Spoilers ahead…
Sivakarthikeyan’s star is on the rise, so you can’t just cut to him in the midst of a scene in your movie. But he doesn’t have that larger-than-life image – not yet, anyway – and he’s still known more as a comedian. How, then, to plan the hero-introduction shot? In Kaaki Sattai, the director RS Durai Senthilkumar has it both ways. He thrusts us into a brawl in a police station, with thugs who look like they wouldn’t hesitate to slit their mother’s throat, and a constable warns them, “Just wait till Mathimaran gets here.” He’s referring to some sort of supercop, clearly. And on cue, we cut to a jeep that’s coming at us in slow motion. The driver, of course, is Sivakarthikeyan (he’s Mathimaran) – but we don’t see him all at once. We see him tap his fingers on the steering wheel. Then we see his eyes, then his feet as he slips out of the vehicle. And once he’s standing, the camera rises slowly, from his feet to his face. He strides into the scene we were in and threatens those thugs, like any big star playing a cop would. The twist? A little later, we see it’s all a dream. He’s just a constable.
This dichotomy is evident throughout Kaaki Sattai. The name comes from a Kamal Haasan hit, and there’s a nod to Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu. Rajinikanth is invoked through his cop movie, Moondru Mugam. The story, too, is pretty heavy-duty, one that would suit a bigger “mass” star, with a heftier screen presence. It has to do with the illegal organ trade (poor Vijay Raaz is the villain), and just few weeks ago, we saw Ajith tackle this issue in his cop movie Yennai Arindhaal. Can Sivakarthikeyan step into all those shoes? That’s really what Kaaki Sattai is about.
As overlong, utterly generic, badly written, indifferently made action-comedy star vehicles propelled by Anirudh’s growling guitar riffs go, Kaaki Sattai is as disposable as they come. The laughs aren’t great. The romance (with Sridivya) is perfunctory – you could use that word for the drama, the attempts at punch lines. The big action sequences look odd because they’re choreographed with a mega-star in mind and on screen we see Sivakarthikeyan. He’s a bantamweight duelling it out in the heavyweight category. He looks a little out-of-place in those foreign-location songs too, executing steps with foreign dancers – the charm of a local-flavoured Oodha colouru ribbon is a distant memory. But maybe in a few films, we will no longer feel this dissonance about a comedian trying to be a big “mass” star. After all, as Mathimaran cannily reminds us, we do have the example of a bus conductor who became a superstar.
KEY:
- Kaaki Sattai = a cop’s uniform
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Ravi K
February 28, 2015
I wish these actors and filmmakers would quit invoking heroes from the past. If you have to tell me that this hero is the next Rajini or MGR or whoever, he most certainly is not.
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Vijayakumar
February 28, 2015
What a torturous 150 minutes it was! I find Sivakarthikeyan likeable. But this is just trying too hard. He definitely does not have the physique to pull off such heavy action scenes. It seems like everyone around him is trying to make him a huge star (which is clearly happening; I firsthand witnessed the screaming and applause even for the most ordinary scenes). But what these people seem to forget is that most of the present super-stars had modest beginnings and had acted in a lot of performance-centric roles early in their careers. Sivakarthikeyan doesn’t even seem to be trying any such thing. I really wish he does though for that is what will help him become a memorable presence in the longer run.
And I would prefer movies like Varuthapadaatha vaalibar sangam any day over movies like these. That was not great art, but sure did entertain me. And it decently achieved what it set out to do. And for some reason, (feels funny to say this) it felt more “realistic” than this one. Or probably the other way around. This looks very fake.
One reason for that is the kind of treatment that the romantic interludes get in these movies. In VVS, there was some kind of reasoning for the heroine to fall in love with the hero which I felt was reasonably reasonable. Here, there is not even an effort to make those scenes interesting which takes almost the entire first hour of the movie. You already give up on the movie when it takes forever to take off.
** Spoilers Ahead **
Oh my God! The entire crowd went berserk when Sivakarthikeyan started mimicking the ‘Hara Hara mahadevaki’ dude. I thought I was the only one who had listened to those audios 😀
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sachita
February 28, 2015
I liked this guy during his anchoring days a lot. Quite funny and pretty spontaneous in his comeback. There are still a collection of youtube videos which would make most people laugh. He was extremely popular too I would think due to his humor.
In the american scene, a person like that has avenues that would will help him use that talent to take him to superstardom, but in Indian scene humor doesnt take you as far as where a hero can go. Waste of his actual talent and we get one more bad actor already on top of the tonnes we have.
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Akhilan
February 28, 2015
Came across as a rather disinterested and half-hearted review BR. Felt as though you were literally dragged into the theater to watch the movie and hence needed to whip up something with like 5 minutes to go before the deadline. Perhaps you were simply exhausted after going through such an ordeal…??
P.S. Did love your reviews of MSG, Badlapur and Roy… 🙂
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Krishnan
February 28, 2015
would you agree BR if one said that the ambitions such as those of Sivakarthikeyan must be nipped in the bud for we have had enough of mediocre mass heroes in ajith, Vijay and maybe Surya?
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brangan
February 28, 2015
Krishnan: Why nipped in the bud? If he wants to be a mass hero and if the masses want this too, then who are we Gautham Menon-movie-watching types to say anything? 😉
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Dinesh Sathya
March 1, 2015
I watched the movie after reading your review and just right before the end credits appeared,when they put a photo frame with portrait of sivakarthikeyan in uniform right next to the photo of ‘moondrumugam’ rajini i was shocked that you never mentioned this in your review(such a wonderful piece for sarcasm,isnt it??)then i went on to convince myself that u might have left the theatre much before these atrocities.It seems Siva is aiming loftier thank v think sir.
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Dinesh Sathya
March 1, 2015
Typo-*than we
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bart
March 2, 2015
Agree with your views on the movie. The expectations were low and hence the disappointment too. Though its for the sake of comparison, SivaKarthikeyan would probably fit directly into the slot of Dileep in malayalam movies. He is that mix of mimicry, slapstick (less of this) and quick-fire smart dialogues (more of this) with pleasing looks and above average dance skills. Can’t see him as a full-fledged action hero but as a comic personality who can do a bit of heroism, yes. I didn’t have problems at the end of first half which was completely in-line with expectations. Second half had stretched episodes of the weak segments of first half. The positive from the movie was the pairing of Imman annachi with Siva, which might be a welcome change from Suri, for a while. Regarding comparisons with Surya and Superstar, hara hara maha dev ki..
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Suresh Babu E K
March 2, 2015
The movie was a little disappointing, i expected a comic police story keep sivakartikeyan in mind. The makers have tried to balance between comic and action movie and almost pulled it off. The misplace and unnecessary songs, the location may be a treat for the eyes but still the hero makes it hard to believe, as you pointed out he is out of place.
One thing i noticed is that in all the BIKE RIDDING SCENES, BOTH HERO AND HEROINE DOESN’T CARE TO PUT ON A HELMET, this is happening in almost all tamil movies now a days. I think they should set a example not the encourage the opposite, If possible you should write a piece on this.
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Amarnath Ravikumar
March 9, 2015
Your analogy makes me wonder if that’s the reason why he did Maan Karate first. I’m pretty sure there’s a dialogue in that film that goes something like “Naangelaam Boxer aaga mudiyaadha, sir?” or something like that.
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