Spoilers ahead…
Speed takes precedence over atmosphere and narrative cohesion. Who could have guessed that Hari would be the far-sighted architect of modern cinema!
Obeli N Krishna’s Pathu Thala is based on a Kannada film named Mufti, and even if – like me – you have not seen the original, you know it is a better movie. Why? Because if it had been as slapdash and incoherent as this remake, no one would have bothered to remake it in the first place. The super-contrived first half is essentially a long wait for the star-reveal shot. Silambarasan – named Raavanan (hence the title) – is an underworld figure so big that he controls the government. In an early scene, we see him in the shadows. The slow (and slo-mo) face reveal occurs at interval point, when he gets down from a black helicopter wearing black attire and enters a black car and does black deeds, like beheading someone. Who is this someone? It could be a good quiz question. I don’t think even the director cares. This “someone” is just a man to show how cool Raavanan is.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/pathu-thala/
And you can watch the video review here:
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