Raghavan is Not Quite the Police Procedural

There are a couple of good things about Gautham Menon’s Raghavan, the Telugu dubbed version of Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu.

One. When Kamal Haasan makes a movie about psychopathic serial killers, the subject, hopefully, gets more attention than when Simbu (Manmadhan) does. There are so few movies about serial killers, not psychos, it makes me wonder what the one-billion strong population is up to if not able to produce even a few a year. I feel that Shankar’s Anniyan doesn’t strongly qualify as a movie about a serial killer.

Two. Unlike Gharshanaa (Telugu version of Kaaka Kaaka), this was dubbed and not remade. Though Gharshanaa itself is a well-made movie, I often hear that Gautham and Surya had done a much better job. In Raghavan‘s case, thanks to Dasarath’s dialogues, not a lot is expected to have been lost in translation.

I knew nothing about the movie and had few expectations. Though it sounds morbid, I was pleased to find that the movie is about serial killings. I was again pleased to find that a large part of the movie was to take place in NY. Apart from these, the movie falls short of all the hype. I thought Raghavan could have been that nice Police procedural, but I’ll have to wait longer.

The first thing that struck me was the cruelty of old age. No doubt Kamal Haasan has grown old. But when you see those sagging bags below the eyes, not to suggest that Kamal Haasan takes them, you realize that facelifts and botox injections can’t perhaps help even the stars in hiding their age. So unfair.

The introduction of Raghavan (the titular character) is lackluster. For a DCP (Crime Branch), establishing his courage is far less interesting than establishing his shrewdness and his wisdom acquired over years. On the other hand, the murder of Anand Raj’s daughter that forms the crux of the movie is aptly shocking. It is quickly impressed upon the audience about Raghavan’s solitary life, his instinct for smelling buried bodies, and his past. In a way, it felt as if Raghavan takes off where Gharshanaa ends (in the Tamil version). You get the revelation about his past now? But Gowtham failed in exploring Raghavan’s solitude unlike in the “prequel”, surprisingly, when Kamal Haasan is the kind of actor you would want to pull off such stuff.

While the similarities between the murder of Anand Raj’s daughter and those of various women in NY are clear, the quintessential link between them, namely the murders of Anand Raj and his wife, are vague and desperate. The investigation leads Raghavan in the right path, of course, but sadly not all evidences obtained from the crime scenes nor the victims are utilized for corroboration.

The self-proclaimed intelligence of the serial killer is highly questionable, and what is with him swaying like that during his first encounter with Raghavan? A serious parody of Anniyan? The latter half of the movie, after the crimes have been solved, is more of a drag to bring the hero and heroine closer. Instead, the first part should have been stretched further, and the investigation tenser.

Blame it on all the SPB’s music shows I’ve watched, but he now sounds very repetitive while dubbing for Kamal Haasan. The social consciousness that so often bursts out of his dialogues appears to be more of his own than the dubbed character’s.

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