Kaatru Veliyidai

It breaks my heart to say this, but this film felt like someone else was trying to make a Mani Ratnam film by fusing all his signature elements which ended up looking plastic and fake. The short dialogues, the quirky nicknames, the mirror shots, the landscapes, the choreography, the intensity, everything looked forced and fake. And it didn’t help that the film had a terrible protagonist whose character was utterly confusing and was played by an even more confused Karthi who seemed alarmingly out of place, playing a sophisticated Mani Ratnam hero. He just couldn’t fit the character or even look the part! Someone like a Prithviraj, Dulquer, Siddharth or even Simbu could’ve been far better choices to carry off at least however fleshed out that character was. Aditi also tried hard, does a lot better than Karthi; but even she didn’t stay in my mind once I left the movie. Didn’t feel any sort of empathy or connection with any of the characters/performances (except KPAC Lalitha and Delhi Ganesh who are wasted in minuscule roles) and there was no moment that touched me in the entire movie – these two are the basic prerequisites of any Mani Ratnam film. Didn’t see any of that magic happening here, except in AR Rahman’s criminally under-utilised songs (that sublime Nallai Allai song is ruined by Karthi lip-syncing without any passion, and with his sunglasses on) and Ravi Varman’s cinematography. And yea, all that narration throughout the movie made me feel like I was watching a lazily made Gautham Menon movie. The only good part about this movie for me was that I could get to see a lot of Mani Ratnam interviews as part of the promotions, where he talked about his stellar works from the past. And of course, the amazing music by AR Rahman.