KATHTHI SANDAI Movie Review

Vishal’s Kaththi Sandai, directed by Suraaj has finally released among much expectations, because of the comeback of Vaigai Puyal Vadivelu. How has this action comedy entertainer fulfilled the audience’s expectations? Read on to know.

The very first scene of the movie is a car - lorry chase scene, which reminds and tells you that you are going to watch a Suraaj movie. From there on, the film takes a diversion into romance which occupies almost the entire first half. Vishal falls in love with Tamannaah and uses Soori as his sidekick to make the girl fall in love with him.

In this love, Vishal makes his contact with Jagapathi Babu strong, who is a Deputy Commissioner of Police. What happens when Vishal locks horns with Jagapathi Babu for a mission? There are lots and lots of action packed elements in the film to answer this question.

Talking about action, more than the stunts, the sound is the element which is jarring. Glasses break, barricades break, cars fly, even pillar walls break down into pieces. There’s so much of commercial masala stuff added into the screenplay, which forces you to close your ears. The film was promoted with Vadivelu, but the much-hyped Dr.Boothri doesn’t travel throughout the film as promised. He shares some thirty to forty minutes in the second half with Vishal, which has some signature body languages of his. Those mannerisms will be easily loved by the audience, but on the whole, if you ask if there’s comedy throughout, it is a question mark.
The makers have intended to make you laugh, but you don’t laugh at all the places. Soori’s comedies in the first half work way better than Vadivelu's. Soori's introduction might be weak and hyped, but thereafter he scores well with Mahabalipuram sequence and Biriyani comedy. The pre-interval portion twist is enjoyable, which sets up the stage for an exciting second half. Unfortunately, the film highly loses its engagement in the second half with an uninteresting memory loss portion playing a big part. The screenplay is very much outdated and highly tried by many directors, including Suraaj.

Vishal does the role of a commercial film’s actor perfectly. His dance moves are good to watch, apart from good stunts. Same is the case with Tamannaah, who has nothing much to offer, apart from falling in love and shaking legs with Vishal. Soori, as said earlier, is enjoyable and decent. People roar for Vadivelu’s entry, but his slapstick comedy where he is getting beaten up by Vishal isn’t laughable or interesting. However, he speaks the dialogues in his signature style that might work for some.

Hiphop Tamizha’s songs have already been received well by the audience. His background score gets suppressed by the sound effects, which is loud. Richard’s camera work is good giving ample support to the pace of the movie. One might wonder if Suraaj had a confusion to make this film as a comedy entertainer or an action entertainer. The film is in between these two. There are comedy and action juggling, and out of nowhere comes the sentiment portions, which occupy the last twenty minutes of the film.

Suraaj has tried to convey an important message in this portion, but it is not effective due to the impact created by the first two hours of the movie. The dialogues about politics and election freebies are noteworthy. As a director, Suraaj has followed his commercial template format and has experimented nothing new.