Kara

It’s a late night in the early Nineties in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruverumbur. Even as everyone is settling into slumber, Karasaami (Dhanush) is perched on a tree, keeping watch on a locked house. When the time seems right, Kara and his apprentice (played by Prithvi Pandiarajan) break in. Just as they are about to seal the deal, they hear someone at the gate. It’s the perfect start for a heist film – one in which the director wastes no time in the frills associated with regular commercial cinema fare. In fact, the protagonist appears within a couple of seconds of the film opening, a healthy sign that we are in for a pure genre film, rather than meander into formulaic elements. This sign strengthens with the introduction of DSP Bharathan (Suraj Venjaramoodu), who promises to close this case as soon as possible.

There’s a vague similarity between Kara and Dhanush’s recent directorial Idli Kadai — both feature him as a grief-stricken son fulfilling his father’s wish. While Idli Kadai leaned dramatic, Kara builds genuine tension, especially in its robbery sequences. Kara is the stronger film of the two, though both arrive at a similar destination: good, but short of great. The film opens with Kara aka Karasaaami (Dhanush), who has committed to do his last robbery. He teaches his aide how to rob as it could help him, and he wants to get married to Selli (Mamitha Baiju). He succeeds in the plan, well, mostly. But, Kara is forced to return to his village to meet his father to sell his land for money to set up a hotel (aka mess), which could help them lead a dignified life.

It’s not by accident that the one lasting memory from Por Thozhil (2023), remains the tense interrogation scene in which Sarathkumar’s character questions Sarath Babu as they wait for a train to pass at a railway crossing. After the film sets up its characters, director Vignesh Raja slows down time to a nerve-wracking degree to give us a sequence in which every pause is pregnant with layers and undercurrents, as an officer interrogates the man he suspects could be a serial killer…all of this to the menacing visuals of a red traffic light flashing right at you.