The Tamil film Karuppu takes its title from Karuppusamy, the village God, who is revered as the Kaaval deivam (Guardian God) or Ellai deivam (Border God) in villages across Tamil Nadu. Even today, you will find large idols of these Gods at the entry and exit points of villages and towns in interior Tamil Nadu. There are many apocryphal stories about these Gods that form part of Tamil village folklore. Director RJ Balaji has attempted to weave one such story around the Vettai Karuppu God in a metro city setting, which, in its premise, is interesting, but falters big time in execution.
If you recall, Balaji’s directorial debut was Mookutthi Amman, in which the story is about how the Amman (Goddess) appears in human form, performs tasks, and helps her devotees. Balaji carries the same theme forward in this film as well, and this very well could have been a sequel to Mookuthi Amman. But then, probably to make the film bigger, he replaces the Goddess with God and extends the theme in another setting.
The setting is a court in Chennai, apparently under the control of a corrupt advocate who is in cahoots with the judge and everyone else. Balaji, it seems, has a secret, or rather a desperate desire to be a mass hero in Tamil cinema. So, he casts himself as the villain here, complete with all the trappings of a typical Tamil-film mass hero. Suriya is Vettai Karuppu, the Guardian God of the court premises, who takes a human avatar to answer the prayer of his devotee. This interesting storyline is let down by an ordinary screenplay and predictable plot points.
The entire making is completely off the rails, with garish lighting and cinematography during action sequences and a loud background score. Sai Abhyankar, from whom a lot was expected thanks to his earlier chartbusters, turned out to be disappointing. The background score was loud, repetitive and completely jarring. The only redeeming feature was some smart writing, replete with tongue-in-cheek humour and meta-references, that made one laugh out loud.
Suriya has a great screen presence, but he is in the film only to up its star quotient. The role hardly gives him any scope to do anything significant. Ditto for Trisha. Balaji gets the maximum screen time but doesn’t make the most of it, thanks to his limited acting range. Among the cast, Malayalam actor Indrans, as the father fighting the legal system, is the only one to make an impact.
Karuppu, I hear, has been a commercial success in theatres. But to me, it was a disappointing watch. It is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
AnandKumarRSonFilms 
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