Vishal plays a police constable in A Vinoth Kumar's 'Laatti'. (VishalKOfficial/Twitter)
Fails to live up to the hype!
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Laatti (Telugu)
Cast: Vishal, Sunaina, Muruganatham, Prabhu, Master Lirish Raghav, Thalaivasal Vijay, Munishkanth, Ramana, A Venkatesh, Vinod Sagar, and Misha Goshal
Director: A Vinoth Kumar
Producer: Ramana and Nandaa
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Runtime: 2 hours 3 minutes
After a long wait, Vishal’s Laatti (Laththi in Tamil) was released in theatres this Thursday, 22 December.
Since Vishal has a good market in both Tamil and Telugu languages, Laatti is considered one of the prominent releases this week. What created a buzz about this flick is the talented and well-built actor taking up the role of a cop.
Without much delay, let’s review the movie to know if it goes down well with the audience:
Murali Krishna (Vishal) is a sincere police constable who respects his job and acts tough on criminals and wrongdoers.
But, in an unfortunate turn of events, he gets suspended from his job. With the help of DIG Kamal (Prabhu), he gets his job back. However, he has to face a bigger challenge now.
He thrashes notorious gangster Veera (Sura) when the latter misbehaves with the daughter of a senior police officer. From here starts the police versus baddies war where Veer’s henchmen try to seek revenge on Murali Krishna.
In the process, Murali Krishna and his son are stuck in a dangerous situation. Watch Laatti on the big screen to know how he takes on these criminals, how he saves his son and how he wields his police power.
Routine story & lacklustre narration
Over the years, cop films evolved into a genre with heroes and directors coming up with stories that showed different aspects of policing and presenting protagonists as police officers.
As a result, this genre has many cliches and tried-and-tested formulae. But Laatti neither adheres to the police movies that had proven the formulae nor it comes up with any innovative content. Hence, it remains to be “yet another movie with a cop backdrop”.
Vinoth Kumar wrote and directed the flick. While it is appreciable that he did not fall into the trap of regular police drama, it is also clear that he didn’t come up with a better story or gripping narration. This is where Laatti fails to engage the audience.
Ramana plays a regular villain. Munishkanth, Thalaivasal Vijay, and Venkatesh play the supporting roles with ease.
Yuvan Shankar Raja, who delivered several hits for Vishal, composed songs and background score. Neither songs nor the background appears refreshing.
Cinematographers Balasubramaniam and Balakrishna Thota did a decent job.
Editor NB Srikant should have kept the movie shorter. There are many scenes that are “forced” on the audience.
Though popular action choreographer Peter Hein composed the action sequences we don’t see his brilliance in Laatti.
Final take
Laatti got its publicity and buzz from Vishal’s presence and police backdrop. But neither Vishal’s fans nor those interested in police dramas will relate to it.