TN Santhosh’s Kanithan resembles his mentor AR Murugadoss’s Thuppakki in a lot of ways. The heroes and the villains of both the movies keep playing mind-games. They don’t confront each other till the climax. The pub songs – etc., etc. – look similar. But Atharvaa’s film is not as grippy as Thuppaki due to the badly-written screenplay.

Despite the compelling plot, Kanithan is an uninspired action thriller that has little to offer.

Kanithan, thus, is probably the closest Tamil cinema is going to get to Spotlight – that is, if the journalist was played by Rambo. You cannot have a mainstream movie, especially one whose lead actor is making a big bid for stardom, without action sequences – but these are excitingly staged, especially one in which Gowtham takes on an acrobatic villain who seems an expert in what looks like indoor parkour. But it isn’t just thrills. We realise how serious the film is from the body count of the good guys.

Like so many Tamil films, Kanithan begins with a fantastic idea and story, but Santosh lets these spin out of control — till the script sinks beyond salvation.

The tension in the script gets killed and the film never recovers, despite making an effort to recover lost ground.

Kanithan is the classic case of a commercializing a wonderful core story that spoils the tempo and ends up being unable to sustain audience interest by completely messing up the third act. What could have been a taut thriller ends up exasperating the viewer as the curtains are drawn!

Sometimes a meal is so hot that you tend to gulp it down even if it is not exactly delicious. This is what saves Kanithan. It is so fast most of the times that some glaring loopholes and deja vu feel does not hurt the film as it would have had it slowed down anytime.

Despite its flaws, this savvy thriller is worth watching once mainly for some exhilarating action sequences, Atharvaa’s top class performance and a few adrenaline pumping moments.

Despite a few logical loopholes and the film’s lengthy run time, Kanithan manages to impress you. Atharvaa is perfect as the solo action hero. He looks dashing, emotes well and dances very well. He is surely here to stay!

Kanithan tries hard to satisfy multiple agendas that telling an interesting story becomes secondary to everything else.