Vijay's Kaththi review

The much awaited Tamil movie Kaththi hit theatres on today after much delay and controversy. Before we tell you more about the film, let's take a look at the movie crew.

Directed by AR Murugadoss

Produced by K. Karunamoorthy, A. Subhaskaran

Written by AR Murugadoss

Starring Vijay, Samantha Ruth Prabhu

Music by Anirudh Ravichander

Cinematography George C. Williams

Edited by A. Sreekar Prasad

Production company Ayngaran International, Lyca Productions

Distributed by Ayngaran International, Eros International

Kaththi is a 2014 Tamil action thriller film scripted and directed by AR Murugadoss. The film stars Vijay in a dual role alogside Samantha Ruth Prabhu. Neil Nitin Mukesh, Tota Roy Chowdhury and Sathish play supporting roles. Anirudh Ravichander composed the film's soundtrack and score. Cinematography was done by George C. Williams and the film was edited by A. Sreekar Prasad. Lyca Productions and Ayngaran International bankrolled the venture and Eros International purchased the theatrical and audio rights for the film.

Filming:

The film was started or launched in Kolkata on 3 February 2014 by its producers Ayngaran International with a pooja ceremony in front of the Kalighat Kali Temple, after which principal photography began. The first schedule of filming was done on Kolkata and Hyderabad.

Music:

The Music album and background music were composed by Anirudh Ravichander. The Music album consists of seven songs. The audio launch took place on 18 September 2014, at the Leela Palace Hotel in Chennai.

Here are things you must know about the movie before you book your tickets

Plot:

International gangster Vivek (Tota Roy Chowdhury) is being tracked down by the police. The police enlisted the help of criminal mastermind Kathiresan (Vijay) to assist with the chase. After a cat and mouse chase, Vivek is grievously injured and put in jail and swears revenge on Kathiresan. When he finally finds Kathiresan he finds he is only a shadow of what he used to be

1. This is Vijay's second collaboration with AR Murugadoss after Thuppaki which was a Box Office success

2. Tollywood's golden girl Samantha will play Vijay's love interest in the movie

3. Going by the trailer the movie promises to be a pacy thriller

4. This too will perhaps be an underdog Vs big guns story

5. Watch out for Neil Nithin Mukesh, the new baddie in K town!

6. It will be a double dhamaka for the fans of Ilayathalapathy as Vijay will be seen in dual role

7. Anirudh Ravichander has composed the soundtrack and score.

8. The film has been voted as the most anticipated Tamil film of the year

9. In the movie Neil fights the hero with his intelligence

10. The movie launch happened at the Kalighat temple in Kolkata

11. The movie has been extensively shot in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. A few scenes were canned in Kadapa and Nellore too

12. The satellite rights of the movie is believed to have been acquired by Jaya TV for a whopping price

13. The first look and trailer has got phenomenal views within minutes after it went viral on YouTube

14. However, a few movie buffs alleged that the 41-second motion picture was a copy of a foreign Ad

15. Minjur Gopi filed a case against Murugadoss, claiming that the plot of the film was copied from his novel Mootha Kudi. Responding to the issue, Murugadoss said that he was neither aware of Minjur nor that his story was a copy, further citing the allegation as a tactic by the plaintiff to garner free publicity. The court dismissed the petition ruling in favour of Murugadoss

Controversy:

The movie release was in jeopardy after protests by Tamil groups who claimed that Lyca Productions has links with Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa who's been accused of being responsible for the deaths of innocent Tamilians. They wanted Lyca's name removed from the credits. The makers had no choice but to budge as lakhs of the actor's fans would be disappointed if the movie release was further delayed

Click Here for: Vijay's Kaththi Twitter Review, Rating Must Read Tweets!

Full story here:

Review by Haricharan Pudipeddi

If you've seen A.R. Murugadoss's "Ramana", you are likely to agree that his "Kaththi" 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?

"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.

Rating2.5/5

Take a look at the trailer of the movie which gives a peek into the story:

We will soon be back with the report on box office collection. So, come back for all the movie updates.