Aadukalam, what can I say about the film? The least I can say is, that it is one of the best films made in recent times and will be mentioned among the best films of this decade. Coming to the story, the film is mainly about the life of men who rear roosters for fights and the gang includes Pettaikaran (the Leader), Karuppu (Dhanush) and Durai (Kishore). Durai is the financier for Pettaikaran.

Pettaikaran has a great track record when it comes to rooster fighting and especially against Rathinam. Pettaikaran challenges Rathinam for a rooster fight challenge and says that the one who loses should not get involved in rooster fight again and the Tournament progresses. Pettaikaran’s roosters wins all the challenges against Rathinam but an issue arises when Karuppu uses his rooster for the challenge against Rathinam’s rooster. Earlier, Pettaikaran had ordered Karuppu to kill the rooster as he felt it will not perform well, but Karuppu on the basis of his affection to the rooster did not agree to Pettaikaran and that sowed the seeds of bitterness in Pettaikaran’s heart for Karuppu. Also Karuppu’s rooster wins the challenge and he is crowned the next Pettaikaran and this further hurts the ego of Pettaikaran.

The performances of all the actors have been superb and the casting is perfect, especially of Pettaikaran (dubbing by Radharavi, who has done a great job). Dhanush has lived the role and this is one of the best performances of him that I have seen. The first half of the film runs at a steady pace but comparatively the second half lags a bit. Also from the climax the director hints that there might be a sequel. The scenes between Tapasee and Dhanush evoke some comic situations otherwise there is not much scope for comedy. The interval block where the two rooster’s fight is simply superb and the visual effects in those scenes are too good.

The only two things I felt that was often repeated  was the background of Madurai, (it was essential for the film) but I feel that there had been already a lot of Madurai based films made and for a change directors should opt for other places like Tirunelveli or Coimbatore, etc. The next thing I feel that Dhanush often repeats (almost all of his films) is in doing a role where he is not liked by the parents and often ridiculed. He should change this in his future films. The music by GV Prakash is superb, especially “Yathe Yathe” also he has excelled in the background score of the film which lifts the scenes. The “Ayyayo” song is vintage SPB. How does he sound so youthful even now?? Last but not the least we have to congratulate Vetrimaran for a superb movie and that too only in his second movie. He is surely one of the directors to look out for.

My rating is 4/5. This movie can be watched at least twice.