{"id":1102,"date":"2019-10-26T12:17:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T06:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/?p=1102"},"modified":"2019-10-26T12:17:33","modified_gmt":"2019-10-26T06:47:33","slug":"kaithi-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/2019\/10\/26\/kaithi-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaithi review: A near-perfect thriller with phenomenal performances, but something still nags me about it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My biggest grouse with Maanagaram <\/em>(2017)\u2014Kaithi<\/em>-director\nLokesh Kanagaraj’s debut film\u2014is that it makes the idea of ‘new life in a new\nplace’ an entirely male endeavour. It hero-fies the stalker; makes\nviolence-against-women a plot device, only to show us the depths to which the\naforementioned stalker will plunge, ironically used to depict his\nredemption\u2014both are these are distinct problems, surely. But in a film that’s\nabout how the Metropolis treats its guests, women are mostly unwelcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Maanagaram<\/em>, Lokesh\nKanagaraj’s second film Kaithi<\/em> doesn’t have such grand aim as to\nreintroduce the Metropolis to its people, and therefore the obvious sausage\nfest isn’t a representation problem\u2014it’s a natural part of the world-building.\nSo much so that the filmmakers proudly announced that there is no ‘heroine’ in\nthe film\u2014as if the ‘heroine’ is a bane of Tamil cinema much like foreign duets,\nfarmer-issues and punch dialogues. While I don’t personally buy into a world\nlike that, I’m short of reasons to object to it in this film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaithi<\/em> begins with a fantastically written and shot prologue setting up the premise, introducing the characters and laying out the film’s central conflict. This part of the film is so tightly made that you could blink and miss key information\u2014for instance, Hareesh Peradi\u2019s character is introduced in a passing shot. But the prologue is also one of those sequences where it tells us so much, even as its showing so little\u2014for instance, the IG worrying about his legacy, even as he\u2019s bleeding from the ear is so telling! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, this prologue is all the\n‘explanation’ we ever get\u2014this is the ‘why’. When the credits roll, after this\nextended prologue, we involuntarily sit up, expecting something new, something\nunlike anything we’ve seen before. And Kaithi<\/em> delivers, for the most\npart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writing of Kaithi<\/em> is stellar.\nFrom tiny conflicts, like the lorry-owner Kamatchi’s passive aggressive navigation\nin the beginning, to the mounting piles of bodies towards the end, the film\nescalates tension in tactful measures. The film’s emotional angle also unravels\nitself in similar measures, almost perfectly in parallel\u2014even if sometimes too\nperfect for my liking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with so many characters and their expansive\nlives, the writers give us something to understand each person. George Maryan,\nwho plays Napoleon, takes a detour to wear his uniform when commissioned to\nduty, despite running into dire straits. The woman stuck in the commissioner\u2019s\noffice pulls out the safety pin that\u2019s folding her dupatta up to attack the\nenemy\u2014immediately after, her dupatta is used to tie up another. The telephone conversation\nbetween Dilli and the watchman at his daughter\u2019s orphanage is a thoughtful\nmoment in an \u2018action\u2019 film. On paper, the film must have been a riveting read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On screen, the film comes alive. Every\ndialogue, every performance, every stunt sequence is pitch perfect. The\nforeshadowing is serendipitous. The jokes are few, but most of them land in the\nright place\u2014the one about how the world has changed in ten years is a delight. The\nongoing dig on the law enforcement is a pleasure. Some\nalcohol-related-college-humour feel juvenile, but hey, maybe that’s what the\nyouth of these days enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film works owing in no small part to\nKarthi’s retrained performance\u2014he’s the ‘hero’, if you will, with the mass\nscenes, build up, backstory and things. But he doesn’t let that overpower him.\nHe stays true to being Dilli, which I hear is a big deal in and of itself among\nTamil stars these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not just Karthi, the casting throughout\nthe film is fitting. George Maryan as Napoleon is the one person you can’t not\nroot for\u2014in the dark grey world. Dheena as Kamatchi brings a fair share of\nvulnerability and comedy into the film, where everyone else is putting up a\nbrave face. Narain swings between being the desperate cop and the wannabe\ncaptain of the ship with great relatability. Kanna Ravi as the undercover\nrookie makes us take notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the best part of Kaithi<\/em> is Philomin Raj’s superlative editing. He deftly stitches together the various parallel tracks, gradually building up to the climax. He cleverly even matches the tempo of the restless anxiety of a ten-year-old girl anticipating a guest and the drug-induced paranoid anxiety of the drug lord. Sam CS provides an exceptional company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spite of all the brilliance I saw on screen, there is something that still nags me. Lokesh Kanagaraj relies so heavily on femininity to bring emotion into his action film. Dilli\u2019s wife, Viji, we\u2019re told is the reason for his reform. Dilli\u2019s daughter, Amudha, we\u2019re told is the reason for his return. His parole officer\u2014Malavika Avinash makes an interesting appearance\u2014we gather is his current nurturer, meant to keep him in his reformed ways. The only man with a girlfriend in the film is destined to die\u2014he dies just as she says \u2018I love you\u2019 to him. The men talk to each other about \u201cpondaatti, kudumbam\u201d more than once. In that, women of Kaithi<\/em> are a tool, like the gun or the lorry. They are there and they\u2019re unavoidable, but they can do nothing by or for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is too soon to tell\u2014this is merely his second film\u2014but I\u2019ll\nbite: Lokesh Kanagaraj is building the quintessential man\u2019s world. While he\nacknowledges the existence of women and has even developed an eye for their\nexperiences\u2014there is a stark improvement from women of Maanagaram<\/em> to\nwomen of Kaithi<\/em>\u2014he\u2019s involuntarily erasing their existence by making\nthem the emotional anchor. And this for me, continues to be the gripe with this\nundeniably skilful filmmaker\u2019s work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In spite all the brilliance I saw on screen, there is something that still nags me: Lokesh Kanagaraj is building the quintessential man\u2019s world. While he acknowledges the existence of women and has even developed an eye for their experiences, he\u2019s involuntarily erasing their existence by making them the emotional anchor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}