3
/5
TCP Score
👍 Recommended
Kara movie story: Karasamy aka Kara (Dhanush) is a thief who wants to wash his hands off his old ways and start a life with his wife Selli (Mamitha Baiju). But when he returns to his village to meet his father (KS Ravikumar), a farmer stricken by poverty and bank debt, Kara takes an emotional turn of guilt, power, and a heist as cop Bharathan (Suraj Venjaramoodu) finds hard to trace.
Kara movie review: Director Vignesh Raja’s sophomore directorial and Dhanush-starrer Kara has a certain grittiness to it that almost carries through the film. Kara, who knows nothing but how to plan robberies, begins his
stealing streak when he is 16, after running away with his father’s money. But when Kara returns to his father years later, this time to demand money through their ancestral land, the remorse impacts him far less.
Seeing his father’s plight, one among many villagers in the poverty-stricken land of Ramanathapuram, burdened by bank debts that exploit their condition, Kara has other plans. Even as this whole situation warrants nothing but a grim delve into the dark world of exploitation, writers Vignesh Raja and Alfred Prakash manage to sneak in pockets of humour, and a Chekhov’s gun usage with how carrying a sack turns into a disarming method, amped up by the cast’s performances.
Kara gambles its story on morality and guilt, and there’s a lot to like about it in the film. Karasamy, an ace robber, pendulums between what you would call a typical do-gooder and a selfish young man. He is that grey-shaded person who is forced to walk into the path of guilt and lawfully wrong behaviour. Despite all that, the writing stays strong enough that Kara remains the protagonist we root for. This is because the film chooses to place emotions over intentions and makes a strong case with solid writing.
In the world of Kara, where Karasamy can be perceived as self-centred, there is his father who carries the burden of being the one because of whom every villager followed his bank route to pledge their belongings. The film is kind enough to show both sides, and we get a scene in the latter half of Kara that leans a tad bit to one end.
If writing had a huge role to play in Kara, it is no surprise to see it being pulled off well by the performances, steered by Dhanush and others. Dhanush, as a man whose poverty supersedes guilt and morality, headlines a film that thrives on little moments and effective writing. While Mamitha comes in a limited role, it is Suraj Venjaramoodu as Bharathan, Karunas as Karasamy’s uncle Kasi Maayan, and Jayaram as bank manager Muthu Selvan who elevate the storytelling with their impactful performances.
Kara is essentially a heist drama, and a handful of them take place through the story. Even as the runtime might come off as intimidating, with the second half getting slow, Kara gets back on track with some pulsating sequences and heists. It is also interesting to see how a crime case closure boils down to a policeman’s love for headlines. Such nuggets in the writing make Kara a film that warrants a watch.
Kara movie verdict: Kara is a rural drama that gets engrossing and real at many points. Vignesh Raja captains a film that dissects the dimensions of morality and plays around like an emotional social drama. There is much to savour in terms of performances, writing, and staging. But the bottom line is, Kara is an interesting watch that does justice to what it sets out to do.
