In Kather Basha Endra Muthuramalingam, a father commits suicide because he gets beaten up in front of his kids. A wife falls at the feet of her husband on their first night. The hero wants his mom to choose a bride for him because the women are going to spend more time together than he would with his wife. Such conservative and regressive ideas are introduced insidiously in this Muthaiya film. However, on the other hand, he rages against female infanticide, speaks about communal harmony, and bats for the education of women. It seems the director will only term massive issues as evil, while normalising everyday sexism. His progressive thoughts are selective because going all the way would reduce his protagonists to a bunch of hooligans, who are egoistic and proud killing machines. Muthaiya has been unabashed about his conservatism, in fact, he banks on it. So, one anyways knows what they are signing up for while buying a ticket to his world of twirling moustaches, men in underwear, and unidimensional villains, who are only slightly better off than the heroes when it comes to morality. Yet, Muthaiya has managed to make films which are–if not entertaining–at least passable, but Arya’s Kather Basha Endra Muthuramalingam doesn’t make the cut. The film lacks the racy screenplay and some innovative ideas that Muthaiya’s previous ventures had.
For instance, Karthi’s Viruman had an interesting premise of a son wanting to kill his dad. Though the rest of the film turned out to be a formulaic affair, the interesting premise alone made the film work to a certain extent. Kather Basha Endra Muthuramalingam has nothing going for itself. The story is a contrived mess that becomes convenient at every other turn. Kather Basha Endra Muthuramalingam (Arya) has a confusing past. To put it simply, he is born out of wedlock to a Hindu couple and is brought up by his uncle Kather (Prabhu), who is a Muslim. Now, Kather Basha aka Muthuramalingam spends his time breaking the hands and legs of anyone who disrespects his uncle, respected head of the Muslim community, which is living in harmony with Hindus. However, the film is really about Tamil (Siddhi Idnani), a bold woman in a village, who fights against her uncle, who is after her 100 acres of land and properties. While they force her to marry one of their sons, Tamil seeks the help of Kather Basah, who is also conveniently her relative.
Muthaiah doesn’t break a sweat while unravelling all these complicated relationships. All he has to do is make a character narrate the whole story so that he can get busy making Arya send off goons in the air. That’s pretty much what happens in the film There are about six to seven fights with no creativity. Every action sequence is pretty much guys going after Arya with the sickle and getting punched or kicked or stabbed or slashed… they all fall down! For a change, the main villain alone keeps carrying country-made bombs. Whenever he shows up on the screen, he keeps throwing the bombs either on a guy or some open land (God knows why). So, yes that bomber is the only creative idea Muthaiya has managed to come up with for the film. But even he doesn’t make good use of his weapons and ends up meeting the same fate as the rest of his friends. The only intriguing aspect of the film is the suspense behind the reason for its existence.
Kather Basha Endra Muthuramalingam director: Muthaiya
Kather Basha Endra Muthuramalingam cast: Arya, Siddhi Idnani, Prabhu
Kather Basha Endra Muthuramalingam Indian Express rating: 0.5/5