2018, Tamil, Disney Hotstar, 8.7/10 IMDB, Directed by Ram Kumar
Amidst the overload of western influenced flicks, here’s to a home-made thriller which teases all your senses and still doesn’t brag itself of it’s worth.
Happy to witness a packed theater on a Monday afternoon show with audience cheering and lauding when the characters brave up.
Here is a strong applause to the team Raatsasan, especially Vishnu Visual for subtly entering in to the main arena to give a tuff to the big names and big banners. Lets welcome the youngster cheerfully for all the calmness he maintained throughout the movie, not an ounce of attitude or superheroness.
Kudos to the much acclaimed ‘Mundasupatti’ director Ram D, for proving his skills in a totally different genre. Music director of ‘Vishwaroopam’ Mr.Gibran, has to be given a huge chunk of the credit, that’s pouring the movie’s way.
The movie opens briefly with an assistant director Arun (Vishnu), giving up his passion and takes up a job in the police force due to family crisis. His passion to make a psychopath thriller induces him to sincerely collect and record the psycho killings across the globe.
The knowledge and the meticulously ledgered data, comes handy to him in nabbing the real life psycho killer of the city.
Now let me not go deep and give any spoilers, as I want you to enjoy the movie the way I did. Not much of gore than we are already exposed to in our country off late. So don’t shy away from the thriller and go ahead to watch it with friends.
Amala Paul with her magnetic eyes, does her charm to the movie. She plays a teacher and luckily the story doesn’t pressure her to do any of the heroine cliches, except for a 8 year old girl presumed to be hers, later disclaimed with a brief narration.
Characters of ‘Mundasupatti’ Ramdoss and Kaali Venkat stand out among many others throughout the length of the movie, as we are introduced to few new characters in the second half.
The first half make you wonder what is so special about that movie that wasn’t there in Director Myskin’s ‘Anjathee’, Arulnithi’s ‘Aaaraathu Sinam’ or Arun Vijay’s Kuttram23, but it slowly proves us wrong as our mind voice literally says, this is ‘Adhukkum Mela’..
You get to wonder why the girl characters in their teens are putting up with a misbehaving male faculty and it does annoy you with all the good touch bad touch initiatives we have put them through, it hurts us to see them still falling prey. But hey, later on you are given a braver version of 5 bolder tips especially to the teens who are facing, sexual abuses of all sorts. Special kudos for that..
The villain’s story is new and before you doubt if this will go down well to justify all the gore and murders, you get newer dynamics to keep us totally on the edge of the seat. The racy screenplay is too engaging yet beautifully kept in the trademark low profile.
The Assistant Commisioner character played by Suzan does irritate you with her reluctant acting and constipated looks, not pretty sure if that’s what the director wanted us to feel. If so, we have a winning performance. She does exactly that.
Clues to kindle curiosity to what the story is about, who the killer is, are sparing, except for the the name of the movie sporting in Piano keys backdrop, soapy bubbles, recordable hearing aid and a few more(don’t want to give away too much).
I am personally happy for the team, to see the audience cheer away when the characters work smart and sighs away when target is missed. The hearing impaired little girl is phenomenal with her expressions in the climax.
An extra mention for the gripping second half and for proving you can catch the attention of the audience with no big names, no big banners, no big cast, no VFX, no CG, no big opening on first day, no sloppy song sequence abroad, no love track..
Just a plain humble thriller.. In spite of limited theaters and limited show timings, just by the word of mouth the movie has succeeded. There are many ifs and buts but no room for postmortem as you walk out contended..
Expectations are rising high now that the director’s next venture is with actor Dhanush.