Kaappaan Movie Review

Following couple of socio-commercial entertainers like Maattraan and Kaappaan, director KV Anand and Suriya are back teaming up for the third time for “Kaappaan”. It’s not a spy thriller as wrongly assumed by many before the release. Suriya plays the role of a Special Protection Guard office to Prime Minister Chandrakanth (Mohanlal), where he saves his life in many hazardous situations. Unfortunately, his mission goes terribly wrong, when PM is assassinated and now his happy-go-lucky son (Arya) is appointed as new Prime Minister. His attempts to find out the real culprit behind the murder of PM Chandrakanth take him through the course of unveiling deepest mysteries.

Getting on with the major plus of the movie, KV Anand’s proficiency in sketching characters with strong shades happens to be the positive one much alike his other movies. But there’s always a problem when it comes to looking into the baddies. While Prithviraj might have looked overpowering in Kana Kanden, the baddies in other movies might have not been instant cherry pick for general audiences. But getting in depth we see that they stick to realistic shades. Over here, it’s Boman Hirani and Chirag, who might look feeble, but they are actually strong. Suriya’s role as SPG is commendable as he looks tailor made for the role. Nonetheless, he has to come out of that stiffness for other humorous and romantic portions. Sayyeshaa has done a good role and her performance is flawless. Mohanlal doesn’t need any words to describe his performance and he is cool and outstanding as in all movies. Samuthirakani steals the show and Arya’s innocuous boyish shades hit the bull’s eyes.

There are few things we notice in the writing, where there are some double entendres. However, KV Anand has played it smartly by keeping it polished and not letting the audiences making a clumsy statement. But in some places, it remains unavoidable like Arya saying, “40+ naale Aunties thaana” and Samuthirakani says, “I didn’t mention her age”. Such things could have been avoided as family audiences always prefer KV Anand movies. The second hour slightly gets dragged with lots of repeated action blocks, but they don’t hamper the narration anywhere. Musical score by Harris Jayaraj is a big minus. We are missing the signature Harris Jayaraj completely. We need something like Ko and Thuppakki and when we say this, it includes both songs and BGMs.

On the whole, Kaappaan is a film that doesn’t bore you anywhere. It has a gripping plot and the narration though might look sluggish in few places, it is engaging overall.