Review: Laththi
‘Laththi’ could have been a really interesting and inspiring story, had the director managed to make the second half as gripping and realistic as the first.
Film: Laththi
Director: A Vinoth Kumar
Cast: Vishal, Sunainaa, Prabhu, Munishkanth, Meesha Ghoshal, Sunny, Ramana and others.
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Cinematography: Balasubramaniam and Balakrishna
Editor: Srikanth N B
Rating: 2.75 stars
Director Vinoth Kumar comes up with a high-intensity action film that starts off well but disappoints by the time it ends.
The film’s plot revolves around Muruganandham (Vishal) a police constable, who is sincere and duty conscious. However, he is on suspension for thrashing an innocent guy in the police station on the instructions of his inspector, who believes the suspect to be responsible for the rape and assault of a poor girl, who eventually succumbs to her injuries.
Muruganandham’s life revolves around his wife (Sunainaa) and his young school-going son, who is intent on his dad coming to his school only in his police uniform.
Muruganandham tries hard to get his suspension revoked but to no avail. Finally, he seeks the help of his superior officer Ranganathan (Thalaivasal Vijay), who, with help from his IPS friend, Kamala Kannan (Prabhu), succeeds in getting Muruganandham’s suspension revoked. A delighted Muruganandham, who is full of gratitude to both Ranganathan and Kamala Kannan, rejoins duty.
A few days pass when one night, a rowdy sheeter misbehaves with the daughter of Kamala Kannan, who is on the verge of relocating to Australia.
Looking to punish the person who has misbehaved with his daughter, Kamala Kannan tracks the wherabouts of the miscreant. It is only then that he realises that the person who has misbehaved with his daughter is none other than the son (Ramana) of a powerful and influential gangster Sura(Sunny), who strikes terror in the hearts of not just the public but also the police.
Still unwilling to let Sura’s rowdysheeter son get away without punishment, Kamala Kannan has him kidnapped. He covers his face with a polythene cover and has him bound before asking a police officer to whack him. However, the officer, fearing for his life, refuses to do what Kamala Kannan bids him to do.
It is then that Kamala Kannan calls Ranganathan for assistance, who in turn calls Muruganantham. The duty-conscious cop initially hesitates but then, overcome by gratitude, agrees to teach the bound and helpless prisoner a lesson with his laththi. The prisoner is beaten black and blue, stripped naked and thrown in a garbage collection depot.
When he regains consciousness, the rowdy sheeter craves revenge — not just on Kamala Kannan but on Muruganandham as well. In fact, he wants to kill Muruganandham first. However, he does not know the identity of the constable who thrashed him. The history sheeter and his dreaded dad begin a hunt to nab the constable…
The film begins in a neat and simple fashion and is engaging and relatable at first. In fact, the first half moves like a dream. It talks of Vishal’s love for his son and his family as a whole and then goes on to show how situations force Vishal to oblige Kamala Kannan.
The first half ends on a high, with the punished person seething with vengeance. He assigns the task of identifying and locating the constable who obliged the high ranking officer to his goons, who employ fairly clever means to track the person.
It is in the latter part of the second half that the director loses the plot. A fight sequence in which Vishal fights off around a good 100 rowdy sheeters with his mere laththi is hard to buy. Add to that the fact that the constable also has his ill son to protect and you know that this is just too exaggerated to be true.
Vishal’s performance in the first half is apt and praiseworthy. However, his performance in the second half comes across as being excessive and exaggerated.
Ramana as the villain is just perfect as is Sunainaa, who does a neat job as Vishal’s wife in the film.
Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music is mellifluous and Balasubramaniam and Balakrishna’s visuals are striking and impactful.
All in all, ‘Laththi’ could have been a really interesting and inspiring story, had the director managed to make the second half as gripping and realistic as the first.
