DHRUVANGAL PATHINAARU

Karthick Naren | Rahman | 2016 | Neo Noir Crime Thriller

A film directed by 21-year-old youngster who directly launched his feature film from short films. A comprising intruding investigative crime thriller released on 29 December 2016. Success of such crime thrillers always lies in the ability of the film maker to hide the killer from the audience being able to guess. In this regard D16 was one of the most successful films in the history of Crime thrillers in K’Town. From directing few short films to boldly taking up a feature film and making it a successful 100-day blockbuster, Director Karthick Naren established his presence in the Tamil Cinema.

One unique factor of Dhuruvangal 16 was that each frame and detail had a story telling. As per their Tag line (Every Detail Counts), each detail had a vital role in the story. A 115 minutes out and out story-oriented film didn’t deviate away from the plot at any point. Proper background work on Police investigation and small nuances regarding Cop settings proved how efficient the film maker was in pulling off the originality with the amateur team of technicians he had. Technically the film was appealing to the context it dealt with. Set in the backdrop of Coimbatore city, the film had reasonably good amount establishment in the setting and locations. The film follows a nonlinear narration with distinctive pieces of jigsaw stories that needed to be solved by the audience while they watch. These segments were on the basis of time and incident that the characters were involved. This made the plot more intense and involved the audience.

As the story revolves around the crime and the investigation to find the killer behind it, primarily the film required minimal characters and each character had vital importance in the progress of the plot. Veteran actor Rahman played the lead role, the police inspector. His presence and face value were added positives for the film. Apart from him there were a lot of debutants who did their part really well. Although the film had only one song that too post climax, music director proved himself in the background score and was really impressive. Cinematography on the other hand had a different story telling which enhanced the progress. Shot divisions and angles in the film proved that a good cinematography doesn’t require big sets or locations instead with the scope of the story a creative work is definitely possible. Karthick Naren was one of the few film makers who opens the door for the short film makers to directly jump into feature films with a good script. On a whole Dhuruvangal 16 – clever and smart.