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Bottle Radha movie review: The title of director Dhinakaran Sivalingam’s debut film Bottle Radha makes its intentions clear. It is about alcohol addiction, and it is about Radhamani, who is an alcoholic. While there is no doubt that the movie trains all its focus firmly on Radhamani and his seemingly never-ending tryst with the bottle, some of the best moments of the film comes in the scenes involving his wife Anjalam. This is also due to the fact that Bottle Radha feels like being an anonymous fly during one of the many meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, and it is the portions involving Anjalam gives the movie a refreshing change of pace.
The opening shot of Bottle Radha is a drone shot that captures the expanse of the Chennai city that is not often shown in our films. We see Radhamani creating a ruckus over being admonished for coming drunk to work. Interestingly, the entire opening stretch wonderfully introduces the world of Radhamani, and how despite being around near and dear, the allure of the bottle takes him to unsavoury places. Again, the places he goes to might not seem really dire, but the look on Anjalam’s face when he comes home drunk says a lot more than what pages of dialogues could do. She feels insulted. She feels violated. She feels neglected. She feels distraught. And all that she can do is stand resolutely with tears streaming down her face. But Radhamani doesn’t see any of this because he is blinded by the booze, and when one things leads to another, and he finds himself arrested by the police, Bottle Radha decides to take a different route to tackle the issue of addiction.
Honestly, the film is as predictable as it gets, and Radhamani’s journey hits the same beats that we’d have expected from the teaser, trailer, or even the poster. The narrative is so predictable that whenever there is a slight detour from the familiar, the movie turns into a completely different beast altogether. One thing Dhinakaran and his team get absolutely right is in treating a lot of scenes with surprising levity. That is why, even when the film feels more like a docu-drama, and less like a feature film, we are still engaged to the narrative.
Basically, Radhamani is an alcoholic, and Anjalam enrolls him in a de-addiction centre, which is run by Ashokan (John Vijay). Here, through counselling, medical support, and rationing of food and resources, ‘kudi noyaaligal’ (Patients affected by the disease of drinking) are weaned off alcohol. These portions, after a point, feel repetitive because the makers decide that the audience need to be spoon-fed, and take the preachy route. Yes, we get that the government is running alcohol shops, and is one of the biggest and most successful industries. And it is a fair criticism about how this acts as a deterrent to create a healthier society. But they not only scream this criticism, but also shove it down our throats at every possible opportunity. It makes you wonder where the film is in between all this preachiness.
Despite the predictability, what really holds this movie together is the strong performances by Guru Somasundaram, Sanchana Natarajan, and John Vijay. They get multiple moments to showcase their individual brilliance, and they are supremely effective in their roles. When Radhamani breaks down after knowing how his relative is a pervert, or understands how his own depravity has rubbed off on his children, Guru Somasundaram shows us why he is often sought after for complex characters. And how good is Sanchana in the film! Although it might have initially seemed like just another mopey wife of an alcoholic husband, Sanchana’s Anjalam comes to terms with her reality through wonderfully written scenes. Be it the one involving her taking an untoward decision, explaining her ordeals to Radhamani, the half smiles when she understands how it feels to be loved, and even in the predictable ending to her arc, the writing and her performance spring up a surprise to show why she should be sought after for complex characters.
Although it was important to show the lows and depths that addiction can take a person to, Bottle Radha suffers from reducing a colourful protagonist to a one-note role for a long time. The changeover or understanding too doesn’t happen very convincingly even if it has a beautiful scene featuring Ashokan and Radhamani. Even the addiction centre scenes, although milked for some easy jokes, finds itself in murky waters with the showcase of violence. It makes you wonder if this is the only way? Of course, the person inflicting the violence is not just admonished but also finds himself in the receiving end of a warped sense of justice, the place doesn’t always feel like welcoming by any stretch of the imagination. On the other hand, it also tries to educate the audience about how alcoholism must be treated like any other disorder. However, it is a really tough battle to overcome in a world where it is easier to get addicted than to get treated.
Bottle Radha is peppered with a lot of beautiful scenes, which are used sparingly in a film that spends more time showcasing the perceived highs and definite lows of alcoholism. In fact, Bottle Radha traverses multiple genres within the movie. There is a wonderful black comedy, especially during a TASMAC song sequence. There is an understated romance track involving Anjalam. There is a dark drama in Ashokan’s flashback. There is social commentary through various characters, their redemptions, their relapse, and their reconciliation with their own truths. This journey is beautifully aided by Sean Roldan’s score that balances the quirk with the melodrama. This is a balance that often goes missing in the movie, which shifts lanes so often to accommodate a lot of side stories that it makes one wonder if the bigger picture was out of sight at times.
At one point in the film, Dhinakaran uses Shawshank Redemption as a motif to showcase to the world how the same movie can be looked at differently by different people. Despite Bottle Radha being a film about addiction, many walking out of the theatres might playfully comment that they want to go home, twist open a bottle of alcohol, and gulp a few sips. Of course, with alcohol being shown in every second scene, one might wonder that such a reaction is par for the course…
But that’s the reason why a movie like Bottle Radha should exist. It reminds people of how easy it is to allow the drink to drink you. Radhamani didn’t start off as an alcoholic. Like many others, he started off as someone who would just have a ‘cutting’… and that is why it wasn’t Ashokan or Anjalam, or even Radhamani’s kids who made him change over a new leaf, and get over his addiction. It was his decision, and that’s why in many of our quests to be free of our vices, there is no point searching for a moral compass outside of the self. It is safely lodged inside us waiting for us to say yes to accepting the change… and what Shawshank Redemption and Bottle Radha teach us is that… hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
Bottle Radha Movie Director: Dhinakaran Sivalingam
Bottle Radha Movie Cast: Guru Somasundaram, Sanchana Natarajan, John Vijay
Bottle Radha Movie Rating: 3 stars
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