'Kolai' movie review: An unflattering murder-mystery that prioritises style over substance – The Hindu
With Kolai being a locked-room homicide thriller based mostly on a real-life unsolved homicide (the 1923 homicide of Dot King), and the presence of a star who is usually credited for getting the sensibilities of the lots proper, the promise was an intriguing movie price investing your time in. It’s a easy story that’s instructed by the construction of a traditional whodunit; after a singer-model Leila (Meenakshii Chaudhury) is discovered mysteriously murdered inside her home, two detectives (Vijay Antony and Ritika) comply with the breadcrumbs to map out all attainable suspects. Leila’s singer-boyfriend Sathish (Siddhartha Shankar) is the primary one, however he has a powerful alibi. Babloo (Kishore Kumar, the comedic reduction within the movie), Leila’s nagging ex-manager; Arjun (Arjun Chidambaram), a prime style photographer accused of bodily assault; and a perverted modelling head (Murli Sharma) are the opposite primary suspects with questionable alibis and convincing motives.
Kolai (Tamil)
Firstly, director Balaji Okay Kumar doesn’t conceal from how rapidly he desires to get into the story. Even earlier than you get accustomed to his distinct storytelling model, the expository dialogues kill half the joy. Within the very first shot of police constable Sandhya Mohanraj (Ritika), we’re instructed that she is a prime scholar of a detective named Vinayak. Vinayak (Vijay) is launched because the intelligent and shrewd Sherlock who hesitates to get again into the sector, and after we meet his spouse, she instantly lets us know the standing of their relationship and about their youngster who’s important within the hospital after a street accident. When the detectives meet the inspector of the police station Mansoor Ali Khan (John Vijay), he’s the standard perverted and immoral sloth from the phrase go.
A number of timelines are bridged utilizing dialogues as transitions, and although this looks like a cool trick, it’s unlucky that it’s only the method that makes any impression; the dialogues maintain us at an arm’s size from the occasions on display, identical to the narrative model and the world its set in.
The visible transitions and use of surreal metaphors additionally comply with the same sample. It’s promising to see the thought that has gone behind every of those meticulously-sketched and programmed pictures, however you may’t assist however marvel why they solely underline what has already been instructed. The mise en scène captures our consideration extra, primarily as a result of Balaji evidently strives exhausting to take us right into a world that by no means fairly manages to drag us in utterly. The movie is about in a fictional place, known as… Madras, which is imbued with the spirit of Chennai.; it additionally partly looks like a manifestation of a futuristic Chennai that Balaji foresees.
However nothing actually sticks to the thoughts, making each the world and the individuals it inhabits appear plasticky and soulless. That even the performances and dialogue supply don’t assist in promoting the feelings of the characters is disappointing. Although it’s commendable that Vijay Antony is exploring such genres and settings, the movie gives the actor in him nothing attention-grabbing, finally turning out to be a staple whodunit with no try and subvert something.
All that stated, Balaji Kumar is certainly an attention-grabbing filmmaker to be careful for. Not day by day do you get to see Tamil movies with such transitions and strategies; from a reverse shot reconstructing a spot and taking it again in time, to at least one character within the body being frozen in time to permit the others to work together.
What emerges as a transparent winner is the music although. Girishh Gopalakrishnan steals the present, and the principle theme (a remixed ‘Partha Nyabagam Illaiyo’ from the 1964 Puthiya Paravai) haunts you for hours after the film.
Kolai is at the moment operating in theatres
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