Star movie review: Kavin is the saving grace of this predictable movie about dreams and passion

Director: Elan

Cast: Kavin, Preity Mukhundhan, Aaditi Pohankar

Star, with Kavin playing the lead role of Kalai is about a young boy who dreams of nothing but becoming an actor. All he thinks about is acting, and films. The question is, will he make it? After all, there are thousands of people who crowd the metro cities on a daily basis just for that one big break. However, this industry is not welcoming, and neither is it simple. In such a case, what does Kalai have to help him rise to the top? One would think that the film would center on Kalai’s journey as he pursued his dreams. Sure, it would cash in on the experience of his failures to hype up his successes, but in Star, because of flawed writing, there is no balance between cause and effect.

The majority of the film feels as if someone is skipping through scenes, fast forwarding through Kalai’s life. The scenes set during Kalai’s school time is to establish that he loves movies, and can go to the extent of making prank calls to get a holiday for Rajinikanth release. The college time-period of Kalai’s life is nothing but him falling in love with a junior student called Meera. It is only when the time for campus interview comes that the film even touches upon Kalai’s passion for acting. It is not enough to just tell the audience that he is passionate about acting. One must show him pursuing it, with obsession, as if his life depended on it. At least, if the film is about the rise of a star, I believe it is necessary to underline accentuate this obsession.

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However, the filmmaker attempts to use a popular quote to repeatedly establish this fact. Author JM Storm’s famous quote — The universe falls in love with a stubborn heart — is used to establish the male lead’s stubborn heart during interval block. However, right after this, we see him drown in depression. This break in flow, in terms of understanding the psyche of a man who would do pretty much everything to become an actor, is the downfall of this film. To be honest, there are some brilliant scenes where Kavin steals the limelight with his action, however, these very scenes are undermined because of the plot that is pretty much predictable from the very beginning.

For instance, the scene of Kalai where he acts out a dialogue to his father, is the best scene in the film in my perspective. It establishes this mad love that Kalai has for acting, it establishes how he has grown as an actor, and also portrays the beautiful bond between the father and son strengthened by this common passion for acting and films. In contradiction to this is the entire part, where Kalai travels to Mumbai to audition to be a part of a workshop only to be rejected by the person in charge there. Sure, the scene of him accepting that he doesn’t really understand acting as much as he believed he did was great, but what about after? What do we get to see? We see him on the streets, struggling for money, food and shelter. But him learning acting? Nada, we see nothing.

The female characters Meera (Preity Mukhundhan) and Surabhi (Aaditi Pohankar) are nothing but chapters in Kalai’s life. One is a chapter that ends in heartbreak, while another is all about learning experience. Be it when Meera breaks up with Kalai, or when Kalai loses his sh** with Surabhi who is already traumatised by violence — we do not see a stubborn heart. We see a man broken down by his own dreams. So much so, his life is almost destroyed to pieces by it. However, where is the part where he picks himself up? Where is the part where he refocuses on his passion? This is entirely missed. This reminds me of a scene in _MS Dhoni_ biopic starring late Sushant Singh Rajput. The scene where he sits at the railway station, and a moment of epiphany strikes which the character the conviction that he needs to pursue his passion with clarity.

So what is really missing in Star is this conviction, and the clarity. What the film is missing is the very stubborn heart that the universe has fallen in love with. You see, when you are stubborn with conviction, you seem to shine, otherwise, you only come off as being bullheaded. Unfortunately, what a lost opportunity because this Kavin really did shine in the film.

Rating: 2 (out of 5 stars)

Star is playing in cinemas

Priyanka Sundar is a film journalist who covers films and series of different languages with a special focus on identity and gender politics.