Review Overview
Performances
Story & Narration
Technical Aspects & Music
An engrossing, entirely engaging thriller.
Kolaigaran grips the viewer with delicious adaptation and extremely neat execution, resulting in a solid film at a runtime of under two hours. Overall, is a very intriguing thriller that guarantees a good time at the theater.
Cast: Arjun, Vijay Antony, Ashima Narwal, Nassar, Seetha, Bhagavathi Perumal, Gautham, Sathish, Sampath Ram
Cinematography: Mukes ; Music: Simon K King ; Editing: Richard Kevin ; Stunts: Dhilip Subbarayan ;
Art Director: Vinoth Raj Kumar ; Producer: B.Pradeep ; Distribution: Dr.G.Dhananjayan’s Bofta Media Works ;
Written & Directed by: Andrew Louis; Release Date: 07-06-2019; Run Time: 01:50:00
Time and again, thrillers have proved to be the go-to genre for Tamil audiences, as an important must-have of getting their bang for the buck is a film that challenges their brains and puts them on the edge of their seat. Though a lot of films have lost the trick by diluting their storyline with needless commercial elements, once in a while, we get a film that does nearly everything right. And this time, it’s Kolaigaran, the latest thriller on the block starring Vijay Antony and Arjun. Though the film does take its plot from a famous novel, it grips the viewer with delicious adaptation and extremely neat execution, resulting in a solid film at a runtime of under two hours.
Kolaigaran begins with Vijay Antony surrendering himself to the cops for committing a murder. What seems a pretty easy case for Arjun at first, gets all the more complicated as he unravels every clue in the line, making it a very interesting watch for the viewer as well.
The beauty of Kolaigaran lies in how it nicely tricks the viewer into believing everything that happens on screen in the first half, which is exactly where the clues are smartly placed as well. The first twenty minutes might feel like an overload of information flowing towards you, but the join-the-dots narrative attains the required level of clarity as it progresses. Andrew Louis stems his flow with two songs, but does not adhere to any kind of unnecessary comics, side tracks or deviations from the main plot. It is this focused storytelling pattern that helps the film achieve its goal of keeping the attention of the audiences intact.
It’s indeed nice how Kolaigaran pays little tributes to current affairs, owns a couple of mass moments and at the same time, brings us some good performances. Out of the lot, Arjun steals the show with a terrific performance that deserves full marks. His track with Nassar is the best part of the film, adding a different twist to a usual whodunit. With Kolaigaran, Arjun proves why and how he is the best pick for such roles, giving it the best. On the other hand, Vijay Antony brings out a good act with the limited scope that he has in hand. Ashima Narwal gets a strong character to play, and does a decent job as well.
Kolaigaran’s big plus points come in the form of the cinematography by Mukes and the music by Simon King. While the former provides a fantastic color tone to the film, the latter smashes in a riveting background score that sticks in your head for long.
Kolaigaran may be a little clumsy at the end where a lot of information hits the marquee, but that’s where Andrew Louis bravely takes steps to showcase his skills as a writer-director. The film does have some misses, but ultimately, it is a very intriguing thriller that guarantees a good time at the theater.