Kaali - A drama that fails to strike an emotional chord!!!

Bharath Vijayakumar

While it might not have caught the imagination of everyone, Vanakkam Chennai was a worthy debut from Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi. It was a film that did justice to the urban romcom genre. It looked like she did have a certain thing for that type of cinema. With Kaali she ventures into the rural drama space.

The start of Kaali is a bit similar to Saithan. It is about someone who is trying to find his roots. But soon it becomes very clear that this film is no thriller or even an actioner for that matter. Kaali looks more like an attempt to serve something to the audience who might have not identified themselves with a film like Vanakkam Chennai. But as the narrative proceeds we are not sure if this is Kiruthiga's cup of tea. The film is starved of surprises and the engagement quotient keeps decreasing. The novel idea of having Vijay Antony play various characters in different episodes, narrated as flashbacks by different people does not make an impact on screen. It merely remains an idea. You need something interesting in these episodes to hold your attention.But they play out in a mundane manner with each episode having a mandatory fight sequence and a song.

The initial half is rescued to an extent by Yogi Babu. Not all his one liners may work but he definitely is in some form. But makers, please stop having dialogues about his physical appearance. There are people who find this funny but this definitely is not humour. Vijay Antony remains as Vijay Antony as he is in most films. Sometimes it works or in better words it has not been a big problem due to some interesting scripts but here when he actually plays different characters, the limited acting prowess is a bit glaring. The other actors are pretty decent and there are some well known actors here including Nasser and Anjali. But the roles are short and there is not enough space for anyone to make an impact.

Technically the film looks good with a certain sheen, thanks to Richard M Nathan. Kiruthika does seem to have a taste for visually pleasing frames. Vijay Antony's BGM and songs too are pretty good. 

Bottomline

Kaali turns out to be an underwhelming experience as it fails to create any sort of emotional connect. The film needed better defined characters and some urgency too would have helped.

Rating: 2.25/5