‘Aami Kathalan’ Movie Review: The fast-paced cyber crime thriller ends up being an average fare

A still from ‘I Am Cathalan’

If a parallel world exists where losers are guaranteed to find salvation, Girish Eddy’s characters would probably be the rulers of that world. The down and out protagonist is a common factor in all his films till date, be that as it may Mathan Dinangal of Thane or super class or Premlu. His last trip I am Cathalan Nothing different, but as always, he brings the same underlying theme in a different packaging.

Cybercrime is the shiny wrapper he uses this time. Only, we see the film mostly from the perspective of a hacker, Vishnu (Naslen), who has completed his engineering course but has a lot of papers to pass. His lack of ambition and string of failures doesn’t sit well with his girlfriend Shilpa (Anishma Anilkumar), who has joined her father’s (Dilesh Pothan) finance firm as an IT head. When something goes wrong between the couple, it triggers Vishnu’s criminal tendencies.

Vishnu’s persona as someone who is not averse to using his technical knowledge in a devious way is established early on, when he attempts a phishing attack on a female classmate’s social media account for his friend. He is clearly a push away from trying to do anything on a larger scale. A man hiding behind technical sophistry rages at a girl who has several valid reasons for dumping him.

Girish and author Sajin Cherukail have stripped down hacking sequences to their bare essentials, making them accessible. Humor, which is a common element in all Girish’s films, is also minimal, perhaps considering the nature of the plot. One of the fun bits is to break stereotypes by depicting hackers, complete with a hoodie and backpack, in some Malayalam films.

With a runtime of less than two hours, the film moves quickly for the most part, tightly packed in one event after another. But it fails to deliver more than meets the eye in the first hour, always with the hacker doing his job and the victims going back to another iteration of updating their security systems. The entry of an ethical hacker (Lizomal Jose), a character who also gets a stereotype-breaking portrayal, adds some thrill to the proceedings. Certain elements of the writing, such as how the stress-buster pillow mouse designed by Vishnu is used at various points in the story, are interesting.

Although one of the characters calls Vishnu a criminal, the film is ambivalent about how it should portray him. At times, it slips into a sympathetic tone, especially in a scene involving Vishnu’s father. This ambivalence also prevents the makers from going all-out against the negative-shaded hero at the end, preventing an impactful climax. Despite being an attractive watch, I am Cathalan Hits a little below the mark compared to Girish’s previous outings.