How do you like to see Vijay? As an entertainer or a preacher? This is the first and foremost question you’ll have to ask about yourselves before watching ‘Kaththi’. And for the ones, ready to experience his avatar in any dimension, then the next question is that whether they would keep getting amused with the screen presence of Vijay or is the script really necessary to keep them engaged? Hope you have understood what we are trying to convey, if not have a complete glimpse on our review of Vijay-Samantha-Neil Nitin Mukesh starrer ‘Kaththi’ directed by AR Murugadoss.

Synopsis

On his escape from Kolkata prison, the small time criminal Kathiresan (Vijay) comes down to Chennai seeking the help of his friend (Satish) to produce a fake passport and fly Bangkok. Over there at airport, he falls in love with a beautiful girl (Samantha) and decides to stay back here in Chennai. During this moment, both Kathiresan and his friend come across a stranger being shot terribly, he finds that the person name is Jeevanandham (Vijay again) and is completely identical in his looks. While admitting him in the hospital, he decides to have a change in identity and act as Jeevanandham and manages to send the original person as mistaken identity into the prison. Nevertheless, he is urged by situations to take up a new role in the society.

Performance

Vijay’s different avatars as Jeevanandham and Kathiresan are a real surprise to everyone. It is a special surprise to everyone indeed. In fact, his role as Kathiresan is very well etched with significance in different dimensions. But what happens to be a little disappointment is that Jeevanandham loses his identity and is seen as a normal being till the last minute. There is no strength to his characterisation and the director keeps the fans wait till the end that he might have something to do with his fist of anger, but doesn’t make it. Samantha appears only for the sake of entertainment factors. She tries to woo the audiences with her oomph factors flexing muscles for the songs, but has nothing to deliver on the level of performance. Neil Nitin Mukesh delivers a power-packed performance and even the fans accept his villainous gesture in few places.

Plus

Firstly, it is the basic theme that Murugadoss has handled. Farmers suffer from drought and suicides, which remains to be normal news to city people and media channels considering it as an ordinary news to be written in just seven lines or less. Vijay’s characterisation as Kathiresan is the biggest plus. The dialogues of AR Murugadoss expressing the thoughts of communism and anti-industrial exploitation of nature resources are brilliantly crafted. The reference to 2G scam and the lines like “Why do you make soaps out of milk and fruits that is denied to many. A luxurious man needs ‘Strawberry’ flavour in condoms denies a kid in poverty to taste the fruit at least once in lifetime” are awesome.

Minus

The director has failed to utilise or balance the substantiality between two different avatars of Vijay in a right manner. According to the situation, Jeevanandham is the real hero and is ‘Ahimsa’ has cost his life almost. But Kathiresan is a violent young man. But again, this had to be clearly justified. The screenplay is so flimsy, especially during first half and second half has very few interesting moments.

As on whole, ‘Kaththi’ can be regarded best on its theme, but the treatment completely goes down the line of average. If the screenplay was made gripping avoiding the unwanted elements in the film, it would have surely impressed the audience much more than ‘Thuppakki’.

Verdict : Doesn’t exceed your expectations

Stars : 2.5/5