'Kaali' movie review highlights: Vijay Antony's film is slow paced and underwhelming till now

Storyline: An Indian doctor in the US, haunted by a recurring nightmare, learns that he is adopted, and comes to India to know his real roots.

First half Review: Perhaps the huge success of

Pichaikkaran

had made realise that it is enough if he had elements that would work in the B and C centres. That was one of the reasons why his previous film, Annadurai, ended up being a disappointment, and now, sadly, Kaali, too, seems to be going the same route so far.

Though the premise of Kaali feels somewhat dated, we expect the presentation to make it different, but we are in for disappointment - at least in the first half. The leisurely narrative style, which would have been OK a couple of decades ago, robs the film of the urgency that the mystery over the identity of the father should have generated.

And unfortunately, it is this mystery that Kiruthiga Udhayanidh banks on to drive the narrative. The efforts of Kaali and

Gopi

to find out who among the villagers could be leads to some minor comedy. Some of it is derivative, but it is also amusing, with Yogi Babu scoring with his one-liners.

It is difficult to predict where the story is headed and that is the only thing that keeps us watching.

But otherwise, things are underwhelming. For example, we have a scene where Kaali and Gopi get the village head drunk to find out if he could be the father. And when the guy starts narrating his story, we get Gopi's imagination of this character's romance. You are left scratching your head at how this adds to the plot, especially when you find out that is inconsequential. A duet in this episode only adds to to the length.

It is only in the second half that we realise this concept - of Vijay Antony appearing as the characters who are the 'suspects' in each of their romantic stories - is the very design of the film. If only had the film established this much earlier in the film... This offers a wisp of a promise of things getting better on the second half, but we will have to wait and watch how that turns out.