Kollywood star Dhanush is known for his versatile performances. He is a multi talented person and he is now getting ready to entertain viewers with his film Idli Kadai which is releasing as Idli Kottu in Telugu on 1 Oct 2025.Speculation is on that the film is based on real life incidents and Tamil Tambis believe that the film is based on the journey of famous chef Madhampatty Rangaraj.
Idli Kottu OTT rights have been acquired by Netflix and streaming will be after the end of its theatrical run. Let us see how Idli Kottu impressed viewers on the big screen.
Idly Kottu story revolves around a youngster who flies abroad to realise his dreams much against the wishes of his dad and the rest of the journey in the aftermath.
Murali (Dhanush) reaches the top echelons in AFC, Bangkok, Thailand as the chief owned by Vishnu Vardhan (Sathyaraj). He is all set to get engaged to Vishnu Vardhan's daughter Meera (Shalini Pandey). However, things change quickly and where this leads to and how it is connected to Murali's village Sivapuram, his parents Sivakesavavulu (Raj Kiran), Kasturi (Geeta Kailasam), Pattabhi (Samuthirakhani), Kalyani (Nithya Menon), Vishnu Vardhan's son Ashwin (Arun Vijay) form the interesting part.
Dhanush is in his usual self. He came up with natural and realistic performance, and these kind of roles are tailormade for him. However, the role treads on a predictable trope and offered nothing much to show his acting talent. Many get a feeling that of late, he is getting repetitive with his roles.
Shalini Pandey is ok in the role of the arrogant girl. She performed well but she couldn't get chance to exhibit her talent. Her role turned out to be just ordinary.
Arun Vijay is ok in his role as the villian but he turned just loud and over the top. Sathyaraj performed in the role quite well and he surprises in the different character.
Raj Kiran is good in his role and performed emotionally. Others performed according to their roles.
Idly Kottu story is readied by Dhanush. Dhanush tried to entertain movie lovers by showing a realistic story around an idly stall.
The point may generate interest but it is very small and narrating story for more than two hours is extremely difficult and it proved to be right as all the scenes turned out to be predictable, routine and outdated. Dhanush selected a sensitive point but routine elements and forced emotions played the spoilsport.
The first half ends with artificial fight sequence and the second half nosedives even further. The second half goes on and on, and one gets a feeling that it's never going to end with various unnecessary scenes. The narration, screenplay and story and script everything turned out to be extremely cringe. Dhanush failed to develop the character arcs of various roles and this impacted the overall output.
G.V. Prakash Kumar tuned the music and background music for the film. Both turned out below average and didn't inspire confidence. The Cinematography of Kiran Koushik is fine and shows the village atmosphere in a natural and realistic way. Editing of GK. Prasanna left a lot to be desired but he couldn't be blamed as there are many scenes that have repetitive feel to the viewers. Production values are good.
Altogether, Idly Kottu turns out to be an outdated emotional drama. People are left to wonder how Dhanush could come out with such an outdated story and script and why he proceeded with the project in the first place. Right from the first to the last scene, the film offered nothing new. Even a rework on the script wouldn't have saved the film. Considering all these points, Cinejosh goes with a 2 to Idly Kottu aka Idly Kadai.