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.

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

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

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.

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

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.