A movie with a social message doesn’t automatically become a good movie. Tamil film directors should keep this in mind. Movies like Sakthi Thirumagan got major flak from Sanghi groups just because it had a “Brahmin” villain. All they care about is that one thing, not the quality of the movie or how one-note the villain is. That’s not the only problem with this movie.

Cast: Vijay Anthony, Trupthi Ravindra, Sunil Kriplani, Cell Murugan, Vaagai Chandrasekhar, Harini Sundarrajan, and many others.

Crew: Arun Prabu (Director), Shelley R. Calist (Cinematography), Raymond Derrick Crasta Dinsa (Editor), Vijay Anthony (Music).

In one of the earliest scenes, two individuals are cheated by the PA of an MLA, and they meet Kittu (Vijay Anthony) in a series of Jump cuts. We are shown how effective and brainy Kittu is. The Director used such minimal time to tell us about the Character and his motivations. In the same way, he introduces the Villain, who uses minimal screen time to convey his power, a major strength of the film.

While the Jump cuts are an interesting editing technique, they’ve been overused in the film, squeezing in too much information so we don’t feel the emotional depth but are just presented with mere scenes and information.

While the heart is in the right place, and it was brilliantly executed in the first half, the second half is a huge letdown. I felt it was rushed and much more cinematic. Eventhough we haven’t come across someone like Kittu in real life, the believability was key, and the same was broken down into pieces and made into a Tamil Cinemaisq preachy, Slo-mo, elevation moments, which completely ruined, and that Hero-Villian final face-off was a big ROFL which could have been avoided.

If you’re not going to use the leading lady to move the story, why even have one? I mean, from the Director who debuted with Aruvi and had a fantastic woman character in Vaazh to not using Women in his third film? What a downfall, man!

Not to mention the Villain, again Abhayankar Swamy (Sunil Kriplani) had a great Introduction but ended up being your one-note villain only to be outwitted by the hero? The villain’s downfall was unsatisfactory, and, as I mentioned, most of them lacked emotional depth so we could feel for Kittu or Abhayankar.

Tamil Cinema is going through a massive piss poor Second Half syndrome. The Directors come up with these amazing setups, but somehow fail to tie them into a satisfactory conclusion or a good Second and Third Acts. It is high time Tamil Cinema Producers have good Writers in the team to fix all these messes. It will do us, the audience, and the Industry a greater good.

Overall, what started as a great movie turned into a huge Dud! What is your opinion on this film? Do tell me in the comments.

Until next time, Ciao 😎