This film is playing dangerously close to a cinematic ideal that’s far too exciting for the Indian context. Following this ideal can do wonders to our mainstream cinema. Now here’s some background to this. I do feel there’s a cheat code to generating an adrenaline rush, or “mass”, in our cinema – the star image. When the audience feels like roaring for an actor’s cool introduction shot in a film, it also refers to and validates years of this gradually built-up image. So in a way, with a star, the makers of the film actually have a lighter weight to carry with regards to delivering that level of “mass”. Some filmmakers take this for granted, and don’t do anything of their own, because they rely on the default settings of mass that their star brings with them. Now there are a few others who see the lighter weight as an advantage to build upon. They write organic mass-y arcs that can later get elevated by a star. For me, this is the ideal one of the two. Lokesh Kanagaraj belongs to the second school of thought. With this film, he has again shown great promise by presenting an attempt at seeing how far this thought can go.

No heroine, no songs. Yes, now stop making a big deal out of it. The story didn’t need it, that’s about it. Lokesh mentions this with a straight face in his interviews, and doesn’t treat it like some never-before “achievement”, as being claimed by (well-meaning) overtly enthusiastic interviewers. He’s clearly on the path of setting a standard here, whether or not he wants to. He’s learned from our retro filmography, but he’s not stuck at paying tribute, he wants to take the baton forward.

All that said and done, the makers do give something to nitpick on – the plausibility of the stunts. I wouldn’t be questioning this in our “normal” big-hero film, but there’s a sense of progressiveness here. Since they’ve come this far, I am greedy of wanting to see them take those extra few leaps. Asuravadham from last year had the same problem. Great set pieces, great tension, but a few embarrassing stunts stop these film short of being universally presentable. Editor Philomin Raj cuts fast and abruptly through these moments, and it sort of gives it away that they’re hiding certain things by skipping few bits. Thus the action scenes, though creative in design, are stunted by their OTT-ness in a film that is sensible enough to show the hero attending to his wounds after a fight. But the climax though, is an absolute fest, and that’s where the extravagance makes total sense. We’ve had more than an hour of relentless, on-the-road action with a truck, how bigger can it get? This is answered quite literally with the insane zone the climax gets to. It reaches a high that this story couldn’t have imagined for itself, thus blasting the recall value of the character and the film with its memorable hero shot. Speaking of which, Sathyan Sooryan is brilliant behind the camera.

All those minor glitches with respect to the action are bandaged and held together by good writing. Lokesh fills his screenplay with scenes that have parallel stories running their own thrills. The first half especially, is a fabulous setup. The second half is where things can seem to get repetitive, but there’s absolutely nothing that doesn’t fit. There are many characters around Dilli’s story who get enough weightage (with great mass moments of their own) and aren’t regulated to mere pawns in the game. There’s also nothing new about the emotional beats, but what’s amusing is how these formulaic tropes find a fair place in this narrative. Here’s an example – there’s an object of sentimental value that’s tampered with, which results in the rise of our fallen hero. Clichéd plot device, yes, but it barely feels wrong here, thanks to an honest Karthi who doesn’t overdo these emotionally charged moments. He seems to know exactly how to play to his own capacity.

While the focus in the story can be attributed to Hollywood inspirations, Kaithi at its heart, belongs to where it comes from. There’s a proper hero introduction scene, there are punch dialogues, some solid cultural flab (like the Biriyani scene), and great situational usage of yesteryear songs. All of this is placed organically, and there’s no shoehorning done of any sort. This has definitely put the standard of our action films on the ascending. And when it comes to the mass movie alone, this is going to be the one to beat.