Kuttram 23

A successful movie can create a new identity to the team involved in making. As Director Arivazhagan is already addressed as director of Eeram, after this movie, he can definitely be addressed as director of Kuttram 23. This credit goes to the protagonist Arun Vijay as well.

Kollywood has established a new benchmark in investigation thriller after the success of movies like Thani Oruvan to recent Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru. Precisely, Kuttram 23 have met those standards with a riveting plot and a befitting social message.

The movie has followed a simple art of story telling with a linear screen-play. But this does not mean that you can sit reclined in your seat.

The action sequences especially are well made and looks realistic. Unlike majority of thriller movies, this movie looks more colorful and grand in visual.

Fortunately, every other factors falls into place for this movie. Please don't search for shortcoming(there isn't any in my opinion), as this kind of movies are meant to be watched by audience of all categories.

Kuttram 23 (2017):

Kollywood movies had brought some interesting investigative thrillers in recent times like Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru,Thani Oruvan etc.Kuttram 23 is such an interesting crime thriller starring Arun Vijay in lead role.So how is it?

Plot:

Vetrimaaran IPS (Arun Vijay) is a young and dedicated cop posted as the Assistant Commissioner of Police in Chennai, where he lives with his parents and his brother. A seemingly innocuous case of a missing woman he is assigned to, evolves to become a double murder case. Though the investigation leads him to meet his soulmate, the case gets murkier by the day. The situation get out of hand when his own family gets embroiled in the mix and he is pushed against time to decode the mystery.

Plus Points:

1)Story,Screenplay and Direction: Even though the plot resembles Tamil-Telugu bilingual thriller Courier Boy Kalyan which also involves mystery surrounding pregnancy,this movie is more interesting and more stylish.It is both intelligent and exciting, skillfully directed by Arivazhagan.Climax twist is brilliant and totally unexpected.Slick screenplay helped the movie in maintaining a consistent pace.

2)Performances: Kuttram 23 is an ensemble cast of enthusiastic actors who deliver sparkling performances. Arun Vijay plays Vetrimaaran with a mixture of eagerness and trepidation and he is in top form. His shredded physique, sharp look, and classy mannerisms perfectly suits the stylish upright cop. Not just good looks, the way the actor emotes and perform combat action sequences with great élan is sure to take him to the next level.Mahima looks cute and brings believability to her character.Abhinaya gave a stellar performance too.

3)BGM: Vishal Chandrasekar too deserves a praise for his pulsating background score and special mention to the Thodu Vaanam track, which establishes a strong emotional connect.

So,Kuttram 23 is an interesting investigative thriller with brilliant plot,racy screenplay and flawless performances.

My rating 7.25/10

The biggest asset of Kuttram 23 is Arun Vijay,who stole the show with his career best performance that's sure to concrete his position as a bankable lead hero in Kollywood.The way he underplayed the role of a cop invested on him with his stylish looks and realistic dialogue delivery made the small flaws in the narrative immaterial as far as a satisfactory movie experience is concerned.

The storyline based upon a crime novel by Rajesh Kumar was handled well by director Arivazhagan who succeeded in creating a convincing cinematic version of the investigative thriller based upon few medical crimes,a topic that hasn't been discussed much in Kollywood.Bhaskaran's frames deserve a special mention for giving a slick look to the movie.

The action sequences were choreographed very well particularly the fight towards the climax of the movie.Vishal Chandrasekher's musical score was adequate.On the negative side the,climax of the movie felt rushed and the way the mystery was unfolded wasn't impactful as one would expect it to be.The message that the movie tried to convey was half-baked.

Overall,Kuttram 23 is a satisfactory medical thriller that has enough substance to qualify for a watch from the silverscreens !

The last film I saw from this director was 'Eeram' which was one of the best horror films Kollywood had ever produced and was a trend setter in the modern days of filmmaking in the Tamil language. Now that genre is well explored that you can find every year films like that making its way out. Coming back to this one, I think it is a decently made film. Based on the book of the same name, the screenplay was given preference to the commercial elements like big stars' films. Otherwise, it would have been a better work from the director, as well as for the actor.

Like todays trend in Kollywood's B movies to make a parallel cinema to the international standards, this one missed that opportunity. After successfully playing a negative role in 'Yennai Arindhaal', this is his comeback film as a solo for Arun Vijay. He had worked very hard for where he's standing today and for the role in this film. I hope he makes good films in the future as well.

This is a police story. A murder, a missing person and followed by another attempt of murder, a young cop comes to rescue a young woman, but soon they fall in love with each other. On the other side, the story takes twists and turns while solving the crime. Finding out who and why, the narration enters the final segment and brings an end to everything.

Much better film than list-A films and like I said it had the opportunity to be an even better film. One of the best police stories with good casting. The length of the film was a bit concern, though manageable because of engaging plot. The songs should have been trimmed off. If you are a native audience, it does not matter, but for the international viewers, it is definitely offbeat for such intensified crime-thriller. I'm not in favour of recommending it, but surely worth a watch.

7/10

Kutram 23 is a good decent thriller. No lagging. Almost good investigation. Arun Vijay done a good job in this film