Putham Pudhu Kaalai

While the rest of the stories are high on emotions, Miracle takes a different route and gives Putham Pudhu Kaalai a nice fun ending.

Anthologies are always a mixed sweet-box. While you relish some with your eyes closed, you also question some of them for finding a place in the box. Puthum Pudhu Kaalai is a unique project wherein the shorts are made by well-known directors around the theme of hope. The title itself is a refreshing one, which tells you that there’s something to look forward to despite the panoramic panic surrounding the pandemic, especially the 21-day lockdown. The fact that a few features and anthologies have already been written, shot, edited, and released since March this year should serve as a positive sign for the industry. All the five shorts in this omnibus brim with optimism. Perhaps, that’s what Amazon Prime Video wanted – films that feel good at the end of the day and not rattle the viewers’ hearts much.

But despite some perky moments here and there, this anthology remains mostly blah. Sudha Kongara’s Ilamai Idho Idho (Jayaram, Kalidas Jayaram, Urvashi, Kalyani Priyadarshan) has a pair of lovers reconnecting after years. They remember dancing around like leads in winsome Mani Ratnam’s romances, as well as squabbling about wet towels left on beds, and spoons stuck in dishes in the fridge. The film goes back and forth in time, and we get to see the young lovers turning into their elderly selves, hiding from their grown-up children, till one day… Sweet, but needed to have been more bitter-sweet, for requisite impact.