Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Kaththi - A Real Diwali Treat from A.R.Murugadoss.

Story -
The script revolves around the Vijay Duo - one a social activist fighting for a cause named Jeevanandham & the other an intelligent thief named Kathiresan aka Kaththi. Kaththi is on the run after escaping from jail, comes across an attempted murder where the victim is none other than Jeevanandham. Kaththi in order to escape from Police switches his identity, while Jeevanandham is imprisoned, Kaththi steps in Jeevanandham's shoes to escape. How Jeevanandham escapes from the prison, What changes Kaththi? Will Jeevanandham succeed in his fight against the MNC & it's owner, played by super talented Neil Nitin Mukesh forms the rest of the story.

Performances - 
Vijay has done a terrific job in handling both the characters. While he underplays the character of Jeevanandham, he shines in the role of Kaththi. The entire film rides on this character & Vijay with his mannerisms lives the character. Samantha Ruth Prabhu is there only for the songs. Neil Nitin Mukesh is superb as the villain. He's shown inferior to Vijay's Kaththi character but then that's because of the characterization. His expressions gets full marks. Sathish playing Vijay's friend is funny but it's not a character that's totally brainless as we usually see in big commercial films.

Direction, Screenplay & Dialogues -
A.R. Murugadoss is a magician. Making a commercial film out of a social cause is possible only by him now. He makes a cameo in the second half, hats off to him for the idea behind the entire second half. The only glitch is the initial loopholes but they're overcome by the strong script, performances & ARM's direction.
And now for the real deal, DIALOGUES. A.R.Murugadoss deserves an award for his dialogues. They're so powerful & yet meaningful is simply fantastic. Let me share few masterstrokes...
> When Vijay explains Communism as "After we eat our share of food, whatever is left belongs to the next person is called Communism".
> When Vijay bangs "Vijay Mallya" without even taking his name "A beer factory owner takes a loan of 5000 crores & says he'll not the pay it back. Neither the owner committed suicide nor the banks that loaned him commit suicide. A farmer takes 5000rs loan & he's forced to commit suicide"
> And then the next masterstroke "We even need our condoms in strawberry flavor and our poor children can only dream of ever eating a strawberry in their life".

Technical Department -
Technically Kaththi is brilliant, first I have to salute the cinematographer George C.Williams for his outstanding visuals throughout. The 360 degree shot in the pipe which was shown in the teaser is mindblowing. The music from Anirudh is chartbuster written all over it but what needs the special mention is the Background Music which is clearly the best of this year. Next, the action... wow every single one of them clap-worthy & whistle worthy. This is how it's done, the pre-interval fight & the climax fight, Anl Arasu take a bow man.

Positives - 
1. The strong story & especially the hard hitting scenes.
2. Vijay's performance throughout.
3. The coin fight scene. I am darn sure everyone will copy it in the future. The entire strategy of turning off the lights & just turning it on for a second when Vijay flips a coin, just enough to beat the hell out of the bad guys. Nobody can simply sit & watch the scene. People in my screen were jumping from their seats throughout.
4. The entire flashback, introducing Vijay's Jeevanandham character in the first half itself. Weak hearted will shed tears for sure. It's such heart wrenching looking at the fate of all those poor villagers.
5. The best scene of this year.. The entire taking over of the water supply to Chennai by Vijay & his team of old men. The idea itself needs the applause. The entire 15mins was met with non-stop cheers.
6. Effectively showing the true face of our media who are just hungry for news & nothing else.
7. The climax fight, completely filmy but nevertheless thoroughly entertaining. Especially Vijay & Neil Nitin Mukesh's facial expressions.
8. The background music by Anirudh & the strong dialoues backed by superb visuals.

Negatives -
1. The film takes the same liberties as every double role film. It hampers the film initially only.
2. Samantha's character is only there for the songs. Thankfully there are only 3 songs.
3. The initial 10-15 mins seems to put logic in the backseat. But thankfully after that Kaththi teams takes us all for a stormy ride.

My Rating - 3.5/5 (Would've been 4 if it was not for those cinematic liberties taken.)

Final Word - Kaththi is pure mass as well as class film, a real Diwali Treat. A.R.Murugadoss shows how it's done.

No comments:

Post a Comment