When Malayalam actor Naslen’s film Premalu turned out to be a blockbuster, expectations of this young actor skyrocketed. He now returns in director Girish AD’s I Am Kathalan, a love story and cybercrime thriller featuring stereotypes in society. 

I Am Kathalan's story

Meet young Vishnu (Naslen), an engineering student with tons of papers to clear, who’s in love with his classmate Shilpa (Anishma Anilkumar). While Shilpa is all set to join her father Chacko’s (Dileesh Pothan) Royal Periyadan Finance company as IT head, Vishnu is still failing at interviews and struggling to find a job. Vishnu is non-ambitious and nonchalant, while Shilpa stresses that in addition to the fact that they both are from different religions, his financial instability is another big roadblock to their happy-ever-after.

However, what Vishnu is good at is hacking and when their relationship turns rocky, in a fit of anger he hacks Shilpa’s Instagram account and sends some obscene messages to her male office colleague. Things worsen between them and he goes to her office to apologise. In enters Chacko and a confrontation takes place that sets Vishnu on the path of revenge.

I Am Kathalan review

I Am Kathalan was a film that was supposed to release in 2022 but luckily its story is not too jaded. The story, written by actor and writer Sajin Cherukayil, is simplistic and there are no major surprises that you can expect from I Am Kathalan. However, it is the simplicity of the film that is also an issue because the story is not engaging enough.

It’s all about how a young scorned lover takes revenge and uses technology to achieve it – this is probably something one sees very often in the news where youngsters use technology to morph images and release videos, typically of an ex-girlfriend, when their love stories turn sour. There are also stereotypes that the film exposes. For instance, when Gills from Chacko’s office is describing a hacker, he says they have tattoos, use a hoodie, carry a backpack and eat burgers and drink colas.

A problematic trope

Vishnu, like millions of people around the world, uses the anonymity and concealing of one’s identity that the internet allows for his own personal motives. He can behave antisocially and nefariously since there is no fear of the consequences of his actions. Trying to romanticise the idea that a lover, who is a loser in all aspects and uses cybercrime as a tool for revenge, is still a good person is problematic to say the least.

And Shilpa, still believing he’s a good guy and trying to motivate him, depicts how women in our society are unable to see the toxicity of such relationships. But most people would still view I Am Kathalan as a love story which it is not when one analyses it. The director and writer have not really explored this aspect of the film and that’s a letdown.

In conclusion

The film aptly begins with a card that reads “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” which was a cartoon by Peter Stein published in the 1993 issue of The New Yorker magazine. This is not the first time that Girish AD and Naslen have worked together (Super Sharanya and Premalu) but it’s not the best of their collaborations either. Overall, this love story featuring techno crime is just timepass.

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