Kaththi Movie Review and RATING

ACTOR VIJAY KATHTHI MOVIE REVIEW:

If you've seen AR Murugadoss's Ramana, you are likely to agree that his Kaththi MOVIE is just a stylish version of the former made on a lavish budget, bigger star, bigger issue, prettier heroine (with no scope for performance) and a lot of melodrama (plight of farmers).

If Vijayakanth was the messiah of Ramana, he's replaced by Vijay in this film. It's evident in the scene where Jeeva (Vijay) tells his villagers not to give up farming even if he has to lose his life, after being bruised up by corrupt cops. He's taken back inside for another round of beating and we see hundreds of farmers weep. Doesn't it remind us of crucifixion?

TAMIL MOVIE KATHTHI MOVIE REVIEW:

Kaththi is a commercial film and naturally audiences except some heroism, action and romance in it. But here Murugadoss has portrayed his hero as a messiah, a man of the masses willing to even sacrifice his life. What would he do to make it a masala film? He smartly uses the dual hero concept by introducing us to a crook Kathiresan (Vijay), doing time in a Kolkata prison. As a rule in any film with two heroes, Kathiresan finds himself in the shoes of Jeeva.

Kathiresan as Jeeva is too cool to care about a bunch of senior citizens. But eventually when he comes to learn about Jeeva, he's ashamed and guilty. He plans on running away, but a scene requires him to show his heroic side. A pre-interval fight sequence where Kathiresan happily announces that he will henceforth be called Jeeva.

Post interval, we see Kathiresan gradually turning into another messiah of sorts. But his transformation from Kathiresan to Jeeva is not handled as convincingly as it ought to be. Murugadoss uses this section of the film to indict multinational corporations (MNC) who steal the livelihood of farmers and media for not willing to give villagers a voice.

Towards the end, Murugadoss goes all guns blazing to bore us with startling statistics about the takeover of MNCs. He talks about MNCs manufacturing strawberry-flavoured condoms when most children in villages don't even get to eat the fruit. Who even eats strawberries on a daily basis? Farmers would any day prefer some rice over fruits. It makes sense if you talk about other fruits such as apple being used in beauty products, but strawberry is a bad example. All this is extremely preachy and unrealistic to believe or even commend.

Kaththi does feature a few good moments. A fight sequence involving a bunch of coins is extremely well choreographed. The coins were donated for Jeeva's cause by a group of farmers now employed in low-life jobs. When he uses these coins to beat the henchmen sent by MNC stooges, there's a strong emotional reverberation to the scene. But it's also a flawed scene because the fight takes place in the dark, but for some reason audiences can very clearly see Vijay.

When this action sequence is repeated in the climax, it loses its charm because we appreciate something creative only the first time. It becomes monotonous when it's done the second time. But it's these masala moments that leave Vijay's fans into a frenzy.

Vijay shines in both the roles. As Jeeva, he does touch your heart with an honest performance. But Murugadoss's others characters are extremely weak. The film features the most uninspiring romantic track that makes us feel extremely sorry for Samantha.

The film would've still worked even without a heroine and a love portion. Neil Nitin Mukesh looked terrific in the initial moments, but once again suffers due to poorly developed character.

Kaththi, which translates to sword in English, is largely blunt at the important edges. It reeks of overdose of melodrama and the need to preach.

KATHTHI IN DETAILED VIEW:

KATHTHI Plot:

Kaththi is all about, how Jeevanandham, a social activist fight against a monstrous MNC company to restore farming. The other Vijay, ‘Kathiresan’, a small time thief, but an ultra intelligent youngster, who  swaps position with Jeevanandham because of destiny, and leads the war with the corporate heads by, Neil Nithin Mukesh, which tries to steal the fertile lands from villagers.
  KATHTHI Cast Performance:

Vijay as Jeevanandham & Kathiresan has delivered a lifetime performance, and showed a brilliant variety in both the roles, albeit not even a great makeover between both the roles. Samantha is cute and complements really well with Vijay for 3 songs, and her smile demands the viewers to take a note out of her as well.  Sathish’s one liners do not make us to ROFL, but it was enough to evoke much needed laugh in this social drama. Neil Nithin Mukesh deserves a special mention for delivering the dialogues beautifully, and he fits the bill perfectly as a chairman of an MNC.
  KATHTHI Direction & Screenplay:

It will be an understatement to say that, Murugadoss has mastered the skills of commercial film making. He has raised the bar once again, and mixed the colorful elements in the right proportion of a social drama, and penned an excellent screenplay. Though there are some logical loopholes; those have been brilliantly plastered by cinematic liberties. It will take another Murugadoss’ish effort to shadow ‘Kaththi’.

KATHTHI Technical aspects:

KATHTHI  Music – Anirudh has proven what he could do provided if he gets a big movie in his hand. The crowd erupts whenever ‘The Sword of Destiny’ starts to feature, and the youngsters go berserk when they see his name, on screen. This effort will put, Anirudh in a different league, and given his consistency, he is sure to go places.

KATHTHI Cinematography – With just a movie to his name prior to this one, George C William’s work is impressive. He has given a different tone to the ‘Jeevanandham’ episode, and captured the moods of ‘Kathiresan’ in a brighter shade. The jail breaking sequence, and the 360 degree flip inside the tunnel are jaw dropping.

KATHTHI Choreography – Shobi has understood the trap, rap, and kuthu genre to deliver a viral dance moves for all the three songs. The ‘Selfie Pulla’ will be the next big hit in the coming months, and will feature in all the dance competitions.

KATHTHI Action – Anal Arasu has taken an innovative route to script fight episodes. The pre interval block, and the climax fights are mind blowing, and sure to set a trend for the future movies. The cartwheel spin, and knife spin are, ‘once more’ materials.

KATHTHI Dialogues – Murugudoss has conveyed the much needed message to this generation via his brilliant dialogues, and made use of harsh facts to highlight the importance of water and farming. Vijay has voiced the powerful dialogues with a swag of his own to add more firepower to it.