Film Review: Kannai Nambathey
By Rinku Gupta
Director Mu Maran's,Udhaynidhi Stalin, Prasanna, Srikanth, Bhumika Chawla, Sathish Vasundhara, Aathmika starrer Kannai Nambathey hits theatres on March 17th.
The suspense thriller, shot majorly in the night, revolves around the roller coaster events in the innocent IT exec Arun's (Udhaynidhi) life, after he helps a woman, Kavita (Bhumika Chawla) and drops her home one rainy evening. She tells him to drive home in the car and return it the next day. But this simple act has disastrous consequences for him, involving a dead body.
The bewildered Arun's house- mate Somu (Prasanna), convinces him to avoid going to the cops to avoid a further mess and the duo try to sort things out on their own.
However, things soon begin to spiral out of control for them. Who is Kavita? Who are the people dragging Arun deeper into a web involving crime, blackmail and deception? Does Arun manage to get to the truth and save himself?
Director Mu Maran has kept the screenplay racy and ensures there is never a dull moment in the film. The cat and mouse games between the characters keeps you rivetted and guessing till the end. Every character has an important role to play in the taking the story forward.
The casting is excellent. Udhayanidhi shines as the innocent young man stuck in a web of events and struggling to get out of it. The film is yet another good outing for him. The romance with Aathmika too has a bearing on the story. The film sticks to the storyline without deviations, which works in its favour. Dialogues are kept crisp, again a big plus.
Prasanna as the character with shades of grey does a good job of it and the scenes with Udhayanidhi and him are gripping and interesting.
Bhumika makes her presence felt in screen (watch out for a surprise) while Shrikanth leaves a mark as another character with grey shades. Vasundhara does justice to her role.
The crisp editing by San Lokesh, Jalandhar Vasan's camerwork and Sidhu Kumar's music are all pluses for the film.
There is no blood and gore, despite it being a crime drama.
On the flip side one feels that the certain situatuons happen a tad too conveniently for the main characters, with nobody noticing everything they are upto, on the roads.
Overall, Kannai Nambathe stays true to its title and is an engaging, racy and gripping, edge of the seat, suspense thriller, with a well chosen ensemble cast, interesting storyline, characters and situations and enough twists and surprises to keep you rivetted to the screen till the last shot.
