After two impressive films, Kalavani and Vaagai Sooda Vaa, Sarkunam slipped up big time with Naiyyandi. Chandi Veeran is better than that film but this is not a return-to-form by any means. At its best, the film recalls the inventiveness we saw in the director's first two films, though nothing here matches their flair. Even structurally, the film feels like a sort-of Kalavani-meets-Vaagai Sooda Vaa, with the first act and the epilogue trying to humour us the way former did while the central knot — a water crisis — has the gravitas of the latter.

But to get to that, we have to spend quite a l... read the rest.