Bloody Beggar Film Review

Nelson Dilipkumar’s home production, Bloody Beggar, introduced director, M Sivabalan Muthukumar. Billed as an off-beat comedy, the film has a theatrical release on Deepavali Day and had its OTT release on 30 November. The film stars Kavin in the lead role, supported by Radha Ravi, Redin Kingsley, Sunil Sukhada, Miss Saleema, Priyadarshini Rajkumar and TM Karthik.

The movie tells the story of a beggar (Kavin) who prefers to beg, rather than work for a living. One day, he finds himself being taken to a mansion to be fed, along with others, a sumptuous meal. The events that follow completely change his life.

The movie has an exciting and refreshing concept. It is difficult to classify the film, but there is a lot of dark comedy, some fantasy, drama and an overview comments on current society. The brand of humour has lots of shades of Nelson’s Doctor, but without the charm. What could have been a landmark film quickly degenerates into a painfully drawn-out film where the events take forever to get through, the laughs few and far between and a total disconnect with the events, largely because of the writing and the screenplay.

If there is one reason to watch this film, it has to be Kavin’s magnificent acting performance. Apart from the physical transformation, his intense portrayal of the character is akin that of an actor with decades of experience. It is a pity that the mediocrity of the screenplay has unfairly diluted the effect of his performance.

Rohit Denis, playing the nameless beggar’s son, is an exciting talent to watch out for. His body language and expressions promise a very exciting career ahead. Merin Philip as the beggar’s wife also shows promise while a frail looking Radha Ravi makes an imposing presence in his scenes. None of the other actors do enough to impress, least of all, Redin Kingsley who uses the same bellow and same facial expression almost throughout the film.

Jen Martin has numerous highpoints in his background score and is adequate with the songs.

Cinematography by Sujit Sarang has numerous sweeping shots and the occasional artistic shot, but in a film where artificial lighting is used to create a surreal ambience, the options for a cinematographer are limited.

One must appreciate director M. Sivabalan Muthukumar for attempting something different, but the poor scripting and slow-paced screenplay makes the final product less than palatable.

Bloody Beggar scores 5 points out of 10.