‘Bloody Beggar’ movie review: The brilliant Kavin delivers a heartwarming dark comedy

Kavin still from ‘Bloody Beggar’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangements

The fun old energy leaves you in awe as you are drawn into the quirky world of black comedy from debutant Sivabalan Muthukumar, Beggar of Blood. It’s a fresh and strange effort, especially for today, and even the confidence to create something like that is to be commended.

Remember those old movies where greed and bad blood drive a wedge between members of a luxurious joint family? The title is like Vietnamese Veedu, Anbu Sagodharargal or rather unconventional Andha Naal comes to mind. with Beggar of BloodSivabalan took the setting (and the dramatic scale of the acting at that), wrote many colorful characters with funny quirks, and put a nice contemporary twist on this suite – i.e. Knives Out Tamil movies in a way. The result is a film that works like a charm.

You can tell this story from many perspectives, but let’s look at it from the point of view of two characters who share an undefined cosmic connection. At one end we have a crooked little beggar (played by Kavin; we’ll call him the Beggar), who lives with a young boy named Jack; A beggar uses dubious means to earn a living while Jack sells stationery at a traffic intersection. One day, the Beggar and Jack decided to watch an old movie called Kaettadhai Koduppavanestarring veteran actor Chandrabose (Radha Ravi) as Lord Shiva. After the Beggar scolds Jack for falling short in cash and leaving him at the entrance, he asks the last Lord on the poster to teach the Beggar a lesson and take him away. Call it divine intervention as the Beggar gets trapped in Chandrabose’s house the next day and has to overcome many obstacles to find his way back.

Here’s another perspective: once upon a time, there was a famous actor named Chandrabose, whose four children (Prudhvi Raj, Priyadarshini Rajkumar, Miss Saleema and Padam Venu Kumar) were the definition of brats. They grow up and give birth to a mini version of themselves, and after the death of Chandrabose, realize that the father has bequeathed most of the property (worth more than 200 crores) to the bastard child, which has been given up for adoption. The son is killed by a crooked lawyer (Sunil Sukhada) in favor of one of Chandrabose’s daughters, and while the lawyer is waiting for a scapegoat, he finds a beggar hiding in the bungalow, listening to the whole plan. Chandrabose and the Beggar, two ends of the social spectrum, are brought together by fate again, and a dark but hilarious ride ensues.

Sivabalan runs tight with the screenplay. This is the kind of movie where every sequence should hold your eyes, especially because it reduces attention among theatergoers, and thank you. Beggar of Blood aces in that regard. Set-ups with great pay-off do wonders, although the humor quotient dips a few marks in the second half. One example is how fate puts Akshaya Hariharan’s character on the Beggar’s side; a Van Gogh-inspired print shows his moral compass, while another is a “deer hunting dog”.

The director also builds an exciting world, establishes its rules, and creates recurring motifs to create tension. There is always a mystery to be heard in this movie. What is the meaning of the repeated shot of the air freshener? Who is this Chandrabose brother you are talking about? Who is the boy we see in the first scene of the movie? What happened to the beggar’s wife, Kani (Merin Philip)? What is the lawyer playing here? And what about a group of hungry dogs in a cage – when will they play?

Many of the main characters’ unique and interpersonal dynamics find moments to shine throughout the screen. Vasan (Arshad of Prison fame), one of Chandrabose’s grandsons, is a factory of laughter in every scene in which he appears; Vasan ‘lives’ the character played by his grandfather, and in a twisted way, embodies Chandrabose’s presence throughout the film. Even in a quieter role (the details are not told at least), Redin Kingsley leaves you in splits. Credits also go to the editor R Nirmal for cutting witty matches and cross-cutting, and to Jen Martin for the funky score (And songs; ‘Ponmayame’ come home with you).

A still from ‘Bloody Beggar’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangements

Lead star Kavin has a firm grip on his performance ‘meter’, allowing his character to perform. The beggar’s eccentricities demand slightly exaggerated language from Kavin; However, when you see her crying over the painful fate her family has been through, the transition is smooth. In one pivotal sequence, he says, “People like us have no right to be angry,” and pierces through.

In the end, the most impressive thing is how Sivabalan’s screenplay juggles serious characters and ‘message’ with an absurd storyline without making you feel a tonal shift. They all went home. An offbeat entry in the Diwali roster, Beggar of Blood rich in entertainment, cunning world-building, and heart.

Bloody Beggar is currently running in theaters