Sruthi Ganapathy Raman
Arun Matheswaran’s third feature has all his signature flourishes and then some. And whenever it does fall short, Dhanush and cinematographer Siddhartha Nuni do the heavy lifting
Somewhere close to Captain Miller’s interval — a dacoit in the eyes of the Brits; a traitor in the eyes of his people. This dichotomy, and in consequence, the identity crisis that Eesa experiences is a zone that Dhanush was born to thrive in.
The film flows as rhythmically as a river, leaving our minds brimmed with some of the most stunning images we’ve seen all year. But with almost every box ticked, why does the film leave us with an aftertaste that’s painfully lacking a feeling?
Cinematographer Siddhartha Nuni's craft is luminous in places of grandeur — the silhouettes that are captured beside flames in an important moment are unforgettable — and in places of silence.
While we’re moved by what we hear and what we see as individual moving parts, we aren't quite as touched by the film as a whole. And this is because we don’t see what these people mean to Eesa.
The impact mostly comes from a place of familiarity and his flair for social dramas that we’ve witnessed in the past, and not from the world we’re seeing on the big screen today.