Review Overview
Performances
Story & Narration
Technical Aspects & Music
A well-intentioned, mainstream social drama.
Raatchasi is a fine straightforward social drama that addresses a lot of important topics all along the way. Being heavy on message delivery, it has Jyotika bringing in a neat and measured performance.
Cast : Jyotika, Poorima Bhagyaraj, Sathyan, Hareesh Peradi, Arul Doss & others ; Written & Directed by Sy Gowtham Raj ; Studio : Dream Warrior Pictures ; Producers : S R Prakash Babu | S R Prabhu ; Music : Sean Roldan ; Cinematography : Gokul Benoy ; Editor : Philomin Raj ; Art Director : Kumar Kangappan ; Release Date : 05-07-2019 ; Run Time : 02:15:00
Debutant director Sy Gowtham Raj makes a fine and straightforward debut with Raatchasi, a film that doesn’t live up to its full potential but still shines periodically. Being heavy on message delivery, the film brings in lot of important topics to the table and addresses them in a first in first out manner.
Raatchasi has Jyothika playing the headmistress of a school which is found to be in shambles, only to correct each and every wrong on her way and win the love of everybody around her. Jyothika’s character in the film has been written with a superhero-like angle, as her touch is enough to bring everything back to normal in the school. This obviously puts off a lot of men around her, who organically become the baddies of the film. Raatchasi starts off by giving us many new ideas and some strong visuals as well, but as the film progresses, it abides to normalcy which is quite a bother. While the first half is packed with a lot of lovely moments which are both serious and fun-filled, the second half draws many similarities to Saattai, which was a memorable film in the same department. However, what makes it different is Jyothika’s presence.
As the strong-minded woman who is even physically fit to fight a handful of men, Jyothika comes in with an earnest performance even though she handles only a small list of expressions. Present in almost every scene of the film, it is another good outing for her which is well-intentioned at the same time. Apart from Jyothika, there exists a fabulous supporting cast with lots of artists who contribute well overall.
Technically, Raatchasi is strong bringing us many frames that manage to stick in our head. Musically, it is a very good outing for Sean Roldan whose songs overtake his work on the background score.
Toting up, Raatchasi is a decent social drama that is mainstream but still has a good load of interesting moments that may make it worth your time at the cinemas. If you’re somebody who is fine with preachy films, go for it.