Latthi Review - Promising Intent Goes In Vain Due To Weak Storytelling!

Ashwin Ram

Latthi is a cop action flick starring Vishal in the lead role. Directed by debutant A. Vinoth Kumar and the music is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

Premise

Vishal is a Police Constable who is a specialist in lockup treatment. He is being ordered to lathi charge an accused by a higher official. Turns out the accused is a big shot and Vishal is in deep trouble. How he saves him from the menacing villain forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction

Simple commercial script, but there’s a sense to it. The setting is done well, though it is predictable, the director has tried to logically treat the happenings at least on a basic level. The initial portions seem to have no aim, but the knots untied in the flow make them convincing. The execution is sadly lame and cringe. Dialogues are poorly written, just to make sure every other word uttered is rhyming, especially the family and romance scenes. The action is extremely violent and involves needless bloodshed, the film should have actually been given an ‘A’ certificate from the censor board for its level of gore. Last 30 minutes before the halfway mark is genuinely gripping, especially the interval scene is solid and promises to offer a thriller in the latter. But the story goes in pause mode in the second half, stuck at one single place and suffocates to move forward. The thing is, strong foreshadowing was missing for such a second half, also the screenplay isn’t smart enough. The action driven storytelling demands believable writing and that was flat. We see Vishal stopping a mini-riot at the beginning, so how do we fear for the character, the tension was absent. The amateurish direction is evident till the very end, the pre-climax is staged like a theatre-play monologue and the whole emotional scene landed as a big joke.

Performances

Great efforts by Vishal in the stunt scenes, his physique is over beefed up, but he plays the raw action sequences to his strengths and has pulled them off superbly. No big role for Sunaina. Ramana is powerful as the main baddie, his character is more menacing than his performance, so the balance is prevailed. Other supporting characters and their acting don’t stand tall, there are too many artists, so crowded and the focus is missing.

Technicalities

Both songs and background score are very weak, if Yuvan Shankar Raja had worked hard, he could’ve easily elevated the fight sequences a notch higher. Decent cinematography, nothing exceptional but nothing bad at the same time. Editing makes the film very melodramatic at places, remainder shots have been added forcefully just to create an impact. Kudos to the stunt department, the entire team has worked so well on executing the action set pieces, the fights looked real on screen.

Bottomline

A simple yet a solid action script that is sufficient enough to make a strong commercial flick, opportunity has been wasted due to weak execution. If the direction and technicalities were better, this would have been Vishal’s comeback venture.

Rating - 2.5/ 5