Saani Kaayidham review: Keerthy Suresh excels in this predictable revenge drama

Given that this movie is directed by Arun Matheswaran, who directed Rocky, there are many similarities in its visual presentation and the violence depicted as critical to the story. Saani Kaayidham revolves around a young policewoman named Ponni (Keerthy Suresh) who lives in Pardesapattinam, a coastal village, and the movie begins with a scene of her torturing a woman to get information from her as to whereabouts of four absconding men. Sangayya (Selvaraghavan) patiently waits for her, and eventually the two drive off in a van in search of the four culprits while the woman burns alive after the confession. A seemingly fitting end for crimes committed by this woman. And the revenge drama begins.

As the movie runs on, one distinctly gets a feel of Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill in the way Saani Kaayidham has been captured cinematographically - the shots, the colours, the chapters, and so on. Director Arun Matheswaran also has his own unique additions here, like in his earlier film Rocky, the frames within frames and the brother-sister relationship. The combination of these is the end result, Saani Kaayidham, a tale of violent revenge driven by caste discrimination.

Ponni is a constable in the village married to Maari who works in the village mill owned by upper-caste men. Maari is fired from the mill for speaking up against the owners and the upper-caste mill owners take it further by killing Maari and Ponni’s daughter Dhanam, while Ponni herself is left to die after being gang-raped by these men. The upper-caste men in the village treat the lower caste like scum and have no respect for women either. It is Sangayya, Ponni’s half-brother, who comes to her rescue and we see the two of them hunt down the culprits like animals for the irreparable loss she suffered. During this course, we also learn the emotional story of Ponni and Sangayya and their brother-sister relationship.