Saturday, May 19, 2012

Why Kanthasamy is over-the-top, out there and exactly as it should be.


This post is a recommendation, though it might not appear it.

After Kanthasamy you may find yourself in a delirious stupor, wondering whether you dreamt it all. Did you just witness a film where Vikram delivers justice while making chicken noises, and Shriya Saran wants to jump his bones so desperately (and who could blame her?) that she imitates a cat? Was this thing the result of a costume designer and a director of photography on a acid trip, or just something you imagined?

I'm here to convince you it was all real, because I witnessed it, too. And if it really was all a mass hallucination, well ... mass hallucinations do not get much better than this. Which is why, if you haven't seen Kanthasamy, you really need to.


Yeah, so, Vikram plays a cop who takes care of bad guys on his spare time using a costume and amazing special effects and has his own theme song (of course!). That is literally the plot. And Shriya is the daughter of one of these bad guys, who plays some mind games with the cop Kanthasamy. Also, she really wants to jump his bones. I don't think I've seen a heroine this sexually assertive in a Tamil film, ever. Is it just to make her sexy or genuinely empowering? Who knows?


Vikram's never met a heroine like this either, clearly.

The reason I love this film is because it's like somebody watched Anniyan and thought, "That wasn't quite strange enough for me," and then they filmed it and somebody else went absolute berserk with the editing software and filters.

And that? Is glorious. It's also got way too many subplots and strings of plot that don't maybe quite all add up but who cares, Vikram kicking ass whilst being the most badass chicken god that ever lived.
You still with me?



Well, come back to me. Allow Vikram's contact-lens-blue eyes hypnotise you back to this world. And by this world, I mean the alternate universe portrayed in this film.


Yeah. That world. Because trust me, the real world with its laws of nature and logic are not worth it.
But Kanthasamy completely is.

2 comments:

Temple said...

I was a bit disappointed in this film, especially when I compared it to Anniyan. The Vikram-Shriya relationship never convinced me either as a real attraction or as a mind game and for me, this is one of her worst performances. So I could happily have foregone the love interest and concentrated on what worked - the chicken suit! The chicken superhero idea was brilliant and I really liked the 'reveals' after each job was over.
While I liked it, I've never felt the need to watch the whole thing over again. Although some of the songs and the saree fight are always a delight.

veracious said...

Temple, you're definitely not alone in feeling that the love story REALLY fell short in this film, even though I personally disagree. I think the character was a little weird and I'm not sure Shriya was the best actress for the job, but there you go.