Kanthasamy – A review

This is a guest post by Mr. S. Varadarajan (Raja as he is fondly called) and he is based in Dubai

It was an eagerly awaited movie because it features Vikram.

But the question was, whether it will be a commercial masala, or a movie with just a message to reach the audiences. Its finally out and Kudos to the whole team of Kanthaswamy for letting out a fully commercial entertainer.

“People who wipe tears of others are the real god” This is the punch line which the movie delivers.

Bigger companies building townships outside the city for their staffs is more common. Individuals doing it for the development of the people, may be the next big thing. There are handful of instances for the same across the country where an individual helping a village or a society is prevalent. We are yet to see this fever catching up in a major way. Can this movie initiate such a good deed?

Kanthaswamy starts with people writing their wish messages and tying them to a tree of a Murugan temple which they believe will be fulfilled by the God himself. Most of the wishes are of financial nature and they expect them to be solved by the deity in that temple (Kanthaswamy).People find that their wishes are being fulfilled and soon it becomes a rage across the state due to the word of mouth publicity the temple gets. Vikram here plays a modern day Robinhood, who works as a CBI officer and manages to reveal the black money and illegal transactions the rich and the famous, have in the foreign banks.

PPP(Ashsish vidyarthi), the old man, (which initially was played by Late Raghuvaran but his unfortunate demise made the whole team to work again with a new person) is being raided as he had cheated the bank for 1000 crores and CBI gains control of all his unaccounted cash and documents leaving PPP completely scourged. His only daughter Shriya wants revenge against the officer in charge. The tiffs between Vikram and Shriya are presented well and so is the romantic scene in the airplane.

Shriya has always been a glamorous doll in her previous movies and has done will with the sensual scenes as well as a few places where she is supposed to actually act. Her hip movements in the songs looks replicas of Shakira.

Prabhu who leads an investigation for finding out who the actual Kanthaswamy has done his part judiciously and Vadivelu has his own track of comedy which links to the main story line.

The final word says that every rich person should adopt a poor village so that the wealth can be distributed across the country. Not just the saying, the whole team of Kanthaswamy has even adopted two villages in interior Tamil Nadu to show that this can be made possible not just in movies but also in real life.
They had built up new roads and schools for the residents of the village.

I feel with this movie would put the director Susi Ganesan in the league of big directors who can say the thoughts in their mind very clearly that will reach the masses.

The visual effects and the camera work are a treat to look out for in the movie. The cinematographer NK Ekambaram has moved across different angles and flashed his lenses to give a different gloss to the whole movie especially the scenes that were shot in Mexico.

The music by Devi Prasad is already a hit, long before the movie has been released. The songs have been neatly picturised and never do you feel that the songs are being imposed on in the film. They are a treat to watch especially the numbers “Allegro” and “Yen peru Meenakumari”

The sets created by Thotta Tharani are always unique and gorgeous. The hideout of Kanthaswamy and his friends is extremely pleasing.

Apart from all these the real show stealer was Vikram. He rocks. The different characters he has portrayed viz., A masked rooster- super hero, A CBI officer, A sensuous woman who dances to the songs of Aishwarya Rai or the old man who comes for the rescue of the villagers are all with different attitudes and Vikram fits in them to the T.

In toto, the film is worth a watch and it keeps you pinned to your seat. Spending 3 hours and watching Kanthaswamy you will get the value for your ticket.

Not to be missed.

Movie Rating: ***1/2 out of 5
Director: Susi Ganesan
Cast: Vikram, Sriya Saran, Ashish Vidhyarthi, Vadivelu
Music: Devi Sri Prasad