aithi movie review: Karthi’s light and pacy action thriller keeps you engaged
Director Lokesh Kanagaraj made his debut last year with Maanagaram, which followed the events in the lives of outsiders, who struggle to find their way around a huge metropolis. In a way, his second feature film, Kaithi, which released today, is also an “outsider film”. Unlike his previous film, the sense of outside-ness of Kaithi doesn’t stem from the unfamiliarity of the physical territory. Instead, the unfamiliarity of the characters emerges from their headspace.

The characters in Kaithi are in a constant fight-or-flight mode. Lokesh forces them to choose between pain and pride. Surrender or resist. Self-preservation or the greater good. And these choices are made by everyday folks, who neither have the stomach, nor muscle to put up a fight against the dreaded criminals.

The entire film plays out like the third act. In other words, the film feels like over 2-long-hour climax. But, you don’t feel the film is long as Lokesh uses very little time to set up the plot. Bejoy (Narain) leads a special task force that carries out the largest drugs seizure. The total value of the captured drugs is pegged at over Rs 800 crore. The money is in the chase. The night is still young. Let the chaos begin.