KD: Karuppu Durai

Recently, I watched  ‘KD,’ short for Karuppu Durai, a Tamil film (2019) with sub-titles in English. It is on Netflix which describes the film as 'Off-beat, Quirky, Heartfelt.' I guess you may like this film. However, I am no film critic, only an ordinary person who enjoyed watching the movie.

Directed and written by Madhumita, the lead stars are Mu Ramaswamy as KD, and Naga Vishal as Kutty.

A simple plot. A patriarch discovers that his own sons are planning his early demise for inheritance, and runs away from home, less for fear of death, and more out of disgust, and sadness. He meets Kutty, an orphan for whom a small temple in a little village is home, the deity his parents, and the priest his local guardian. He ‘adopts’ Karuppu Durai, the desolate old man who is lost and ‘orphaned’ even though he has several sons. Kutty looks after KD, as a mother would for her little kid, and KD appropriately wonders: between the two of us, who is the child and who the adult?

The film may have been more aptly named Kutty-Durai, since Kutty, the feisty orphan is as much the hero as Karuppu Durai or KD. He is no pitiable orphan, in fact, he looks after KD when the latter walks out of his home to become a homeless vagrant. Kutty leads the confused, rudderless, lost KD, as though guiding a child by holding his finger, through the maze of life. As KD says, ‘You have been a mother to me.’ The child: adult roles have been reversed.

Kutty makes a Bucket List (most likely inspired by the eponymous Hollywood film starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson) for KD and executes and fulfils the wish-list. However, the use of ‘substances’ – KD furtively smoking a joint, and Kutty buying a bottle of foreign liquor for KD – is not relevant to the plot, and is an unnecessary appendage.

The scheming and heartless sons are a contrast to the bond of affection, deeper than that of blood, between KD and Kutty.

When Kutty spurns the ‘charity’ of the crooked temple-trustee, KD and Kutty become a pair of orphans out on the road. But they are neither despondent, nor dependent on anyone, and manage well on their own, earning an income by doing odd jobs, and constructing a ramshackle hut.

The world is not inhospitable to Kutty - the enterprising, tenacious fighter of a kid; and the youthful KD, suddenly rejuvenated by the bond of affection, like a dying tree revived by timely care.

Life at once becomes meaningful and joyful. The hustle and bustle and colour and sound of rural fairs, the simple joys and entertainment of ordinary people – sugar-cotton-puffs, merry-go-rounds, jhula, folk-theatre performances, and mobile cinemas -  vividly portray their life and times and add charm to their adrenalin-pushing adventure, with a private detective hot on their trails to restore KD to his family so that they can arrange for his much-delayed ceremonial demise.

The ending is bitter-sweet. The good Samaritan officer who put Kutty in a school in Chennai was a god-sent foster father. KD became an interim parent when Kutty unceremoniously spurned the ‘charity’ of the temple-trustee, and bolted out of the temple to find his own way through the world.  

What is black at the beginning, red in the middle, and grey in the end, quizzes Kutty, and KD is flummoxed. Towards the end of the film, Kutty provides the answer: charcoal. Is that a metaphor for his own life, KD’s, or both their lives, apparently different but essentially similar. Both are orphaned, and need to fend for themselves, and get a life, independent of ‘family’ and kins. Kutty, an orphan, is a piece of coal. The fire in him is dormant, needs to be kindled and fanned with a little gust of air; the spark comes from his never-say-die attitude, and his indomitable spirit, and fanned by the priest, KD, and the kindly officer.

Kutty helps KD to read and write (he signs the property document, much to the amazement of his sons), learns to ride a motorcycle, acts as MGR, no less, and wows his audience, and finally meets his childhood sweetheart (a climax fulfilment of his Bucket List).

The superb acting by both the heroes - Kutty (Naga Vishal) and KD (Mu Ramaswamy) makes this a special film.

Some of Kutty’s dialogues are precocious, and over the top; reflecting the story-writer’s anxiety to build Kutty’s character as a spunky, feisty kid. He is street-smart, but still a child!

Both Kutty and KD are on a voyage, searching for a meaningful, enduring bond, a tie that would stay firm. KD was an expert ‘knot-maker’, but his family-knot had unravelled. A new bond was fastened, with both Kutty and KD investing in the durability of the bond. At the end of the film, KD has to let go so that Kutty gets ahead in life; yet the bond would never be severed, only momentarily loosened. 

KD has won several awards. It also has several reviews by veteran film critics.

Tamil film industry produces about 200 films a year, and the value of the South Indian film industry is about 8000 crs out of 15000 crs for the Indian film industry.

During the last few years, the Tamil film industry has churned out several mega-budget block-busters, to the envy of Bollywood.

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