The last time we saw Pandiraj's work, it was a beautiful tale of naughty children and education. Well, the director has shifted gears drastically to an action packed thriller which has Vishal and Catherine Teresa in the lead cast. As is the title of the movie, the plot too dances around a cold blooded murder which is clouded by conspiracies and leaves wide open for investigation. Pandiraj has moved away from his usual strengths and tries to experiment in an unknown territory and gets help from Vishal who is a bankable action hero in Kollywood.
The director wastes no time in
getting into the groove; a ruthless goon Thamba, from Cuddalore with two
trusted sidekicks builds his share of enemies who wait on an
opportunity to pounce on him and not far away is our hero who returns
back to India after a few years, predictably yes he has his own share of
agony with the goon. In an attempt to build the characters and their
roles, Pandiraj brings into their sequences rather abruptly than
sketching it into the plot, but that’s all until the murder takes place.
Vishal steps into his town, keeps cleaning his hands with sanitizer
showing off he is from US until his sweet little girlfriend makes him
dress up in the traditional Veshti attire. There are enough sweet little
romantic scenes as such that unfold through the first half.
Vishal picked up the stereotype of
action hero ever since the days of 'Sandakozhi' where he starts going
behind the baddies, thrashes them up out of a good heart. But that was
long back, there is a reason behind why the directors want him to be in
the skin of characters as in 'Kathakali', an innocent fellow who just
minds his own business but rises to the occasion when it matters. That
is action not by choice, but by situation and he has completely mastered
it through the days of 'Pandiyanaadu', 'Naan Sigappu Manithan' and now
in 'Kathakali' as well. Somehow the duo of Pandiraj and Vishal seem to
match their abilities in the movie, for the director who is known for
making light hearted movies gets a good boost from Vishal’s action
capabilities to get the screenplay rolling.
It would not be far stretched to say
the actual movie starts in the second half, for the first half is about
the characters and their build up to the murder. An unexpected murder of
the town’s biggest rowdy becomes chaotic with various murder suspects
involved and completely off the hook is Vishal, but the turnout of
events makes him the primary suspect leading to all the rival gangs and
the cops on the hunt. The director takes time to narrate the sequences,
post murder the movie gets going swiftly thanks to a spot-on screenplay.
Vishal-Catherine romance is simple and sweet although the heroine’s
dubbing looks amiss, the very same thing which was appreciated in
Madras. The actress does her role pretty well in the love portions. It's
good to see Karunas back in the comedy avatar after a long time, he
comes as the usual stereotyped sidekick of the hero. With a plot braced
for interesting twists and turns, the director does take us on a role
not with some brainy investigations, but what would require out of a
situation in rather simple terms.
The movie has two songs, both in the
first half and they look to have been inserted for the sake of it; that
said, the BGM from Hip Hop tamizha is interesting and flows with the
script. His ability to increase the orchestration for critical scenes
shows how the musician has grown through the days. Plenty of portions
have been shot aesthetically in rain, the muddles of water around
apartments, bus travel, chase sequences all of these have been captured
brilliantly by Balasubramanian, kudos to the cinematographer for having
given a realistic touch. Sreejith Ravi as the cynical police officer
looks tailor made for the role; he comes in the second half and does his
job well. Another biggest plus of the movie is the runtime of 2 hours,
crisp editing and neat screenplay has done it for Kathakali.
