Jealousies, disharmonies, distractions and arrogance are the greatest threat to an artist as many say. Unfortunately, it becomes an inborn infestation among few characters that completely ruin the art and its artist. Kaaviya Thalaivan as Vasantha Balan claimed is based on some real life dramatists who existed during the pre-independence era.  Produced by Sashikanth and Varun Manian, the film stars Siddarth, Prithviraj and Vedhika in lead roles with Nasser, Ponvannan, Thambi Ramaiah and many others in crucial roles...

Story

Set in the backdrops of pre-independence era, a versatile arts and drama personality Nasser owns a theatre group of many talents that include his sons like Siddarth and Prithviraj. Both of them are so much acquainted as brothers. When Ponvannan, a senior artist from same group confronts with Nasser and walks away, situations rise for the Guru to select one among Siddarth and Prithviraj to essay the Rajapaat role. In spite of performing with such elegance, Nasser prefers Siddarth for his unique newness, which leaves Prithviraj in vain. He turns up with his antagonistic and evil ideas revealing his Guru the relationship between Siddarth and Zamindar’s daughter Anaika Soti. Infuriated over the misbehaviour of Siddarth, Nasser curses and banishes him away from the group. Things get terrible when Siddarth after knowing that his girlfriend with his baby in her womb has ended her life and he curses Nasser leaving him dead.  What happens next is the series of unknown confrontations that Prithviraj exhibits and situations urge them to rub shoulders together again.

Performance

Prithviraj deserves the best of all praises. Being a Malayali and uttering Tamil dialogues might not be a tougher job. But he gets manifested for a mind-boggling performance with rendition of literature Tamil lines. It’s been many years Siddarth was seen in such a role, maybe it dates back to his Rang De Basanti days. Both these actors leave us speechless during the final conversation in climax and Prithviraj’s final act is a gesture of confessions and tears. Vedhika tries her best to score and yes she does, but with slight hyper activeness. Anaika Soti is the only mismatch to this film and she looks completely artificial to this character and complete scenario. Nasser expresses his wizardry yet again. Ponvannan appears in only few scenes and he is remarkable. Thambi Ramaiah gets a neat role after long time and Singam Puli is good.

Plus

Vasanth Balan deserves great praise for picking up an unconventional theme and his producers making it happen. There are few sequences like pre-intermission one for 20 minutes followed by Sollividu song sequence and the final confrontation that leaves us in emotional bond. Background score by AR Rahman emblazons each and every scene with elegance. There are few scenes which without his musical score would have been a dull boredom. The songs are tremendous and pictured well.

Minus

Since major portion of this film is set in backdrops of Stage plays and theatres, the contemporary audiences might not be favouring it. The screenplay during early minutes of first half is sluggish and suddenly we feel the film’s duration is quite lengthy until the climax arrives that diminishes it. The editing is little amateur and casting of Anaika is disappointing.

Overall, Kaaviya Thalaivan has beautiful essence of emotions set in the unusual backdrops. It is partly engaging and AR Rahman stands out as the hero during many portions.

Verdict : Might not be a commercial hit, but an usual surprise in Tamil cinema

Stars : 3/5