Kaatteri
Kaatteri (transl. Forest Vampire, and also spelled Katteri) is an 2022 Indian Tamil-language comedy horror film written and directed by Deekay.[1] The film stars Vaibhav, Sonam Bajwa, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar and Aathmika.[2] The film has no songs and score is composed by S. N. Prasad.[3] It is produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja under his production banner of Studio Green. The film was released theatrically on 5 August 2022, and was a box-office bomb.
Kaatteri | |
---|---|
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 |
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Country | India |
Language | Tamil |
Plot
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. And then the film is set in 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 can't tell anyone about it. The kidnappers escape from the henchmen and 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. 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 can't escape from the village. Wherever they run, they end up in the festival area. And 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 the place of Mathamma. 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 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 the help of Mohini and Mathamma. 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 took a chicken and threw it down the well, and this time they got a large mud pot filled with gold and a piece of paper that said, "If you have anything else, send it to me." Sambath came back with a lot of lamps, and he put all of those lamps into the well, but when he pulled the rope, all of those lamps were damaged. When he saw those damaged lamps, he got 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. He also gave them some dead bodies. One night, he enters the house of Mathamma and sees a lot of gold. At that time, Kaatteri came out of the well and ate one of the policemen and wrote on the wall, "Do not starve the well." By knowing this, he 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, "Tell me now, which part of my story was a 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 the ghost of Mohini. 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. He fell down and 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 he gets frightened by seeing the ghost. In bed, Kiran asks Shwetha about how she knows that Aarumugam is Naina, and Shwetha asks Kiran 'am I beautiful '?
Cast
- 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
- Besant Ravi as Etcha Kutty
- 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 photo appearance)
Production
The principal photography of the film commenced around 20 April 2018, after the launch of the film in Chennai.[3][4] 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.[5] However, the filmmakers managed to rope in Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Sonam Bajwa, Aathmika and Manali Rathod in the female prominent roles.[6] Telugu actor Aadi was initially selected as lead actor however he later opted out and was replaced by Vaibhav.[7] It was revealed that most of the portions of the film were set in a jungle in Chennai and abroad, including the neighbourhood country Sri Lanka while most of the scenes of the film were apparent to have been shot during night time.[8] The shooting of the film wrapped up in June 2018.[9]
Music
Soundtrack was composed by S. N. Prasad collaborating with director Deekay for second time after Yaamirukka Bayamey (2014).[10] A single track titled "En Peru Enna Kelu" was released in June 2020.[11]
- En Per Enna - Jonita Gandhi, Maria Roe Vincent
Release
The film was released theatrically on 5 August 2022.[12]
Home media
The post-theatrical streaming rights of the film was bought by Netflix and the satellite rights of the film was bought by Zee Tamil.
Critic Reception
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."[13] 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.[14]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."[15]
References
- BookMyShow. "Katteri Movie (2019) | Reviews, Cast & Release Date in". BookMyShow. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
- "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
- 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.