Kaathadi Review: Doesn't soar much 

Kaathadi is a yet another film that took its own sweet time to see the light of day and though this must've been director Kalyan's first film, his other films Kadha Solla Porom and Gulaebaghavali. But thanks to the content of the film, apart from the redundant Rs. 1000 notes and late actor such as VS Raghavan, the film doesn't really feel outdated. 

Cast: Karthick, Sai Dhanshika, Daniel Annie Pope, Sampath
Director: Kalyan

Why so? It's because Kaathadi is a film that deals with kidnapping -- a theme Tamil cinema has made tons of films with. But what sets Kaathadi apart? Nothing much to be honest. It's a story of two petty thieves Sakthi (Karthick) and Thuppakki (Daniel Annie Pope) who plan on kidnapping a kid and hold her for ransom. But as always, things don't go per plan and the rest of the story is a cat and mouse game between two gangs, who can't be discriminated as good or bad considering both their motives is to kidnap that kid. 

Kaathadi marks Karthick's debut in a lead role. The brother of the yesteryear actor Maheswari and the nephew of Sridevi, Karthick previously was seen in Nadunisi Naaygal in which he didn't have much scope to prove his mettle. But in Kaathadi, despite playing the lead, he doesn't bring much to the table and looks uncomfortable when compared to Daniel, whose screen presence makes a few scenes remotely watchable. The rest of the cast doesn't have much to do either and this includes the female lead Sai Dhanshika too. It makes us wonder why the cast boasts some big performers such as Kota Srinivasa Rao, Sampath, and Kaali Venkat. John Vijay's usual eccentricity mixed with his local slang which we enjoyed in Thirudan Police makes his sequences a little more entertaining than the rest of the film. Kaali Venkat's subplot started with an assuring premise but it doesn't appear again until the very end making it ineffectual. Veteran actor VS Raghavan is reduced to a cameo and he could've at least been used for comic relief, considering that's the genre they've tried to work under. 

On the positive end of the spectrum, the film's runtime is considerably short and there's only one song. While we're at music, the film's background score too is decent. But these alone don't help Kaathadi from being a tiresome watch. With not many redeeming factors, Kaathadi is an amateur take on a run-of-the-mill story with twists that don't really raise eyebrows.