For instance, I wondered how Kunnimuthu and Veerayi manage to pay for the upkeep of the two bulls when they're so loath to engage them in any work that involves hardship and the animals seldom plough the field due to lack of rain. Barring the folksy numbers and a few quirky characters who momentarily leave you smiling, you don't learn much else about the people of Poocheri and what they do. Something to establish their relationship, other than the sweet but generic flashback. I wished that Kunnimuthu and Veerayi would have one proper conversation as husband and wife. Sure, it's amusing but it's so in-your-face that it doesn't sting. In one scene, when the characters stop to eat, the board reads 'Wanted: An engineer who can work as a parotta master'. The writing feels too deliberate, the characters mouthing lines like political cartoons instead of speaking like real people. Last minute censorship that wasn't carried out properly? In one instance, a passerby can be heard stating that this country will never improve, but the subtitles make reference to PM Modi's comments on clouds and radars as well as India shooting down a satellite. There are jibes at GST, demonetisation, petrol prices.
A delivery boy asks for directions in Hindi and one of the characters proudly shoots back "Hindi theriyadhu". In RARA, Kunnimuthu makes similar 'discoveries' on behalf of the viewer, but about politics. I was initially reminded of the 2011 film Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai which is about a man who goes on a search for his missing horse, exposing the absurdity of religion and superstition along the way. It's true that people who live with animals develop close bonds with them, but the film goes a step further and repeatedly underlines that for Kunnimuthu and Veerayi, the bulls are like human children. When the bulls go missing one day, they're distraught and don't know what to do. A couple, Kunnimuthu (Mithun Manickam) and his wife Veerayi (Ramya Pandian) are extremely fond of their bulls, Vellayan and Karuppan. Like Mandela, RARA is an attempt at political satire by showcasing life in a small Tamil Nadu village.