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Kaatteri
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| Kaatteri | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Deekay |
| Written by | Deekay |
| Produced by | K. E. Gnanavel Raja S. R. Prabhu |
| Starring | Vaibhav Sonam Bajwa Varalaxmi Sarathkumar Aathmika |
| Cinematography | Vignesh Vasu |
| Edited by | Praveen K. L. |
| Music by | S. N. Prasad |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Dream Warrior Pictures |
Release date |
|
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Kaatteri (transl. Forest Vampire, and also spelled Katteri) is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language comedy horror film written and directed by Deekay[citation needed] and produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja under his production banner Studio Green. The film stars Vaibhav, Sonam Bajwa, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar and Aathmika, while Karunakaran, Ravi Mariya, and Kutty Gopi play supporting roles.[1] The film's music is composed by S. N. Prasad with editing by Praveen K. L. and cinematography by Vignesh Vasu.[2] The film released theatrically on 5 August 2022 and was a box-office bomb.
Plot
[edit]The film begins with a 1968 local village festival. One person cuts an electric post, another person comes and pushes down the post, and the electric wire rips all of the village people.
The film cuts to 2019. Gajja, Kaliyurunda, and Sankar, a group of kidnappers, kidnap Kamini and bring her to Naina. Naina orders his henchmen to kill the kidnappers so they cannot tell anyone about it. The kidnappers escape from the henchmen, come to Kiran's first night room, and tell them about the kidnap and Naina's plan to ask for a huge ransom from Kamini's family. Kiran's wife Shwetha instructs them to kidnap Kamini from the henchmen and demand a large ransom.
As per her instruction, Kiran and his friends kidnap Kamini and ask her about Maanga Mani. Kamini tells them about him. He was taking a treatment from her, and a few weeks ago, he said he was about to go on a treasure hunt for gold. Shwetha finds Maanga Mani's location by entering his number on Truecaller. They went to the same location that was shown on Truecaller. The village's name is Kolaatipuram. When they enter the village, the behavior of the villagers is weird, and they realize that the villagers are ghosts. They are the people who died in 1968. After knowing that the villagers are ghosts, they try to elope from the village, but they cannot escape from there. Wherever they run, they end up in the festival area. Kamini tells them that Sankar was taken by a ghost, Mathamma, who asked her, "Am I beautiful?"
Shwetha instructs them to meet Maathamma and correctly answer questions in order to obtain the gold, so they walked to Mathamma's place. Shwetha ran away after seeing Mathamma, and Kiran and his friends got beaten by Mathamma. Mathamma tells her story, which happened in 1968. She, her sister Mohini, and her uncle Venu were living in the same house. Venu tells a well digger Sambath to dig a well at the back of their house and orders Mohini to help him. While digging the well, the land slides and the well becomes too deep. Sambath gets out of the well with Mohini and Mathamma's help. He requests that they bring a lamp to measure the depth of the well. They tied a rope around the lamp and put the lamp into the well. When they pulled up the rope, the lamp was missing, but a mud pot was tied with the rope. When they opened the mud pot, the pot was filled with gold jewels. By seeing this, Sambath tells them he is going to buy more lamps to get more gold.
After Sambath leaves, they discover a piece of paper with the words, "If you have anything else, send it to me." So they take a chicken and throw it down the well, and this time they get a large mud pot filled with gold and a piece of paper with the same message as earlier. Sambath came back with a lot of lamps, and he put all of them into the well, but when he pulled the rope, all the lamps were damaged. When he saw the damaged lamps, he became angry, and took an aruval, and entered the well tied up with a rope. When Mathamma and Mohini pulled the rope, a big wooden barrel appeared with a paper written with "Keep sending this to me". By seeing the paper, they send their drunkard uncle Venu into the well. They understood that the well needed human flesh, so they ask Aarumugam, a police officer, for dead bodies, which he gave. One night, Aarumugam enters the house of Mathamma and sees a lot of gold. At that time, Kaatteri came out of the well, ate one of the policemen and wrote on the wall, "Do not starve the well". By knowing this, Aarumugam planned to kill all of the villagers and feed the Kaatteri. During the festival, he cuts the electric post, and the wire rips the people. They put all of the dead bodies into the well. He also pushed Mohini and Mathamma into the well.
Mathamma's story ends, and she asks Kiran to tell him which part of her story was fact and which was fiction. Suddenly, Kamini behaves abnormally, and her face changes to Mohini's. Ponnambalam comes to the house and asks Kiran to burn Kamini. Kiran burns her, and Ponnambalam captures Mohini's ghost. When Kaatteri comes to kill them, they try to manage and save their lives. By luck, they managed that night, and then Ponnambalam tried to kill Kiran while running after him. Unfortunately, he fell down, shot himself in the chest, and died. Kiran took the bottle that has Mohini's ghost in it and gave it to Naina. Naina opens it and gets frightened by seeing the ghost.
The film ends with Kiran and Shwetha in bed, where Kiran asks Shwetha about how she knows that Aarumugam is Naina, and Shwetha asking him, "Am I beautiful?"
Cast
[edit]- Vaibhav as Kiran
- Sonam Bajwa as Shwetha, Kiran's wife
- Varalaxmi Sarathkumar as Mathamma
- Aathmika as Kamini
- Karunakaran as Gajja
- Ravi Mariya as Kaliyurunda
- Kutty Gopi as Sankar
- Manali Rathod as Mohini
- Ponnambalam as Ponnambalam
- John Vijay as Naina, Aarumugam (Ponnambalam's father and Police Aarumugam)
- Chetan as Kesava Perumal
- Vinodhini Vaidyanathan as Chithra, Kesava Perumal's wife
- Lollu Sabha Manohar as Short film maker
- Balaji Mohan as Kattukuthiyan
- Besant Ravi as Etchakutty
- TSR as Santhanam
- Jangiri Madhumitha as Santhanam's wife
- Mime Gopi as Venu, Mathamma and Mohini's uncle
- Namo Narayana as Sambath, well digger
- Yogi Babu as Maanga Mani (Uncredited head appearance)
Production
[edit]The principal photography of the film commenced around 20 April 2018, after the launch of the film in Chennai.[2][3] The film initially speculated to cast four heroines in the female lead role including Oviya, but Oviya was later replaced by Aathmika in the shoot.[4] However, the filmmakers managed to rope in Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Sonam Bajwa, Aathmika, and Manali Rathod in the female prominent roles.[5] Telugu actor Aadi was initially selected as lead actor; however, he later opted out and was replaced by Vaibhav.[6] It was revealed that most of the portions of the film were set in a jungle in Chennai and abroad, including the neighboring country Sri Lanka, while most of the scenes of the film were apparent to have been shot during nighttime.[7] The shooting of the film wrapped up in June 2018.[8]
Music
[edit]The soundtrack was composed by S. N. Prasad, collaborating with director Deekay for the second time after Yaamirukka Bayamey (2014).[9] A single track titled "En Peru Enna Kelu" was released in June 2020.[10]
| Kaatteri | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by S. N. Prasad | ||||
| Released | 2022 | |||
| Genre | Soundtrack | |||
| Length | 10:25 | |||
| Label | Think Music India | |||
| Producer | S. N. Prasad | |||
| S. N. Prasad chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Kaatteri | ||||
| ||||
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "En Peru Enna Kelu" | Srikanth Varadan | Jonita Gandhi, Maria Roe Vincent | 3:31 |
| 2. | "Katteri Theme" | Deekay | Anusha Prasad | 1:13 |
| 3. | "Vaa" | Srikanth Varadan | Neeti Mohan, Gaythri SG | 3:11 |
| 4. | "White-U Kodu" | Srikanth Varadan | Sathya Prakash, Nadisha Thomas | 2:30 |
Release
[edit]The film was released theatrically on 5 August 2022.[11]
Home media
[edit]The post-theatrical streaming rights of the film were bought by Netflix, and the satellite rights of the film were bought by Zee Tamil.
Critic Reception
[edit]M Suganth of Times of india gave 2 stars out of 5 and stated that "all in the name of comedy, and this is where the film feels most outdated."[12] Navein Darshan from Cinema Express wrote that "We sit patiently waiting for a bright moment to come our way. "and gave 2 of 5 stars.[13]Hindu Tamil Thisai critic stated that "The director, who had set the prequel strong, did not make the story that moves towards it strong, but has sadly torn down the blank canvas."[14]
References
[edit]- ^ "Kaatteri Movie: Showtimes, Review, Trailer, Posters, News & Videos | eTimes", The Times of India, archived from the original on 26 February 2019, retrieved 12 January 2019
- ^ a b Subramanian, Anupama (6 September 2018). "Unpredictable screenplay is Kaatteri highlight". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 12 January 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
- ^ "Kaatteri starts rolling". www.thenewsminute.com. 2 May 2018. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
- ^ Subramanian, Anupama (25 April 2018). "Aathmika replaces Oviya in Kaatteri". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 23 February 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
- ^ "Varalaxmi, Aathmika, Sonam and Manali in Katteri". The Times of India. 21 April 2018. Archived from the original on 3 March 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
- ^ "Aadi Saikumar 'Thrilled' to Debut with 'Kaatteri'". 30 September 2017. Archived from the original on 1 June 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
- ^ "Vaibhav's 'Katteri', to be shot in Sri Lanka". Sify. Archived from the original on 12 January 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
- ^ "Vaibhav's 'Katteri' shoot wrapped". The Times of India. 11 June 2018. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
- ^ Katteri Songs Archived 12 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Katteri | En Peru Enna Kelu Song Lyric Video | Vaibhav, Varalaxmi, Sonam Bajwa | Deekay | Prasad S.N". YouTube. Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
- ^ "Kaatteri Movie Review: This horror comedy is past its sell-by date". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 23 August 2022. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
- ^ "Kaatteri Movie Review : This horror comedy is past its sell-by date". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
- ^ "Katteri Movie Review: Randomness both saves and destroys this horror comedy". Cinema Express. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
- ^ "திரை விமர்சனம்: காட்டேரி". Hindu Tamil Thisai (in Tamil). 8 August 2022. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
External links
[edit]Kaatteri
View on GrokipediaPlot and cast
Plot
Kaatteri follows a gang of inept criminals who, after botching a kidnapping job and angering their gangster boss, flee to a remote hillside village in search of a hidden fortune to buy their freedom, accompanied by their kidnapped target, a psychologist. The group—comprising bumbling accomplices with clashing personalities—arrives expecting an easy score, only to find the village eerily deserted and shrouded in mystery.[1][7] Unbeknownst to them, the forsaken settlement is plagued by restless ghosts, sparking a cascade of slapstick mishaps and spine-chilling confrontations as the intruders stumble through haunted houses and shadowy woods. The gang's internal conflicts, fueled by paranoia, greed, and comedic rivalries, intensify amid the supernatural chaos, testing their fragile bonds while they desperately hunt for clues to the fortune.[6][8] Through its ghost town backdrop, the story weaves a tapestry of comedy, horror, and light adventure, emphasizing the absurd perils of chasing wealth in the face of otherworldly dangers and underscoring themes of unlikely camaraderie forged in fear.[9]Cast
Kaatteri boasts an ensemble cast that blends comedic timing with horror elements, highlighting the film's mix of bumbling criminals and supernatural figures in a treasure-hunting adventure. The principal roles emphasize opportunistic anti-heroes and tough allies navigating chaotic circumstances.[1] Vaibhav as Kiran, a newlywed drawn into the criminals' kidnapping scheme.[10][11] The supporting female leads include Varalaxmi Sarathkumar as Maathamma, a ghost haunting the village.[11] Sonam Bajwa as Swetha, Kiran's wife. Aathmika as Kamini, a kidnapped psychologist.[11] Key supporting actors contribute to the film's comedic and antagonistic dynamics, portraying bumbling criminals and ghostly figures. Karunakaran appears as Gajaa, one of the inept gang members.[5] Mime Gopi enacts Venu, adding to the eerie undertones.[5] Ravi Mariya takes on the role of Kali Urundai, an antagonistic presence in the mix. Ponnambalam features in a comedic antagonistic capacity, alongside others like Jangiri Madhumitha and Manali Rathod in roles that amplify the ensemble's chaotic humor and horror.[5]Production
Development
The project Kaatteri was officially launched in April 2018 as a Tamil-language adventure horror comedy, marking director Deekay's follow-up to his earlier works in the genre.[12] The film was produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja under his banner Studio Green, with principal photography commencing shortly after the announcement.[13] Deekay penned the screenplay himself, drawing inspiration from the rising popularity of horror comedy films in Tamil cinema during the late 2010s, aiming to blend supernatural elements with comedic treasure-hunt tropes in a hillside village setting.[14] This approach echoed trends established by successful entries like the 2014 hit Yaamirukka Bayamey, Deekay's directorial debut that popularized light-hearted ghost stories.[15] Initially, the team planned a direct-to-OTT release in 2020 via platforms like Zee5, reflecting the growing digital distribution shift amid industry uncertainties.[16] However, production faced significant setbacks starting in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted post-production work and led to multiple postponements, including a scrapped Christmas 2020 theatrical window over fears of a second wave.[17] Further delays arose from ongoing post-production challenges, such as visual effects integration for the horror sequences, pushing the final release to theaters on August 5, 2022.[18] The film's modest budget aligned with its genre's emphasis on creative storytelling over high-cost spectacle, focusing resources on ensemble dynamics and practical supernatural gags.[1]Casting
The casting process for Kaatteri underwent several changes following its initial announcement in late 2017. Telugu actor Aadi was originally selected for the lead role, but he opted out, leading to Vaibhav being cast as Kiran in early 2018.[19][20] This shift occurred as the production, backed by Studio Green, moved forward with principal photography starting in April 2018.[21] For the female leads, multiple actresses were considered before finalizing the ensemble. Oviya was initially roped in for one of the key roles but later exited the project, with Aathmika stepping in to play Kamini; no specific reason for Oviya's departure was disclosed, though rumors of other potential replacements like Hansika circulated briefly.[22][19] Varalaxmi Sarathkumar was confirmed for the role of Maathamma, alongside Sonam Bajwa as Swetha—marking Bajwa's return to Tamil cinema after her 2014 debut in Kappal—and Manali Rathod completing the quartet of leading ladies.[21][23] Earlier speculations had included names like Anushka, Trisha, and Rakul Preet Singh, but the production settled on this lineup to suit the film's fantasy-adventure tone.[21] The supporting cast was assembled to complement the lead performers, with actors like Karunakaran (as Gajja), Mime Gopi (as Venu), Ravi Mariya, Ponnambalam, and John Vijay brought on board for their established presence in Tamil cinema.[22] A public casting call was issued in December 2017 for junior artists to fill ensemble roles, emphasizing the need for performers to contribute to the film's group dynamics in a bumbling criminal gang narrative.[24] Negotiations focused on aligning the cast with director Deekay's vision for a horror-comedy, resulting in an ensemble that blended established comic talents with fresh pairings.[19]Filming
Principal photography for Kaatteri commenced in April 2018 following the film's launch in Chennai.[25] The shoot primarily took place in jungle locations near Chennai, with additional portions filmed in Sri Lanka to evoke the eerie, haunted village atmosphere central to the story.[26] Approximately 90 percent of the film was captured at night to enhance its horror-comedy tone.[12] Cinematography was handled by Vignesh Vasu, who employed techniques to blend ominous shadows and dynamic wide shots for the genre's mix of scares and humor.[13] Editing was overseen by Praveen K. L.[13] The production faced interruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, with post-production paused during the 2020 lockdown; principal filming had wrapped up by June 2018, though overall completion was prolonged due to these delays, leading to the film's eventual release in August 2022.[27][28]Music
Soundtrack
The soundtrack album for Kaatteri was released on 18 December 2020 by Prasad S.N., consisting of four songs with lyrics by Srikanth Varadan for three tracks and Deekay for the theme song.[29][30]| Song Title | Singer(s) | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| En Peru Enna Kelu | Jonita Gandhi, Maria Roe Vincent | 3:31 |
| White-U Kodu | Sathya Prakash, Nadisha Thomas | 2:30 |
| Vaa | Neeti Mohan, Gaythri SG | 3:11 |
| Katteri (Theme Song) | Prasad S.N. & Anusha Prasad | 1:13 |
