Kaaval

Kaaval begins with a voice-over reeling out the numbers of murders that have happened in the state and the cases that have not been unsolved so. Then, we are told that most of these killings were done by contract killers, who do them solely for money. And we are given the man who is responsible for these dirty jobs — Karuna, a gangster in a fishing hamlet, who has everyone from ministers to cops in his pocket and runs a business that spans drug peddling, intimidation, contract killing, et al out in the open.

But one man is plotting his downfall — a cop, an encounter specialist, to be specific. This is Chandrasekar (Samuthirakani), who is determined to end Karuna once and for all and goes undercover and observes the gangster's day-to-day activities. He gets the go-ahead to carry out an encounter but the plan goes kaput because Anbarasu aka Anbu (Vemal), the carefree son of a police constable (MS Bhaskar), who is on friendly terms with Karuna, informs the gangster of the operation. Chandrasekar's fellow cop is murdered and this only makes him all the more eager to kill Karuna. A turn of events result in Karuna beginning to suspect Anbu and now, the young man is hunted by both cop and criminal.

The problem with Kaaval is that it offers nothing new in terms of story and presentation. Almost every development feels been there done that. The story of an encounter specialist is something that Gautham Menon did with much finesse in Kaakha Kaakha, and this film hardly adds anything to it. Interestingly, the director ropes in Gautham to provide the voice-over in the opening scenes. The villain is the generic gangster that we often see in our films and so, he hardly comes across as a formidable foe. Then, there is the heroine character, who simply exists because there needs to be a love interest for the hero.

Then there are the twists which we can see a mile away. The tries to keep Chandrasekar's identity a mystery until the halfway mark but we know he is a cop in his...