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Bottle Radha Movie Review: Guru Somasundaram’s drama powers through with decent execution, performances but gets fizzy in parts

Heartfelt and raw, Bottle Radha offers a powerful blend of humor and drama, delivering a compelling story of addiction and self-discovery

3/5rating
Bottle Radha Movie Review: Guru Somasundaram’s drama powers through with decent execution, performances but gets fizzy in parts
Bottle Radha

Last Updated: 07.37 AM, Jan 24, 2025

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Bottle Radha Movie Story:

Radha Mani (Guru Somasundaram) is a mason by profession, but a raging alcoholic for almost throughout the day. His wife Anjalam (Sanchana Natrajan), and two children are the ones who bear the brunt of his addiction, and their lower-class life only adds to their woes. But when Radha finds himself in a rehabilitation and de-addiction centre one day, his frustrations only build up to be relieved from place.

Bottle Radha Movie Review:

The opening shot of Bottle Radha is the land mass of the city, as the camera spans across the wide water body that our peninsula is packed by almost all the sides. The take is slow, that the camera angle is almost seamless as the screen gets engulfed with the blueness and vastness of the ocean. The waterbody is a running visual language in Bottle Radha, which takes place in Chennai. Just like the city is wrapped with water, Radha’s life too is consumed by the certain addictive liquid. Bottle Radha that details the life of an alcoholic, is a dramedy that has portions offering some quips, and some food for thought moments.

Bottle Radha
Bottle Radha

Debutant director Dhinakaran Sivalingam creates one scene that shows how much Radha is addicted to alcohol. While being made to clean the police station after getting caught for an issue, Radha spots a carton of seized liquor. Drowned in ecstasy of having found his favourite drink in abundance, he chugs down bottle after another, not minding his surroundings. Eventually, he is deceived to land up in a rehab centre run by Ashokan (John Vijay), where he meets several men who are undergoing the same process of de-addiction.

Bottle Radha evokes some laughter when it makes its protagonist unwarily a hypocrite. For example, Radha’s main grouse and denial to be at the rehab centre is it is filled with alcoholics and that it is difficult to live with them, reflecting very much what his wife goes through. The same happens when Radha confidently tells to one of his inmates that he isn’t an alcoholic like the others. They, of course laugh it off. You can take it either for his foolishness of not knowing about himself, or difficulties of being a place unarmed of his defense mechanism. With the humbug he creates, Radha is not able to get out of the rehab, but soon finds a way to escape, and that’s where his real struggle begins, and the film too takes an emotional undertone.

Effectively a film that can be clearly divided into two, Bottle Radha turns into a self-discovery story for the titular character, as the back stories of some characters are brought to the fore. It takes an absence to occur for a person to understand the depth of his misbehavior and Radha goes through the cycle. The dramedy ends, and the film begins to move onto a rather serious tone. As all these happen, the film can get a bit stretchy and the lags become evident in certain portions. But Bottle Radha takes a win when it never takes the preachy side. With Guru Somasundaram who plays the titular character unabashedly well, at the forefront, Bottle Radha takes a win with the cast’s performance. The film is equipped with close to reality acting by Sanchana Natrajan as Anjalam, and John Vijay’s benevolent yet stern rehab owner has poignant presence in the film.

Bottle Radha Movie Verdict:

Bottle Radha
Bottle Radha

Bottle Radha is a decent drama that is equipped with highlighting performances. The film takes a win when it does not slide to become preachy, but also carries a noble message said in a subtle yet dramatic way.

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