A runaway son returns to his village after several years. He was 16 years when he first stole his father’s savings and left home. Now, a redeemed thief, he is in desperate need of money.
He is certain his father will shun him. So, he tells his wife that his maternal uncle will broker a peace pact between them. But his uncle refuses to do so and s and shoos him away. With his last hope broken, he boards the same bus he came on — only to bump into his father, who breaks down and hugs him.
This surprise brings out another essence of the film, which is ‘people change’. The boy is now a changed man, and so is his father.
Stain that stands out
This emotional scene doesn’t mean a lot in the larger scheme of things in Kara (stain), which is essentially a heist film, more specifically, a one-last-job film. But the depth in the writing is what makes Kara stand out.
Set in the early 90s, Kara is about the eponymous thief Karasamy (Dhanush), who wants redemption and believes selling the family’s ancestral farmland in Ramanathapuram is the only way out of poverty. He also wants to do right by his wife, who trusts him despite knowing his crimes. But the land is pledged to a rural bank after Kara’s father Kandhasaami ( a brilliant KS Ravi Kumar) is deceived into buying a tractor for better returns.
The ongoing Gulf War has sent fuel prices soaring, rendering the tractor useless as the loan interest steadily rises. Such a detailed setup, unravelled with patience and quality drama, elevates Kara from a normal heist film to something of a socio-political, cathartic revenge story.
Hell Or High Water inspired
Kara draws heavily from David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Waterwhere two brothers loot banks across Texas to protect their ranch from being seized. That film has a Texas Ranger on the trail of the two miscreants nearing retirement — just as Kara has DSP Bharathan (Suraj Venjaramoodu), who wants to bow out on a high.
Both films are also about the shady but legal manoeuvres that leave ordinary people exploited by the system, giving the protagonists a justification for their heists. Karasamy only hits the bank that has robbed him, and never takes more than he needs.
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However, Kara doesn’t aspire to be as cold or ambiguous as its Hollywood counterpart. Except for the visual aesthetics, the ethos of Kara is very much Tamil. The emotions run high, and the film occasionally borders on melodrama.
The revenge arc, too, ends up looking like a typical Tamil vigilante film.
One last job becomes too many
While the effort in the writing is laudable, certain stretches feel redundant. The one-last-job ends up becoming too many jobs, and we find ourselves in too many heists that all look a bit the same (except for one brilliant and tense job that’s hilarious and nail-biting at the same time).
Then there’s this problem of the film trying to find a way out for the characters. The climax, in particular, has the characters acting out in ways that strain credibility.
Kara undoubtedly stands apart from the usual Kollywood heist films that are all thrills and no thought.
The action choreography, the performances of the lead cast, and the cinematography have a lot going for the film. Yet, they don’t quite come together to leave a lasting impression. It is not a film that will stay with you.
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