Kaadan movie review: Rana Daggubati's film does a disservice to noble story

Kaadan movie review: Rana Daggubati's film is very predictable, with its grandeur merely used as a gimmick to project the film on epic scale.

Filmmaker Prabhu Solomon, who made his mark with films such as Kumki and Mynaa, returns with a well-intentioned tale of wildlife conservation, Kaadan. The film marks the Tamil debut of Rana Daggubati in a full-length role. Kaadan, as a story, is noble, but the film doesn't leave an impact.

Kaadan movie review: Rana Daggubati in a still from the film.

The story is centered around Rana's character, modelled after environmental activist Jadav Payeng, popularly called the Forest Man of India, who single handedly protests against encroachment in a forest. The early moments of the film are all about the character’s bond with the wildlife, especially with the elephants. The story about encroachment of forests is very relevant, and when told convincingly, it can create an important dialogue. Unfortunately, Kaadan is very problematic in spite of its effort to take up this subject.

Watch the Kaadan trailer here

Kaadan wants to be ambitious but it’s all over the place. It has a decent story arc in the first half. For instance, Vishnu Vishal plays a mahout who helps the government fend off wild elephants, but his character is abruptly removed at the end of the first half with not a single scene post interval. Zoya Hussain's character has a depressing past but she has very little to do in the story. The same goes for Shriya Saran’s character, a reporter who truly believes in the central cause. After a point, it feels like a film made with the purpose of elevating Rana’s character at the cost of making the supporting characters seem worthless.

As the forest man, Rana brings delivers a mature performance -- one of his best till date. But without it, the film goes down like a pack of cards. The grandeur of the forest is mostly captured via visual effects, which are subpar. Kaadan is very predictable, with its grandeur merely used as a gimmick to project the film on epic scale.

Kaadan

Director: Prabhu Solomon

Cast: Rana Daggubati, Vishnu Vishal, Shriya Piglaonkar, Zoya Hussain, Ananth Mahadevan