Rathnam movie review: Unsurprisingly, Vishal and Hari deliver an outdated action-drama

Also, the director is trying hard to make an impact and the effort is evident. There are about five to six fight sequences and Hari wants every sequence to be different. There’s one involving a long single-shot sequence involving a complex fight, car crashes, and blasts. Another fight involves Vishal getting creative while using a billhook machete. He ties its handle to a rope so that he can use it as whip-cum-machete. Another sequence involves the goons dressed up as demons from hell as it’s the Dasara festival in the village. There is a stab at creativity, but it’s a miss. Ghilli, Samy, and Singam worked because they had great story arcs among other things; Rathnam’s story is a cliché. Hari hasn’t focussed his creativity to where it was needed.

Rathnam (Vishal), son of a vegetable vendor, saves a local kind-hearted rowdy Paneer Selvam (Samuthirakani) by stabbing his enemy. This enables Paneer Selvam’s rise as he later becomes an MLA, with Rathnam as his ‘right hand’ man. The two run a Kangaroo court with a cause — offering us the same old Godfather conundrum. They are a necessary evil, according to the director. Paneer Selvam tells senior police officials that the society can be in harmony when cops and rowdies have an understanding. The lines between good and bad are all blurred in Hari’s universe. They are good people because the director says so. The bad people are the typical land-grabbing real estate tycoons, who are after the five-acre plot of heroine Mallika (Priya Bhavani Shankar), an aspiring medical college student, who has appeared for NEET four times. The hero wants to put his life on the line and save her because she looks like her mom. What else does a quintessential Tamil rowdy need for a motive? He even carries around an old photo of his mom (also played by Priya Bhavani Shankar).

As far as filmmaking goes, Hari has tried to be fresh and inventive, but the soul of the film is dated. The scenes that try to flesh out what’s called family sentiments don’t belong to this day and age. It is laudable that Hari continues to write drama in an action film, but the quality of the dialogues and the emotions are straight out of his old movies. One can argue that Hari is old school, but there’s a difference between being a prized antique and obsolete.

Rathnam movie cast: Vishal, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Yogi Babu

Rathnam movie director: Hari

Rathnam movie rating: 1.5 stars