Review of “KARA”

Dhanush’s 54th film is an unusual combination of family drama and heist thriller set in the 1990s and featuring a talented cast that includes Dhanush, Mamitha Baiju, K.S. Ravikumar, Jayaram, Prithvi Rajan,  M.S. Bhaskar, Karunas, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Sreeja Ravi, Aadukalam Naren, Ravi Mariya, Sashikumar Subramani, Anbu Salim and a special guest appearance by producer P.L. Thenappan.

Kara (Dhanush) plans to make one more bank heist before returning to a normal and honest life, but things go horribly wrong and forever changes the trajectory of his life. He attempts to start a new life with his wife, Selli (Mamitha Baiju) but soon realises that manoeuvring life is a challenging task. Desperation drives him back to his home town, but he finds that the situation at home has worsened since his departure. How Kara deals with the new challenges form the rest of the story.

The core story is an absorbing one and the makings of a riveting film, but the screenplay falters and sputters many times before finding its way. Even then, it struggles to reach the finishing point convincingly. One of the main problems is the running time of 161 minutes which is far too long for the narrative. When a film has this duration and has a linear narrative, it requires intensity of emotions or a breath-taking pace – Kara has bursts of powerful emotions and a very slow pace.

Despite this critical structural flaw, the script by Vignesh Raja and Alfred Prakash has numerous highlights, but the effect of the script is diluted by the film’s duration.

The film’s acting performances are what make this film watching and, to some degree, engaging. Dhanush shows his usual level of excellence where he fully immerses himself in the character, transforming his mannerisms and gait to suit the character.  In any scenes he relies solely on his eyes to convey powerful emotions and does so with consummate ease.

Sometimes a lead actress is given the back seat in a movie – to remain with this metaphor, Mamitha Baiju is placed in the boot for most of the film. On the positive side, she makes the most of her screen presence with a powerful performance as the hapless but loyal Selli.

Two actors have a total visual transformation in this film and both deliver indelible performances. K.S. Ravikumar is turning out to be a better actor than he was a director. His role as Kara’s father, Kanthasaamy, is an electrifying one and is easily his best portray to date. M.S. Bhaskar, who is barely recognizable as one of the elders in the village, also gets to play another powerful role although one gets the impression that the director could have extracted more from him.

Jayaram has consistently been a classy actor and his portrayal of Muthu Selvan is masterful, polished and one of the film’s most memorable characters.

Karunas, reuniting with Dhanush after 16 years delivers another spirited performance which once again underscores the tremendous talent he has.

Prithviraj as Kara’s loyal friend, Murugesan, is also in a memorable role.

Sreeja Ravi as Kara’s mother refuses to be outshone by her co-stars despite her limited screen time. Her portrayal is powerful and realistic.

G.V. Prakash Kumar has shown great maturation as a music composer and excels particularly in the background score which supports the narrative without dominating it.

Cinematographer Theni Eshwar is one of the major reasons for the film being absorbing because – regardless of the pace of the screenplay – his experiments with lighting, angles and composition consistently keeps the viewer enthralled.

With all this talent behind and in front of the camera, Kara certainly had the makings of being an outstanding film, but the linear screenplay and its slower than necessary pace has negated the film’s many positive aspects.

Kara scores 7 points out of 10.