Catamaran

Catamaran takes place in a small village in south Indian recently devastated by a hurricane. Because of the hurricane, Singaraham, a fisherman now acts as guardian to his niece and nephew. His niece Anandhi is beautiful and of marrying age. Yet she refuses all men Singaraham brings to meet her. When Anandhi meets Kavita, a photographer sent to the village on a short-term teaching contract, it becomes clear why she has refused the men Singaraham has introduced her to.

The first big, romantic moment happens when Kavita sees Anandhi standing in front of the sea in a beautiful outfit. The setting is beautiful, the music swells and it’s a lovely moment. Except for one thing. The beautiful outfit Anandhi has on belonged to Kavita’s beloved, dead girlfriend. And Anandhi didn’t ask if she could wear it either. I’m not sure if that’s a good move in any sort of reality. Kavita reacts surprisingly positively to seeing her current romantic interest wearing her dead girlfriend’s clothes. So, unlike what would happen if this happened to me, Anandhi and Kavita’s relationship continues to grow instead of stopping before it starts.

Catamaran’s biggest strength is its cinematography and director Swarnavel Eswaran’s ability to find and shoot beautiful, natural settings. Most of this movie is shot outdoors. Eswaran certainly takes full advantage of the natural environment of the place where he is shooting his film. It’s beautiful and natural to look at. It draws the viewer into this small, coastal village.

This sense of place and community is the other strength of this movie. Catamaran’s setting and characters immediately spark familiarity. Early on in the film and without much dialogue, the village and its various interpersonal connections and community are understood. Likewise, Singaraham and his charges immediately feel familial and familiar. This aspect really helps the viewer care about their fairly small-scale problems. The amount of fondness Eswaran makes me feel for these characters is impressive.

A subplot of sorts in Catamaran is a character in the village who seems to be third gender. I was initially going to write that what’s interesting about this character is that they’re fully integrated in the community. But that’s not quite true. Singaraham is nice to this character and they have a small house like everyone else. However, this character is also kept at a distance most of the time. Many other characters don’t interact with this person, at least by daylight hours. Without ever following this character specifically, there is a story being told about how this person relates to the community. It’s small but powerful and intriguing.

By the third act, this third gender individual becomes Anandhi and Kavita’s greatest support and ally. There are two ways to look at this. The first being an uplifting story of solidarity. It’s also a chance for a gender non-conforming individual to be something of the hero of the piece. But the second way to look at this is that it’s case in which gender minority is overlooked and essentially silenced by the woes of the sexual minority. This character has very few lines and clearly, I can’t remember their name. This is not the case with Anandhi and Kavita, nor Singaraham.

The biggest problem I had with Catamaran was sound. Almost initially I noticed that the sound mixing was a bit wonky. Background noises tend to be far louder than dialogue. This is a minor thing I was willing to forgive. The bigger problem is Catamaran’s use of music. The first issue is again, it’s too loud. The second is that its overused. Most emotional moments are scored with this overly loud, orchestral non-diegetic music. It completely takes me out of the moment. The music does not add to the emotion of the scene, it subtracts from it.

Catamaran is an imperfect yet successfully emotionally resonant film. I do wonder if I would find it as successful had I not seen it in theatres. Would the characters and story still draw me in as much if there was more options for external distractions? Would the beautiful cinematography still overrule the iffy sound design if I saw this on a smaller screen? I don’t know. But I think it’s worth checking out. Catamaran charmed me. So, see it and then leave a comment on this review and tell me if it worked in a non-theatre environment.

Overall rating: 6.4/10

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