Most of Arulnithi’s K13 takes place inside a house, but no, it is not haunted. The setting is not like the actor’s earlier hit Demonte Colony , which featured a haunted bungalow, but a high-rise apartment. The interiors are posh and well-lit. There’s a Stephen King novel on the bookshelf. And, there’s Madhi (Arulnithi) in the middle of the hall, tied to a chair.
It’s a striking visual – of a hero tied to a chair, frustrated and tired – and it’s the visual that the makers cleverly used for the film’s promotional material. So, how did Arul get here? What was he and Malarvizhi (Shraddha Srinath, giving the term “deadpan expression” an all-new meaning) upto in a pub a night earlier? And how will he get out of the complex situation he finds himself in?
- Cast: Arulnithi, Shraddha Srinath, Yogi Babu
- Storyline: A drunk filmmaker finds himself stranded in a stranger’s apartment
K13 looks like a thriller for most of the time, but it really is a psychological subject…more on the lines of Trapped . Madhi is stuck inside an apartment with a complicated situation, just like how Rajkummar Rao was in Trapped . There’s claustrophobia in the air, and that’s quite well showcased in the first half – Arulnithi’s reactions (though over-the-top at times) work, and the cinematography and pacing suits the subject. The filmmaker cleverly throws in cops coming along to enquire a “suspicious activity”, a courier boy (Yogi Babu gets the laughs in the barely two-minute screen space he has) and a neighbour who looks puzzled most of the time.
There are some appreciable parts – songs do not randomly disrupt the flow of events, and the suspense is well-maintained most of the time. But K13 loses the plot in the second half though once it starts taking itself a little too seriously, complicating things to a considerable extent. Though the climax isn’t something we saw coming, it could have unfolded in a not-so-rushed manner. Why not show how obsessed a filmmaker Madhi is, instead of telling it all through dialogue? Why not show a bit more of Malarvizhi and her relationships, to understand the demands she has as a writer? Barath Neelakanthan could have done so much more with K13 , but the slick making and the recent trend of thrillers in Tamil cinema will surely help its cause.
