'Kadaram kondan' Film Review: An engaging flick with neat performances

However, we do not know who he is and why he is chased by men with pistols. Later, a car runs over him and he is admitted to a hospital. The next scene moves to Vasu (Abi Hassan), a doctor and his pregnant wife Aathirah (Akshara Haasan). Mystery still revolves around Vikram’s character and police start tracking their records. A brief backstory tells us that he is KK, a criminal who also worked as an undercover for Malaysian police. Rajesh M Selva here has done a world of good to the story by not distracting the audience with flashback scenes for KK. This has helped him to convey the entire story in a crisp 120-minute package.

In a twist and turn of events, Vasu and his wife are attacked and a person on phone demands that Vasu help KK get out of the hospital. The first half lays a solid platform and Abi and Akshara have been given enough space to perform and have justified their roles completely.

The second half of the film picks up pace and is entirelydifferent from the first. Though we don’t get to see more of Akshara in the second half until the climax, Abi’s emotions and Vikram’s subtlety steers the film at a rapid pace. In this film, its action more than dialogues that helps build the mystery around tattoo-clad Vikram and he excels. Ghibran’s music is on a par with Rajesh M Selva’s screenplay and Srinivas R Gutha’s cinematography.

Two things that have complemented the film well are Malaysia’s landscape, which has made Kadaram Kondan a visual treat and Vikram’s salt and pepper look for the first time has gone down well with the audience. Despite all these, the film gets a little tedious in the first half. Moreover, a backstory on Vasu and Aathirah’s love would have brought in some emotional connect in the film. The logical flaw we notice is that Vasu conveniently gets on and off the monorail while cops chase him. In Malaysia, the monorail ticketing system is such that you need to scan your token before you enter a station and exiting it, which expires after one defined journey. Else, Kadaram Kondan is a good watch for the weekend.