CAST: Vijay Sethupathi, T Rajhendherr, Madonna Sebastian, Skywalker, Bose Venkat, Vikranth Santhosh, Darshana Rajendran, Pandiarajan, Jagan
DIRECTION: KV Anand
GENRE: Thriller
DURATION: 2 hours 40 minutes
KAVAN REVIEW: An entertaining rant against the corporatisation of media that frequently stretches the limits of plausibility, Kavan manages to keep us engaged with its crowd-pleasing quality.
The story centres on Tilak(Vijay Sethupathi), an idealist, who becomes a reporter at Zen One TV channel. The channel’s boss, Kalyan(Skywalker) is more interested in generating revenue through sensationalism and strikes a deal with politician Dheeran Maniarasu(Bose Venkat), whose popularity has taken a nosedive following protests against his chemical plant. After Maniarasu’s men molest Kalpana(Darshana Rajendran), a young girl who spearheads these protests with her boyfriend Abdul(Vikranth Santhosh), Tilak does an exposé, but Kalyan decides to twist the story in favour of the politician. A furious Tilak quits his job and along with his friends in the channel, which includes his girlfriend Malar(Madonna Sebastian), teams up with Mayilvaganan(T Rajhendherr), the owner of a struggling channel, and tries to bring down Kalyan and Dheeran.
What works for Kavan is the topicality of its content. From protests by youngsters(against chemical industries) and ethics in covering rape victims to the sensationalism of TV(be it for a reality show or news), it has scenes that reflect events of the immediate past and strike a chord with us. Anand and his co-writers, Suba and Kabilan Vairamuthu, have a free run with these scenes and make them enjoyable, even though there is significant exaggeration. Given how things have been in our state for the past few months, some of this exaggeration does not feel far-fetched.