about the style of narration here). Watch out for the scenes involving director Sundar (Bagavathi Perumal) and actor Saravanan (Rajkumar). With their earnest performances and timings spot-on, they send out ripples of laughter. Sunil Reddy (actor Vaibhav’s brother) makes his acting debut with Seethakaathi, and his portions are equally hilarious. Though he majorly looks distressed; sometimes, overtly so, he does make you laugh. The second half is entirely his. Rather, I would say, he has made that entirely his.

Seethakaathi would have certainly worked for me if the entire film had been on Ayya Aadhimoolam — a star of a certain age. I would have loved the film more if Balaji Tharaneetharan cared to explore the other things in the film — for instance — the friendship angle between Parasuram (Mouli) and Ayya Aadhimoolam — or the family angle between his wife Lakshmi (the underutilised Archana) and Aadhimoolam again.

Govind Vasantha lifts your mood with his soul-stirring music. Despite an engaging screenplay, Seethakaathi just doesn’t come together as a cohesive whole. Part of the problem, I think is the core idea. Maybe, I couldn’t connect with Ayya. You either connect or you don’t. There are no in-betweens. Seethakaathi affects us, impacts us, and attempts to move us. But the attempt isn’t wholly achieved.