Earnest storytelling keeps Kaadan engaging

In Kaadan, Rana Daggubati performs Veerabarathi aka Kaadan, who’s known as the Forest Man of India (modelled after the real-life environmental activist Jadav Payeng). When the movie opens, we see Kaadan sitting nonetheless by a stream the place a herd of elephants are quenching their thirst. The forest is pristine (AR Ashok Kumar’s cinematography highlights the paradise-like high quality of the place) and every little thing signifies tranquillity. Here’s a man who’s one with nature. A couple of scenes later, this concept is reiterated when Kaadan rigorously removes a creeper that has twirled round his finger whereas he was asleep. There isn’t any shock then in how this man would react to a JCB trampling over flowers or saws reducing by means of the beloved timber that he has planted within the forest, and destroying the very material that holds the forest collectively.

These acts are carried out by males belonging to a developer, who additionally occurs to be the environmental minister, mockingly named Kurunjinathan (Anant Mahadevan). The minister desires to construct a luxurious township, full with golf course, amphitheatre and what not. However Kaadan and the elephants stand in his means.

With Kaadan, Prabu Solomon comes up with a largely participating movie that’s unabashedly melodramatic in its remedy. Characters are painted distinctly in black and white, they’re largely one-note, and the scenes play out at a pitch that’s considerably excessive. The one character who will get a little bit of shading is that of Maaran (a vigorous Vishnu Vishal), who involves the forest to assist the minister’s males deal with the menace of the forest elephants together with his kumki elephant, Jillu. This monitor kind of follows the arc of the director’s Kumki, which was additionally a few mahout blinded by love and the fallout of his egocentric actions. We even have an older man (Raghu Babu, who contributes to the humour) as this character’s sidekick. Right here, Maaran falls in love with Aruvi (Zoya Hussain), who belongs to a bunch of rebels preventing for his or her rights and the forest. This character and that of Arundhati (Shriya Pilgaonkar), a reporter who empathises with Kaadan’s trigger, are underdeveloped, which is disappointing provided that they’re the one two vital feminine characters within the movie.

However for a protracted whereas, Prabu Solomon is extra enthusiastic about telling us a narrative. It is just within the climax that the filmmaker begins to sermonise, which feels pointless provided that we get the film’s ‘message’ even with out the necessity for any underscoring. However the earnestness within the storytelling retains the movie afloat, making us root for its characters. After which there may be Rana, who wins us over with the sheer physicality of his efficiency. It’s as magnificent because the animals and the jungle.