Modha Rathri — Review

Maruthu has come home from Dubai and does not want to marry. Muthuselvi is being married off on her mother’s orders, and is carrying a heartbreak she has told nobody about. Their families push them together anyway. The film is mostly one night, and what these two finally say to each other.

What makes it work is that nobody is a villain. The aunts, the uncles, the priest, the loud relative nobody wants to sit near. They are all recognisable. The film laughs with them, not at them. It also has something to say about caste and about grief. It says it without stopping the story to make a speech.

The weakness is the ending. Several reviewers said the same thing: the writing does not have a plan for its last half hour. The Times of India found the film flapping about; 123telugu said the finish settles for noise instead of an actual emotional payoff. That is fair. The film is better at watching people than at wrapping them up.

This is Raja Karuppasamy’s first film as director, and it is the most assured thing in it. He writes and directs, and he clearly knows this village, these families and the way people in them talk to each other.

The casting deserves its own mention. Almost nobody here is a star, and every face looks like it belongs. That is a directing decision as much as a casting one, and it is why the film feels observed rather than staged.

The News Minute’s Subha J Rao called him "the find of the year". She singled out his refusal to reach for cheap humour: no gender shaming, no laughing at the women. In a genre that usually runs on exactly that, it stands out.

Our own view goes further than most reviews. The storytelling, the casting and the control of tone are all well beyond a debut. We would watch whatever he makes next.

Anishma Anilkumar is the best thing in it. The News Minute called her the soul of the movie, and that is right. She holds back far more than she shows. You believe every bit of the hurt underneath. It is a controlled performance in a film that could easily have been played loud.

Rishikanth is the steady centre. He underplays throughout, and the film needs that: he is the calm the rest of the noise happens around. Even the Times of India, which did not like much else, said he was a good unhurried presence.

Chetan as the Poosari is the performance people will talk about. There is something of Kamal Haasan in his timing, and in the way he uses his whole body for a joke. That is our comparison, not a critic’s. Watch him and see. The News Minute described the character as having a heart of gold. The role matters to the story. He is not just comic relief. He should be getting far more work than he is.

Bagavathi Perumal is very good as the loud relative every family has and nobody wants to sit beside. A. Venkatesh does something harder: a father who is sure he holds no caste prejudice, and plainly does. He plays it without winking at the audience, which is why it lands.

Abdool Lee, still early in his career, makes his role count, and is worth keeping an eye on. Shelly Kishore, Sangeetha Balan and Banu Priya are all pitched exactly right. There is no weak link in this cast — every small part is played by somebody who understood the assignment.

Surendran Paranjothi shoots it close and simple. Most of the film happens in one house over one night. The camera stays with faces instead of showing off the location.

That restraint is the right call. A film about two people finally talking honestly does not want a busy camera, and this one never gets in the way.

Ashok Arjunan’s cutting is tight in the first half. The second half is where the length shows. More than one reviewer said it needed a firmer hand in the edit. At 143 minutes, they have a point.

Bharath Sankar’s score is the thing critics agreed on most. Pentagan Media singled out the background music for lifting the comedy, and that is right. A lot of the jokes land because the score knows when to push and when to get out of the way.

One warning if you are watching dubbed. 123telugu noted the songs were left entirely in Tamil on the Telugu track. That is careless work. If you can, watch it in Tamil.

This is the kind of film people recommend to each other. It arrived with no stars and no marketing push. It found an audience because people told other people to watch it.

It is also, frankly, a relief. There has been a long run of loud, empty Tamil releases. This one is made by someone with something to say, and the skill to say it lightly. That counts for a lot.

The Netflix release on 18 September should widen it a lot. It plays well at home too. It is mostly conversation, and it rewards actually listening.