KAANTHA
(director/writer: Selvamani Selvaraj; screenwriter: Tamizh Prabha; cinematographer: Dani Salo; editor: Liewellyn Anthony Gonsalvez; music: Jhanu Chantar; cast: Bhagyashri Borse (Kumari), Dulquer Salmaan (T.K. Mahadevan), P. Samuthirakani (Ayya), Rana Daggubati (Phoenix-police inspector), Bijesh Nagesh (Babu, assistant director), Gayathrie Shankar (Devi, wife of T.K.), Ravindra Vijay (Marin Prabhakaran, producer), Tamizh Selvi (Rani, friend of Kamari), Nizhalgal Ravi (Sivalbalan Mudhaliyar), Devi’s father; Runtime: 163; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Prashanth Potluri, Dulquer Salmaan, Jom Varghese, Rana Daggubati; Netflix; 2025-in color/B/W-India-in Tamil with English subtitles)
“A stylish retro period drama thriller.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The technically sound film is visually stunning as a stylish retro period drama set in the cinema world of Madras in the 1950s by Indian filmmaker Selvamani Selvaraj (“Nila”). He co-writes the slow-burn thriller with Tamizh Prabha as a “movie within a movie.”
Ayyha (P. Samuthirakani) is a celebrated filmmaker who made T. K. Mahadevan (Dulquer Salmaan) a superstar after mentoring him as an orphan. The conflicted egotistical star had a falling out with the director over a blackmailing incident and now feels he no longer needs Ayyha’s support. He clashes with him in an ego-driven power play, as he forces the studio to rename their latest film they work on together from “Saantha” to “Kaantha” as he makes the film more suitable for the audience to like him in it.
It becomes a murder story when the leading actress is fatally shot in her room and the police investigator Phoenix (Rana Daggubati) questions the main suspects–the strangely behaving bachelor director and the married self-absorbed star who is having an affair with the vic.
Bhagyashri Borse is the vulnerable and innocent lead actress Kumari, playing the part of Ayyha’s abused mother who hung herself and whose life she portrays on the screen. Her sympathetic performance was emotionally moving, in an atmospheric film that was well-acted but too slowly paced and too lengthy at 163 minutes.
REVIEWED ON 12/23/2025 GRADE: C+
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