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‘I Am Kathalan’ Review: A Watchable Losercore Revenge Drama, Set In The World of Cyber Crime
Despite the familiarity of Girish AD’s world, his writing continues to engage.
Cast: Naslen, Dileesh Pothan, Lijomol Jose, Anishma
Director: Girish AD
Language: Malayalam
There’s a revealing dialogue in the second half of Girish AD’s I Am Kathalan, which explains why this film is special. Given his films’ often unremarkable “heroes”, it’s easy to think of I Am Kathalan’s protagonist Vishnu (Naslen) as some sort of underdog. But look closer and you’ll see that Vishnu and his friends aspire to become people with some fighting quality.
The descriptor that’s perhaps most apt for Vishnu is “lowlife”. He lacks the ambition to become anything more than ordinary, the sort of guy a lecturer remembers years later only because of how notorious he was. So when Vishnu says something along the lines of, “Every passerby has so far walked past, knocking me on my head. I haven’t been able to do anything in response,“ you understand where he’s coming from. For I Am Kathalan to fully make sense, you must watch it like you’re watching the revenge plot of an abject loser.
There couldn’t have been a better setting for this than the world of cybercrime. In an earlier scene, one of Vishnu’s close friends approaches him with a strange request. He’s suspicious of his girlfriend and wants Vishnu, a part-time hacker, to help snoop through her Instagram account. Vishnu hardly hesitates; instead, there’s a matter-of-fact attitude in the way he goes about the task, as though he’s done this for a bunch of friends before. He would perhaps never have crossed a moral threshold in the real world. But in cyberspace, there’s nothing holding him back.
His motivation for revenge seems entirely plausible too. He’s been in love with Shilpa (Anishma), an overachieving classmate from a wealthy family. She complains about the many exams he’s failed and how he has no plans for the future. When the two meet at a cafe, she assumes he’s incapable of paying even for the two cups of tea they’ve ordered. Naturally, this is what her family feels about him too.
But not once do we imagine Vishnu to be the kind of hero that will make something of himself. He probably scoffs at Instagram memes that declare lofty ideals like, “The best form of revenge is to live well.” Why go through all that effort when you can simply hack into the database of your ex’s company?
Girish treats this subject with seriousness. Given his previous films, it’s easy to find I Am Kathalan lacking in comedy and lightness. But how else do you treat a film about a criminal, even if his crimes are more abstract in cyberspace?
There are portions in which the film resorts to over-explaining. With each crime getting murkier, we get dialogues upon dialogues explaining what the characters are doing online. This gives us insights into the mind of a hacker, setting the tone for a believable world, but despite adding to the authenticity, the information is too dense to matter. Terms like phishing, cyber security and the dark web are alienating, to the point where you feel like you’re watching a Netflix documentary. A lot of legitimate research seems to have gone into the film, to the point of it delivering an education the audience might not have even asked for.
By now, Girish’s writing has become so identifiable that you can sense a pattern even before the film’s big payoff. Like the clownfish in Super Saranya (2022) or the pepper spray in Premalu (2024), there's a pillow that pops up in different places for a variety of dramatic purposes. Similarly, you can also identify the character archetypes in all his films. I Am Kathalan features another iteration of the strict no-nonsense parent, like in Thaneer Mathan Dinangal (2019). There’s also the annoying ideal man, this time in the form of the chartered accountant Mathew (Vineeth Vasudevan). Despite the familiarity, however, the writing continues to engage because it has become easy for Girish to create that lived-in feel.
But does the film offer any more? With his signature comedic elements missing, it’s doubtful whether I Am Kathalan is as rewatchable as his earlier films. But it gives you a fairly engaging character study about an anonymous troll.