Kanithan (Tamil, 2016)

Atharva is perhaps doing what Vikram Prabhu was doing in being bold enough to choose subjects that do not fall under the ‘Masala Mass Hero’ bracket yet not straying away from being ‘Commercial’. He is convincing as the hot-blooded journalist who uses brain rather than brawn as his release weapon more often than not. He emotes, fights & dances well – to sum up a perfect ‘Hero’ material.

Tarun Arora is one the best choices of villains in recent times. He doesn’t go overboard raising his voice but clearly thinks his way out of tough situations instead of opting to go all guns blazing. The fact that his thinking “shows” on his face is testament to his acting skills & the direction skills of Santhosh. His clincher dialogue can very well be, “Don’t wait for me. Finish him”.

Often we have young directors opting for technology just to show the film is a high-budgeted one & not for a serious purpose. But writer-director Santhosh uses tonnes of info-graphics on screen to move his story forward & it is credit to the visual effects team that none of them are tacky.

The investigative thriller banks on a lot of stunts & a fast-moving camera to raise the tempo. The technical team of cinematographer Arvind Krishna, editor Bhuvan, background score composer Chinna & the stunt coordinators has done a fantastic job in making these believable, realistic & relevant.

It is undeniable that the film has a solid germane core about a young man uncovering a racket which he considers his prime duty as a wannabe investigative reporter. However, it blatantly shows that someone has meddled with the Santhosh’s script inserting ridiculous sequences surrounding the heroine that spoil the tempo so much that he has to kill off somebody to get back the seriousness. Senior actors such as Naren & Bhakyaraj are also left underused.

Not sure if it was the theatre where we watched the film, but the songs were a complete earsore. Not even one was listenable & it is evident that the oozing glamour is for masking the lack of quality in the songs towards making it watchable.

There are quite a few places where the dialogues sound highly amateurish and there is ample showboating from the protagonist (mouthing dialogues to the camera & not a person + throwing certificates onto the camera) which takes the gloss off the film.