Kammatti Paadam

Kammattipadam is a Malayalam gangster movie. Many poor people lost their houses and land in Kammattipadam as part of the development of Kochi. The land mafia took over their land using gooms in Kammathippadam. The film tells the story of life and loss surrounding this incident. All the characters in this movie were really alive in this movie. The script of this film is very in-depth as well as the live music of the film. Director Rajeev Ravi and cinematographer Madhu Neelakanthan made a film beautiful. I recommend this is a must watch movie .My rating is 9/10.

A Pure cult classic which has a unique quality in characterization. It shows how equations in life change when money comes in. Through fascinating characters, it also analyses what happens when their personal and gangster phases collide.

The blood soaked life of Ganga makes us to understand the life of ground level gangster from their shoes and Krishnan, a good example on how to make decisions in life in order to make it a peaceful one.

Kammattipaadam is a mixture of various emotions and the sad story of a population that we tend to forget as we crave for more luxuries, narrated in a disturbingly true manner.

Violence, drinking and everything your parents don't want you to be doing.Thats Kamattipadam because it is the life of a bunch of kids who grew up to become reckless thugs. I noticed that the actor who portrayed Dulquer Salmaan's youth did a great deal of homework to mimic Dq. Apart from all the violence there is a sideline romance between Anitha and Krishnan (Dulquer). The movie isn't sugarcoated in any manner. You don't look amazing in a slum and thats exactly what Ganga and Balan conveyed. In fact it was they who captured all the focus more than Dulquer.This isn't a movie about good guys and bad guys, it is about how the slum folks are used like pawns and thrown away for the gains of the rich class.It does not get preachy or anything which was a definite plus for me. Its life you can watch it like it or not you just have to accept it because it is a story inspired by real events, the folk songs also give an added feel to the movie. The story telling was a bit hard to catch on initially because it runs in three timelines. I didn't quite understand how the Anita Ganga thing work out. The movie doesn't end on a good note, well you cant expect a happy ending for gangsters. OVERALL THIS IS NOT A FAMILY MOVIE. DON'T SAY THE MOVIE WAS LOOSE AND FILLED WITH VIOLENCE AND ALCOHOL, WAKE UP ITS A GANGSTER MOVIE WHAT DID YOU EXPECT

Rajeev Ravi's third feature film tells the story of a bunch of boys from an area in Ernakulam called Kammatti Paadam. They grew up to be what is colloquially called as members of a 'Quotation Team', a euphemism for the low rung enforcers of local mafia. The story follows them from their childhood to teenage years and then to mid- twenties and finally to when they are in their 40s.

The title, Kammatti Paadam, refers to an area of Ernakulam which lies to the back of KSRTC Bus Stand. It is basically a tale of the growth of the city told from the perspective of its main protagonists, characters played by Dulquer and Vinayakan. Film begins in the present with Dulquer struggling to stay alive in a bus to Ernakulam with a stab wound. The backstory is told using a well- known concept of 'Life flashes before your eyes just about when you are about to die' and the recent Malayalam film, James & Alice, is another one which employed the same. The basic concept of the film can be summed up as a representation of 'Gentrification' of Ernakulam city told through a bunch of characters who get gentrified in their life due to it. They were part of it both as people who helped in displacing the original people to make way for high-rise buildings and also as victims who got nowhere in their lives even as they were just used up by their paymasters.

A title of 'Once upon a time in Kammatti Paadam' would have been quite fitting for this film as it shares a lot with Sergio Leone's 'Once upon a time in America' in both its characterization and the way the story is told. It is also another film which begins its back-story through its main protagonist's memories as he lies in his deathbed. Only difference is that in Rajeev Ravi's film, the characters remain slumdogs. Another film that one would be reminded of is the Brazilian one- 'City of God' in terms of its rawness and the characters played by both Vinayakan and Manikandan, who revels in his role as the eldest gangster among them, would remind you of couple of characters from it.

It is overall a great watch even though the strength of the central relationship between Krishnan (Dulquer Salman) and Ganga (Vinayakan) is not quite convincing. I also had issue with some of the lazy narration in it, especially during scenes where some of the characters in the present tell Krishnan about when they had last seen Ganga. These are some things you would never expect from a Rajeev Ravi film who is quite known for his aversion to traditional narrative techniques. I also felt the light-weightiness of Dulquer's acting in many occasions. Rajeev Ravi is known for his tremendous casting of supporting characters and this one is no different with plenty of excellent new actors in it. One doesn't need to wax lyrical about cinematography in his films as it is quite understood how it is gonna be. Both his previous films, Annayum Rasoolum and Njan Steve Lopez, had quotation teams as characters and their influence in the films grew as he moved from former to latter. In his third film, they occupy almost the entire story. It is the least Rajeev Ravisque film out of the three and his weakest effort but it is still a great watch.

PS: It is quite ironic to see Dulquer Salman occupying almost all the space in its posters when it can be argued that Vinayakan is its central character. Maybe that is quite apt since the film is mainly about people who fall by the wayside.

Kammattipadam, a film that puts even the most acclaimed directors at the risk of being ashamed of their own work. Rajeev Ravi is not only a director that excels at what he does best but also raises the bar for upcoming directors to match up with. And i here expected nothing less.

A film that was shunned by the censor board and labelled an 'A' rated film that subsequently etches into the mind of every Malayali that Kammattipadam is nothing short of a porno, it is backlash to all the haters. The film contains mild violence and yet succeeds in its own way to capture us into the thriving wetlands of Kammattipadam, in a long 4 hour thriller. The film is a bit long and can be a hefty work to sit and watch a drama that unfolds slowly and steadily to end in a simple, non dramatic way. The film's score was undoubted brilliant, essaying with the tone and atmosphere of the film so perfectly that we are not aware that the only characters we are submitted upon are Ganga and Krishna.

Of all the characters that was portrayed, Ganga's was THE best. Vinayakan has done a role so perfectly and exquisitely that we are left wondering whether he was born for this role. Dulquer has also given a terrific job at portraying the troubled young teen and slowly transforming into the role of the wise. An actor who came into the industry as the son of a established actor, Dulquer has made a stride in proving yet again that he has build his own empire right next to his father, possibly bigger.

Although Kammattipadam revolves around these handful of characters, it is not the tale that the director wants to tell us. It is the supreme tale of friendship, love, lust, greed and how time can transform everything into dust. Just like the rise and fall of many great empires, Rajeev Ravi has done a exemplar work in manifesting that theme into the thickness of the Urban wreck ; Ernakulam.

Kammattipadam might be a one-time watch, since the characters that we see cannot go through the same loop again, which would spoil the flow of the time-line that the city has grown into. But then again, Kammattipadam, as a film can be enjoyed thoroughly and for extremes, is a must watch film.

Overall a tale that need to be preserved for future so that they can know that we still made films that are not confined to our artistic abilities.

A Exemplar 9.5/ 10.

It deserves more, but the perfect score is for another kind , with another brilliant story.