‘I Am Kathalan’ film assessment: Quick-paced cyber crime thriller finally ends up a mean fare

A nonetheless from ‘I Am Kathalan’

If there exists a parallel world the place losers are assured to seek out salvation, Girish A.D’s characters would in all probability be the rulers of that world. Down and out protagonists have been a typical think about all his movies until date, be it Thanneer Mathan Dinangal or Tremendous Sharanya or Premalu. His newest outing I Am Kathalan isn’t any completely different, however simply as at all times, he brings the identical underlying theme in a distinct packaging.

Cyber crime is the shiny wrapper that he makes use of this time round. Solely that, we’re seeing the movie largely from the attitude of the hacker, Vishnu (Naslen), who has accomplished his engineering course however has a load of again papers to cross. His lack of ambition and string of failures don’t sit properly along with his girlfriend Shilpa (Anishma Anilkumar), who has joined her father (Dileesh Pothan)‘s finance agency as its IT head. When issues go improper between the couple, it triggers Vishnu’s prison tendencies.

Vishnu’s persona as somebody who isn’t averse to utilizing his technical information for devious means is established early on, when he makes an attempt a phishing assault on a feminine classmate’s social media account for his buddy. He’s clearly a push away from trying one thing on a bigger scale. Hiding behind the technical sophistry is a man seething with anger at a lady who has fairly a couple of legitimate causes for dumping him.

Girish and author Sajin Cherukayil pare down the hacking sequences to its naked necessities, making them accessible. Humour, which is a typical component of all of Girish’s movies, can be minimal, in all probability contemplating the character of the plot. One of many funnier bits is supposed to interrupt stereotypes within the portrayal of hackers, full with a hoodie and backpack, in some Malayalam movies.

With a lower than two-hour runtime, tightly full of one occasion after one other, the movie runs briskly for many components. However it fails to ship something greater than what it exhibits within the first hour, at all times circling again to a different iteration of the hacker finishing up his act and the victims updating their safety system. The entry of an moral hacker (Lijomol Jose), a personality who additionally will get a stereotype-breaking portrayal, introduces some quantity of thrill into the proceedings. Some parts of the writing, like how the stress-buster pillow mouse that Vishnu designs is used at varied factors within the story, are attention-grabbing.

Although one of many characters does name Vishnu a prison, the movie is ambivalent about the way it ought to painting him. At instances, it slips right into a sympathetic tone, particularly in a scene involving Vishnu’s father. This ambivalence additionally restricts the makers from going all out in opposition to the negative-shaded protagonist in the long run, stopping an impactful climax. Regardless of being an enticing watch, I Am Kathalan hits just a little beneath the mark in comparison with Girish’s earlier outings.