#Thoongavanam review

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Kadaram Kondan is Vikram’s best outing at the movies in recent times after last year’s disappointing Sketch and Saamy 2.

The actor is stylish, subdued and totally riveting as the mysterious KK, hero and villain rolled into one, in the film. His characterisation is what makes the film tick, with the director keeping the audiences guessing about his identity. The film leaves us in suspense about whether he is a mercenary, a mobster, a safe-cracker or a cop turned rouge. Kadaram Kondan is an official remake of the 2010 French Film Point Blank(A bout portant), which producers Kamal Haasan’s Raj Kamal Film International had purchased to remake. Last week Netflix has premiered their own Point Blank based on the French original. But with Kamal getting busy with other projects, Vikram stepped in to play the lead. It is directed by Rajesh Selva, who had done Thoongavanam (which itself is a remake of French film The Sleepless Night) with Kamal Haasan.

Vikram in Kadaram Kondan. Screengrab from trailer.

The story of the film is as follows: A young couple in Kuala Lumpur — Vasu (Abi Haasan) who is a junior doctor, and his pregnant wife Athira (Akshara Haasan) — are expecting their baby soon. Vasu has taken up a night job so he can tend to his wife, who has been advised bed rest during the day. Meanwhile, the mysterious KK (Vikram) escapes from hit men and falls under the wheels of a car. He is hospitalised and is seriously injured. In the hospital, he is saved by Vasu from a man who tries to kill him by cutting the tube to his respirator machine.

After duty, when Vasu reaches home, he is attacked and his wife is kidnapped. The kidnapper demands that Vasu should bring KK from the hospital to him. Meanwhile police officials want to question the mystery man who they believe is responsible for the death of a tycoon. There is also a war going on inside the police force as a set of policemen are said to be controlled by the mafia. One group is led by a lady officer Kalpana (Lena) and the other by the fierce Vincent (Vikas), both of whom want KK dead or alive.

The rest of the film is all about a cat and mouse chase between KK and his detractors with the innocent doctor and his pregnant wife getting embroiled in the mess. What makes the film work is its crisp run time of exactly 2 hours (121 minutes), and there are no unnecessary commercial cinema cliches.

Vikram plays the mostly silent killer to the hilt and does not have any romance tracks, unnecessary punch lines or long drawn out dialogues. However there are plenty fan moments where his star charisma oozes through with his swagger and stylish performance. There are clap-worthy scenes, like when the junior doctor is stitching up a deep cut in KK’s abdomen without local anaesthesia and he lights up a cigar during the process. Abi Haasan (actor Nasser’s son) is impressive as the junior doctor. The action scenes have been superbly choreographed and Ghibran's background score adds to the mood of this taut thriller.

The downside is that the supporting actors have hardly any role and the story is unbelievably confusing at times. There are far too many plot twists and it ends up becoming difficult to keep up.

Ultimately, Kadaram Kondan is a racy entertainer championed by Vikram’s alluring screen presence.