Athithi

7/7/2014

A remake of the Malayalam film Cocktail (which, in turn, was an unacknowledged lift of the Pierce Brosnan-Gerard Butler-starrer Butterfly On A Wheel), Athithi is about a couple, Mathiazhagan ( Nandaa) and Vasuki ( Ananya), whose life is turned upside down in a single day when a stranger ( Nikesh Ram, somewhat wooden) comes into their life. This guy tells them that he has their daughter and orders them to do the strangest of tasks if they want to see their daughter alive. This is a solid line for an edge-of-the-seat thriller (think Aamir, but with a foe who is very much visible and present nearby) but Bharathan, who directed Azhagiya Tamizh Magan earlier, resorts to formulaic filmmaking — unwarranted songs and a comedy track featuring Thambi Ramaiah that kills tension like bucketfuls of