Kalaga Thalaivan review: A thriller with an engaging cat-and-mouse game between Udhay and Arav

When it comes to thrillers, director Magizh Thirumeni is known for his intelligent screenplays. His latest release, Kalaga Thalaivan starring Udhayanidhi Stalin, Arav, and Nidhhi Agerwal, is also a thriller.

And here, he tried to give Udhayanidhi a novel character to explore.

The film pits a corporate company against a man who reveals its corporate secrets which, in turn, will end up destroying the company.

Meanwhile, the company owner hires Arjun (Arav) to try and stop the man behind this whistle-blower. We find that it is financial analyst Thiru (Udhayanidhi) who is behind this. However, Gandhi (Kalaiyarasan) also is involved in this plot.

How are the dots connected? What is the reason for Thiru’s actions and why is he letting out this company’s secrets? And is Arjun successful in stopping these whistle-blowers?

Udhaynidhi and Arav are at ease

Udhaynidhi may have missed doing Thadam with director Magizh Thirumeni, but the director gave him a role that the actor seems to be clearly at ease with.

The hero in this film doesn’t engage in heroics but is a regular man who uses his intelligence to achieve what he wants.

He also uses the last and present narrative to tell us the story here.

The way Magizh builds up the suspense in the first half is quite interesting, especially the way he shot the Tiruchirapalli railway station scenes.

The cat-and-mouse play between Thiru and Arjun is engaging and the twists the director introduces make it intriguing.

Writing falters in parts

It’s the romance in Kalaga Thalaivan that is a bit jarring in this narrative.

The love story between Thiru and Maithili could have been kept much more crisply or even removed as it doesn’t add too much to the narrative.

Having said that, Nidhhi Agerwal underplayed her role and it comes off well on screen.

However, the movie falters in parts due to its writing. The first half sets up the film beautifully but the second half goes awry as Thiru seems to lose his grip.

Kalaga Thalaivan introduces the concept of whistleblowing to the audience and with Udhay as Thiru, the thriller is a good watch for the most part.