A complicated movie that scares you with its specious simplicity - Kappela movie review

Beginning with the end, if you are familiar with Vadivelu, you can't help 'okkandhu yosipaangalo' (how do they think these things) escaping from you after the climax twist.

Kappela is sure to earn your respect if you had concluded only that much could be done in a love story.

Despite the rollercoaster ride, Jessy (Anna Ben) says 'I want to go to the sea', you realise Jessy's fascination was that simple and the rest of the complications were clutter.

Though it was director Musthafa's intention to round off the film with a conservative treatment but he didn't want his protagonist to give out that idea.

Despite the tough lessons from Jessy's self-taught progressiveness, she doesn't get sucked into an unquestioned submission to conservative ideas. She rather becomes self aware and confident.

She replying to Benny's proposal with ' I will think about it and let you know ', is the kind of maturity you hear from Jessy for the first time in the Kappela.

Srinath Bhasi coming as an uncouth communist party member Roy, registers his presence strongly in the minimal screen time he gets. Vishnu, played by Roshan Matthews is a downplayed ordinary character, perfect for the crescendo in his character arc.

Camera needn't do much in an already visually sumptuous rural Kerala, it just played party to the existing beauty.

Music in capturing the hilly regions and the romance it augurs, was enjoyable. But it was felt wanting during the escalation of tension.

You should also have a keen eye on the subtext of the film as well. Jessy's walk for example, she is mindful of her walking in the last scene where she takes time to have a fine stamping on the ground. And she could be seen holding a smart phone something which her ultra-conservative dad protests against in the first half. We could assume she reasoned convincingly with her father to get a 'touch phone'.

To sum it up, Kappela is a story of a ditsy hill-side girl whose extraordinary experience turns her into a self-aware sure-footed girl with a blooming sense of cogency.