101 Chodyangal

With 101 Chodyangal, debutant director Sidharth Siva is exploring through the innocent mind of a lower class boy who has certain aspirations. Navigating through simple and complicated questions, movie manages to impress you with its realistic backdrop and that touching climax. But the too dramatic and heavy dialogs coming from such innocent hearts disturbs the rhythm of the movie and pulls the movie from being an excellent work.

The story revolves around the main protagonist Anil Kumar Bokaro who is studying in the 5^th standard of a government school. Bokaro’s father worked in a sugar mill and was fired for protesting against company policies. Bokaro is impressed by the charming new teacher in his school and tries his best to corporate with teachers initiatives. The teacher soon assigns a task to Anil and asks him to collect 101 interesting questions that comes in his mind and offers that he will pay Rs 1 for each question. The movie basically is a journey through these questions which Bokaro discovers from his own life and life style.

The idea is interesting and I must say that they deserved whatever awards they got. The debutant director was able to squeeze out the best from his limited source of actors, especially the boy. And the boy Minon also did his part quite brilliantly.  The movie successfully establishes the innocence of the child. The attempts to impress the teacher, the care he has for his father and that questioning attitude in his thoughts were captured smartly. But some time after the introduction of 101 questions in the plot, the scene goes too intellectual and the child being logical to that extent was not that convincing.

In the backend, Sidharth Siva makes some promises with his ideas. The script was interesting in the first half; but somewhere in the second half it fizzles away from that curiosity. The dialogs were a letdown as it sounded too dramatic. Giving such heavy intellectual dialogs to a 10 year old boy wasn’t a smart idea. The cinematography is ok. Fitting background score from Bijibal and the one song composed by M K Arjunan master was also a pleasing one. Special mention for the sound design of the film.

The movie is strong in its performance side. While Master Minon excelled in his character, Murukan who played his father’s role also managed to make an impact. Indrajith gave the charm to the role of the teacher and Lena also did well in her character. Good performances by Nishanth Sagar, Manikandan Pattambi and Rachana.

Overall it’s an above average film that will please you with its innocence. The flaws are there for sure, but the attempt deserves appreciation. I am giving 3/5 and thumbs up for this effort. It’s a good one that needs more polishing.