As a cultural commodity, pure action movies are hard to find in Indian film industry. The directors ability to keep the audience hooked through out is a challenge, when the film is devoid of songs, romance and female lead cast. Very few directors and film takes up that kind of challenge. This is where Lokesh Kanagaraj's Kaithi scores high. He focuses on the simple premise and execution to deliver a hard hitting action flick of this year. Kaithi is based on a news article and the plot is about a prisoner on parole is forced to help a police officer on a deadly mission. How he does and what sacrifices he has to make forms the crux of the movie. Karthi registers a terrific presence and performance. There is a fine balance between action, plot, drama and unexpected comedy. The pace and energy never lets you down. There are couple of characters which is a stand out apart from Karthi. The constable Napoleon character was done to perfection and the truck cleaner boy is a great find. I loved the way the director packaged the story with enough emotional flashbacks without actually showing it (similar to how the film Magamuni handled it). The editing was top notch and the way narrative threads loops back between the police station and truck drive story is commendable. Lokesh employs effective narration when all these stories converge at a point. There are some superbly choreographed action stretches and some of them were just over the top for sure. Now this being commercial action cinema, there are aspects that is forced into like the mass moments, an unnecessary reload for the saying Heroes never die which does indeed affected my viewing experience. But you know what the audience were whistling all around for those kind of scenes. The film isn’t quite what it could have been but i cant complain as it kept me hooked and never bored me. Now coming to the climax scene, i dont know how to conceive that yet, is the Rambo act too much or is it a fitting one. One thing is sure if there is a sequel i will definitely go for it.
Verdict - 3.5/5(An engaging watch)
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