Small is Big! That is how this year has been for Kollywood thus far with some of the small budget films featuring lesser known names from the industry have made it big as far as appreciation and box office collections are concerned.
8 Thottakkal is another promising film one expects to feature in the ‘Small is Big’ league after watching its promotional video extracts.
An honest spineless Police Sub Inspector loses his gun loaded with 8 bullets. Who gets the gun and why, what happens next, whose lives are in danger? How a theft case becomes a more serious and intense criminal case is what 8 Thottakkal deals about. Yeah, the story does resemble Akira Kurosawa’s classic old film, Stray Dog. In fact director Sri Ganesh had even mentioned a list of films from where he got inspired to make this film, in the end credits. Nevertheless, this is a new plot to Tamil cinema and it is told in a neat way as well.
Debutant hero Vettri plays the spineless cop, someone who joins the Police Department, not because of passion but due to compulsion. His acting might be looked at two perspectives in large, some might feel he did not emote much while some would say, he has underplayed his role beautifully and has done just what his role demanded.
But the show stealer of 8 Thottakkal will be MS Bhaskar. He is someone who has proved his mettle in so many films. He has acted in such a vast variety of characters but not one film in the recent past has challenged him like this. MS Bhaskar shoulders the film right from the moment he enters the play. In fact the story takes place only after his arrival. Similarly Nasser is a good value addition to the script and we know what he is capable of. How many times has he played an investigative cop in films? Even he must have lost the count. The supporting actors also do a good job, thanks to the director for extracting some superior work from lesser known stars.
Two things work in favor of the film, the intense suspense drama and the underlying emotional plot associated with the story. The emotions in particular have clicked well. Sri Ganesh must be lauded for his gutsy thought to infuse a melodramatic play to a crime plot. That emotion makes the whole plot convincing.
Dinesh K Babu’s cinematography works in hand with the director’s vision. The film drags a bit in the second half and that is where one feels the editor could have been a little sturdier and chopped off few scenes. The love portion did not gel with the context also burdening an otherwise intense script with 2 leisurely sounding songs that pop up at crunch situation. How would someone care to romance a girl when his job is in danger? This film does not deserve to have any songs and it should have been in that way. Apart from the songs and a couple of dragging scenes and the love portions, there is nothing much to complain about in this emotional crime thriller.