If Kaththi Sandai’s fate rested solely on the variety of shades the film’s lead – Vishal as Arjun – sports, it would’ve been a winner.
Sadly for director Suraj and his team, the movie-going public these days have the temerity to demand more.
Like a semblance of an original screenplay.
Or horror of horrors, a story.
******
Kaththi Sandai is as quaint as its title. Suraj remixes age-old commercial film elements (dumb heroine, wily hero, bad, bad heroine’s brother) to come up with the sort of mess that needs to be seen to be believed. But be warned, this stale concoction of political bad boys and the underdogs that go against them cannot be unseen.
The film has Arjun (Vishal) in a sort of Robin Hood meets Peter Pan character, that sets off all sorts of creep alerts. In the first half the insecure man-child hero tries to win over an extremely good looking girl Divya, played by an I’m-tired-of-this-shit Tamannaah. As always, the girl is obviously out of his league – richer, and several shades fairer, Suraj takes pains to point out.
To this end, Arjun employs several worn-out tropes (flashback, re-incarnation) to get her to fall in love with him.
In further displays of insecurity, there are several references to the colour of Vishal’s skin. Naan Konjam Karuppu Dhaan, he sings.
Yes, I want to tell him. We all can see that.
Aiding him in this entirely unnecessary bid is Soori, who is forced to play a dance teacher who lusts after Vishal and disappears soon after his job is done, to make way for Vadivelu perhaps.
The entire first half of the film is, as usual, devoted to songs (yawn!), some equal opportunity belly flashing (both Vishal and Tamannaah) and a star cast who should have known better than to have signed up for this.
******
In an inspired bit of casting, Jagapathi Babu plays Tamannaah’s brother in the film. In the good-looking stakes, he beats Vishal easily. But gets pummeled on-screen in return.
******
I wish Vishal and stars of his ilk would stop doing these self-referential, ‘build up’ films. Kaththi Sandai has one purpose and one only. To showcase the masculinity of its star, his girl-getting and villain-beating skills.
Recommended
This has already been done in Aambala, Marudhu, and countless other films he has done. And yet, Vishal wastes his time with a different version of these. Suraj recycles Tamil cinema sequences of the eighties. And in the middle of all this, is a pouty Tamannaah, who looks like she wants to move to an alternate reality. Far far away from sexist cinema, over-muscled stars and dialogues like:
“Ella kadhallayum oru poi irukku
Aana un poila oru kaadhal irukku”
We understand, Tamannaah. We really do. Just take us with you.
*****
The Kaththi Sandai review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.