Idli Kadai is a film about legacy. It's about two fathers and two sons. It's a film about a man pushed in two different directions — self-preserving narcissism and selfless loyalty to roots. Idli Kadai is caught between being a good old-fashioned melodrama and a self-aware deconstruction of what it feels like to live in today's world, where everything matters and yet nothing does. The film is in a constant tussle between two filmmaking modes. One is satisfied with the innate simplicity of its material, and the other half is constantly bobbing and weaving to avoid cliches. You have seen all these character types before; their backstories are familiar, and their conflicts are derivative, but the conviction trumps all. Idli Kadai begins with a flashback, concerning Murugan (Dhanush) having a successful career as secretary to an industrialist in Bangkok, who is all set to tie the knot with the rich man's daughter. He seems to be living the dream, except he isn't. He misses his parents, who are back home, and his village idli shop. To add to his problems, Murugan is constantly put down by his privileged and arrogant boss's son, who refuses to acknowledge Murugan as a part of the family. Also Read | From Kakka Muttai to Idli Kadai: Food as nostalgia, resistance and love in Tamil cinema Idli Kadai is as straightforward film just as its trailer promised - a tearjerker with some honest ideas about legacy, served with the flamboyance of a star vehicle. This is a film made by a successful man at the height of his powers, who looks back fondly on his formative years. Like Dhanush proclaimed during the audio launch function of the film, "Idli Kadai is a fictional story that combines characters and events I experienced in my childhood." Watching this film is almost like watching an intimate confession by someone up close, who is clearly fighting the urge to buy into his success, and feels guilty about moving on from the simpler days and leaving behind his roots, which made him the person he is today. That is precisely one issue I have with the film - it is structured like a foregone conclusion, and from the very first frame, you wait for the hazy, emotional flashbacks to kick in and make the hero realize what he has lost in the search for permanence as an outsider in a city. The film treats its central thesis that there is no winning when it comes to the battles with your own identity and bloodline. The equation we all share with our parents is tricky; we can't wait to leave them when we are with them, and once we are clear, there is a lump in the throat that makes you question your own morality. Am I a bad person for craving a life away from my ageing parents? Also Read | Vijay’s Karur rally stampede: The problem of star worship and celebrity obsession is at the heart of the tragedy Obviously, here too a parent dies, the marriage is called off, and Murugan finds himself caught between two promises— a good life as the 'in title only' husband of a woman he hardly loves, or take up the mantle of his parents' famous eatery, which is an important structure in the cultural memory of his village. We all know what happens next. Idli Kadai works due to the earnestness of the writing and its conviction in making genuine sentimentality work. Idli Kadai's strength lies in its fearlessness to wear its heart on its sleeve and be arch in its emotional register, in a time and age when that is considered 'cringeworthy'. The film is not shy to hook you in with the easy emotional dividends of Murugan's inner turmoil and his guilt for leaving his parents alone. Dhanush stages the emotional beats well and lets the sentimental overflow dominate. He knows when to cut away to a silhouette, or half rendered song from Murugan's past and his parents are triggers to get us into the mental state of the loss the hero is going through. Dhanush also tries interesting stuff with the temporality of certain scenes, where he intercuts between tensely wound scenes like an enquiry by the villains of the story into the ownership of the land where the inciting idli kadai stands, with another scene where a prospective marriage proposal for Kayal (Nithya Menon) from Marisamy is inverted on its head by revealing more about how the villagers have changed their attitudes towards Murugan. The friendly cop in the village, Sub Inspector Arivu (Parthiban) also gets the temporality treatment involving a match cut to his childhood connection to the Idli Kadai, which are are nice touches. This kind of loopy structure and call backs ensure a snappy pace for very predictable beats. The bad guys really look like they are spread too thin and you feel Dhanush moving the chess pieces with utmost caution not as to fumble the only conflict keeping the drama popping. You can sense the drawn out antagonism of Ashwin (Arun Vijay) towards Murugan seems like a under written screenwriting shorthand to illicit dramatic stakes and conflicts that does not feel authentically build up gradually over scenes. Also Read | From Ghilli to Balti: The evolution of the sports genre in Tamil cinema A scene featuring Meera (Shalini Pandey) confronting her father and brother over their sudden turn to villainy is one of the few scenes in the film which feel overwritten and almost easy. That scene exemplifies some of the cookie clutter screenwriting choices in this story. Some things are spelt out and the parallels between the two sons, one frittering away his father's empire and the other preserving his father's inconsequential Idli shop are good ideas, but the film rarely touches on them with any depth. The payoffs are too stale and the setups are too lazy to fetch any results, where the obvious goodness of the hero is exemplified and the villains are put down as ghastly, clueless monsters. Idli Kadai is not that kind of a film, it just thinks it can be that. Also Read | Dhanush turns emotional as child actor’s mother delivers tribute at Idli Kadai pre-release event, watch Nithya Menon is cast well as the funny, caring love interest. Her scenes with Dhanush are a delight. G V Prakash Kumar uses a largely ambient soundtrack that embeds itself in the delicate film with little to no fuss. Dhanush has become better in staging simultaneous action in his films, where multiple strands are unfurling together on screen and the temporal arrangement of scenes work for propulsion. Idli Kadai is the kind of film where a calf is a living reincarnation of a dead parent, where a single man with a long life becomes the judge of the taste of the delicious idli made by both father and son, in different timelines and the major competitor for our hero is a local parotta shop owner (a brilliant Samudrakani) who is hell bent on othering the outsider who seems to have won the favor of the villagers in a short span. Every conflict is neatly tied up and answered for. Nothing is left to chance and all the talking points are made literal dialogues so that sub text turns text. Coming to the narrative's biggest strength, a tender Raj Kiran exudes a level of warmth to the emotional hook of the film and makes the sentimental juxtaposition work. Idli Kadai is surprisingly linear in its execution that one feels if it is indeed the final film, or abridged version of a larger story. The beats are all there and you feel the emotion surging. The melodrama is high octane but somehow Dhanush's lowkey turn becomes the perfect antidote to the loud sentimentality of the material. He is dialed down almost to zero, except for a few exceptions and that tension somehow grounds the film. Sathyaraj and Arun Vijay are limited to loud, archetypes who make morally questionable choices for the plot to move forward. Idli Kadai being made in today's film ecosystem is a miracle of sorts as it is the kind of dramatically inert, vignette like cornball of a film that would not fair well in the age of loud, thumping blockbusters. This is a self contained film obsessed with nostalgia, roots and our cultural legacy. There are no sequels, spin offs or continuation of the arcs here. Just a good old yarn that walks the tight rope between preachy sentimentality and genuine guilt art borne out of bitter realizations. Idli Kadai movie cast: Dhanush, Nithya Menen, Arun Vijay, Sathayaraj, Raj Kiran, Parthiban Idli Kadai movie director: Dhanush Idli Kadai movie rating: 3.5 stars
