Kaappaan Movie Review
A reasonably engaging action thriller!
Performances
Story & Narration
Technical Aspects & Music
KV Anand’s films have always touched different concepts and premises, and his Kaappaan is no different. On a big scale, the film brings us the stories of the SPG and their struggles, and strings together the proceedings around the events that take place with the assassination of a PM at the centre stage.
The biggest plus points of Kaappaan are the ideas that KV Anand brings to the table through with his writer Pattukottai Prabhakar, but they stay good on paper and aren’t so worthy when translated on to the screen. Unlike his marquee films like Ayan and Ko, the twists here seem forced and aren’t quite novel or nicely revealed. Yet, what keeps the film going is that it keeps hopping forward with various characters coming into the frame and making us play the guessing game on the whole. This is where KV Anand could have used up some more time to extend the depth of his characters, so that it would have helped us connect with them more. After a decent first half, things get flat in the second half with some heavily dialogue-oriented scenes, only to come back to form in the climax sequence where there’s some regaining of energy and excitement.
Suriya has a very stylish character to sport, and he pulls it off superbly, especially with the look of a commando which suits him well. As always, he is very good with the stunts and the emotional scenes, though it goes overboard when it comes to the ones about the farmers. Mohanlal is an apt fit to the role, while Arya has some enjoyable sequences in the second half. Sayyeshaa luckily gets good role to play, being the only woman in the proceedings and performing well in the scenes given to her. The rest of the actors such as Samudhrakani, Prem and Boman Irani are straight-faced and don’t have much to do.
However, the baddie Chirag Jani is a surprisingly good addition, having an impressive presence. He could go places hereon.
Kaappaan could have been a little better when it comes to the technical work, which would have resulted in a slightly better end result. While the cinematography is neat, the editing has a lot of humps and bumps. The music by Harris Jayaraj too doesn’t add much value to the film, but for the track Hey Amigo.
KV Anand’s films are usually packed with interesting twists and turns, but here in Kaappaan, they might not be as interesting as you want it to be. The repetitive farmer-cheering and political influences could have been cut down to show us more about the SPG and the enticing bio-war angle in the film. At the end, the film is clumsy but still a middling, watchable fare. Kaappaan Movie Review by Siddarth Srinivas