You can call him the biggest hero on the silver screen today, urging every hand to give an exploding applause for his long trunks and mischievous throughout the film. Though his presence with the audience seem to last only for a few hours, surely he has become someone very close to the heart, thereby bringing smiles on your face like an old friend you have always known in your dreams. Long gone are those days, where the participation of an animal seems to amount as much as the protagonist himself, and 'Kumki' indeed rekindles the old memories, swiftly leaving a special one, and of course a film that will be spoken about for years.
A very remote and dangerous village called Aadhi Kaadu is threatened and disturbed every now and then by the wildest of Forest Elephant called Komban. Every year the villagers seem to suffer, either by destruction of houses or by crops and they seem to become even more helpless when the forest officers refuse to help them bring down Komban. To survive and kill the merciless wild elephant, the villagers decide to bring a Kumki, an elephant that is exclusively trained to silence the wild elephants and keep them less harmful and this is where Bomman (Vikram Prabhu) and his innocent, harmless and soft Mannikam (a temple elephant that has never been exposed to wildness) comes into the picture.
Owing to situations and to favour his business friend, Bomman brings Mannikam to Aadhi Kaadu saying it as Kumki to substitute the original Kumki and plans to leave the village in two days once the original Kumki arrives. In the mean time, Bomman falls in love with Alli (Lakshmi Menon), daughter of the village head. To succeed in his love, Bomman decides to stay in the village longer than he has planned and continues to pretend that Mannikam is a Kumki and that he is a Kumki trainer. Now, does Mannikam (who is believed to be a Kumki by the entire village) defeats Komban and saves the village and will Bomman and Alli unites in their love is what forming the rest of the climax.
For a newcomer, Vikram Prabhu has given an excellent and flawless performance right from conveying emotions to humor, while Lakshmi Menon perfectly depicts the role of Alli, a silent and homely village girl, who can get funny in every way. Supporting characters played by Thami Ramaiah of 'Kazhugu' fame and Ashwin Raja of 'Boss Engira Baaskaran' fame indeed scored tremendous applause for their humour quotient as well as their part throughout the film.
The entire film which was set in a very natural backdrop, brings the essence of nature and makes the film much pleasant to watch. Indeed, Prabhu Solomon and D. Imman once again recreated their wonderful magic after their yesteryear superhit 'Myna'. Some of the best tracks 'Kumki' offers are 'Ayayyoo', 'Sollitale' and 'Onnum Puriyala', which not only elicits romance but the visuals are leaving spell bound. Special pat to Cinematographer Sukumar for framing every shot carefully, to make the film talk rather than project. And LVK Doss deserves an applause for his precise editing.
In every way 'Kumki' is one of the rarest and master piece, nevertheless, the climax could have been more precise to make it much more complete. Kumki evidently makes Prabhu Solomon one of the finest directors, making him a gem picked from pins.
Verdict: 'Kumki' – an original Prabhu Solomon film - 4.0/5.0
