Actors Nandha and Richard have been waiting for the much needed break to make it big in Kollywood. The former has indeed given some really noteworthy performances. They have acted together in debutant director-cinematographer Ramesh’G’s ‘Kallattam. Will it give them what they have been longing for years?

Mahendran’s (Richard) daughter (Baby Rithvika) is rammed by a speeding bike and she falls into Coma stage. Mahendran arranges the huge money demanded by the doctors to save his daughter but it gets stolen by a group of criminals.

Local Police station’s Inspector Tamilarasan (Nanda) takes up Mahendran’s complaint and he gets emotionally attached to the case as he has lost his only loving daughter a few years ago. During his investigation he finds that the crime network that steals money is headed by a menacing criminal Ezhumalai (Ezhumalai) with whom he shares a past enmity.

The rest is how Tamilarasan saves the life of Mahendran’s child by cornering Ezhumalai with a ploy (Kallattam).

Writer-director Ramesh.G has written a upright and efficient police officer as the male lead and placed him opposite a menacing villain. He has added a few kids (all girls) to add the emotional value. But all these are just basic requirements if the director has intended to give a emotional action thriller. A huge lot of other things in writing as well as making is required to serve the purpose which are entirely missing in this film.

There is hardly any scene in the first half that deserves mentioning. The portrayal of the child’s trauma and the hospital treating it fails to make us relate to the proceedings which is a basic requirement for emotional sequences. The interval block where the villain corners the hero with a seemingly interesting ploy makes us sit up only to be drowned in the second half that follows the same pattern as the first. There isn’t a semblance of care to portray the super powerful and influential villain character with credibility. What makes him so powerful to the extent of transferring a police officer to another town within a matter of seconds (We wonder whether the ruling politicians have such powers!!!). There are also no logical reasons to connect the personal loss of the hero and the villain’s hand in that. The pre-climax and climax sequences where the hero employs a ploy to corner the villain with an emotional attack and makes him surrender to the police, provides unintentional comedy.

The extremely low production values is evident in poor camera work and shoddy editing.

What is more troublesome than all these problems is the fact that the makers dutifully insert a glamorous item number in a film with a running time of just above 90 minutes. We place a kind request towards the makers of this film to take note of the reality. The tastes and preferences of current generation movie buffs have refined a lot than they have perceived.

Nanda as usual does justice to his character in all possible ways. He is perfectly fit as a young police officer. He is spot on with facial expressions and dialogue delivery. But the poor script lets him down. Ilavarasu as the trusted ally of Nanda gives a neat performance once again while Richard fits the bill. All other actors including the lead villain come up with amateurish performances.

Re-recording by Umar is adequate.

Verdict: A ploy that hasn’t worked out on any count.