Inverse Karma

Susi Ganesan’s Kanthaswamy took its time before it appeared on the silver screen. The promotional stills of the movie were good. The music was what one would call okay. But once again fans of Tamil cinema had to put up with a movie that fell short of expectations. In fact, it slipped and fell a long way down deep hilarity! I watched the movie with a dozen friends and am totally grateful for it because its always easy to comment around friends rather than family. And that’s what you’ll be doing to sit through this movie!

The movie began with a bully inspector who pockets a lump sum of money meant for a lady and her family supposedly offered to save her husband by the Lord Kanthaswamy himself. He is aptly punished for his act by our hero the cock rooster. Vikram appears to a threatening slow music (which was surprisingly good) and does a cock uhm, rooster-dance fit to make any real rooster jealous! There begins the hilarity. It was like Ganesan silently told us that if Hollywood could experiment with arachnids, we could do justice to a creature that wakes us up every day! The storyline is obvious – the hero resorts to behind-the-scenes punishment for the rich who swindle government money and also plays Robin Hood with his band of merry talented men. Two minutes into the movie, you could guess that it is a cross between Sivaji and Anniyan. Ganesan doesn’t seem to mind that! Vikram’s sincerity is back with this movie. Anniyan inflated his head and Bheema taught him a just lesson. With Kanthaswamy, Vikram does what is expected of him. And he looks fit except in a few angles where age shows.

I would call Shreya the Charlie Chaplin of the movie! She has absolutely no purpose in the movie and the concept of the heroine being the villain’s daughter (and not knowing her daddy cool is after all a devil) is centuries old! Honestly, if daughters of bigwigs watch a couple of Tamil movies it they’d start fearing their dads are baddies. Shreya sports a hairstyle that makes her look like a psycho hybrid, and as if the meagre drapes she wears is too much she rips them off aptly for the situation at times; Well, look who saved Ganesan a lotta money on clothes! There is a scene in the movie where she enters in a velvet figure hugging dress with a cut right up her thigh and 2 guys go “looks like this time she has already ripped her dress”! You don’t have to worry about spending energy to be surprised about her acting skills and all as she makes no attempts at it. RJ Suchi’s voice-over for her emotes way far better than what Shreya shows on her face. With the lipsync out of the loop in a few places this only looks unnatural. And Ganesan seems to have saved money on choreography too, because the the steps Shreya performs look lifted straight off from a Shakira video and with time we are convinced that her hips do lie because it gets absolutely monotonous. Nothing about the picturization for the songs is worth mentioning. They are shot at different locations just for the sake of it (remember they saved money? This is where they put it!) Vikram’s feminine makeup is sure to bring a lotta giggles. He’s good but too very manly for it! I appreciate Ganesan for the thought regarding the fight sequences where the hero has complete backup – right from BGM to hooks and wires from his friends. It is well-orchestrated and that makes it believable. But then I read this was already done in a couple of Hindi movies! ? Vadivelu’s comedy track was an unnecessary attachment. It looked like it was compulsorily made to fit the plot and it just didn’t gel.

I couldn’t help but go into peals in a scene were Vikram pulls out a blacksheep officer who tries to warn the villain by texting him. Vikram tells him that he wasn’t smart enough to note that the room has a signal jammer and points to the wall where – lo and behold – hangs a black box the size of a large pizza box and painted on it in bold white letters reads “SIGNAL JAMMER” In a world where everything is going nano, only Ganesan could think of something like this! And if that officer couldn’t read this big sign, wonder how he is part of an elite team that is out to hunt miscreants! Sigh.. I wish filmmakers would watch their own movies a dozen times before they show it to people!

The best form of hilarity ever was presented in the climax when one of the villains dances to a meaningless item number – thats not it – he does a pole dance in his underwear!! The audience was wheezing with laughter! No one really understood why it was in the movie! Maybe it’s from the formula book again – the villain’s downfall always happens wen he is dancing to an item number at the same time when the hero is on his heels. We’ve seen it even before “Aatama.. Therottama” happened and continues to happen! Let’s call it the Nero-fiddle mania!

On the whole Susi Ganesan’s attempt at infusing practicality into the minds of people in a shankerish way falls miserably short because of the lack of focus. Unsurprisingly, Sudhish Kamath’s review in The Hindu takes a huge crack at this. The only person who seems to have benefitted onscreen is Vikram – now that he has his head back on his shoulders, we could probably hope for mature stuff from him in the near future!

The Verdict: Kanthaswamy = Kaamedysaamy

My Rating:  

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