A Suspense That Fizzles Out – “Right” Movie Review
Set around the Kovalam police station near Chennai, Right begins with a promising premise. Inspector Natti, working at the station, arrests the friends of a minister’s son and locks them up. While Natti is away on patrol during the Prime Minister’s scheduled visit, the minister’s son sneaks in and gets his men released. Just then, the station receives a chilling phone call warning that a bomb has been planted inside.
Caught inside the locked premises are the station clerk Munnar Ramesh, Sub-Inspector Akshara Reddy, a distressed Arun Pandian who has come to file a missing complaint for his son, a few constables, and two prisoners. The story revolves around whether they manage to escape alive, who planted the bomb, what happened to Arun Pandian’s missing son, and what becomes of the minister’s son who freed the detainees.
Although the crime-thriller setup starts off engagingly, the screenplay and direction falter as the film progresses. Instead of building tension and sustaining drama, the execution lacks grip. Debut director Subramanian Rameshkumar’s efforts are visible, but the sequences fail to carry the necessary weight and intensity.
Natti, playing the inspector, is reduced to a special-appearance-like role, with only a handful of scenes in the first half and even fewer in the second. His performance leaves little impact. Akshara Reddy’s acting is strictly average, while Arun Pandian’s performance turns into one of the film’s biggest drawbacks—his character seems difficult to direct and never quite lands. Munnar Ramesh, usually known for natural portrayals, comes across forced in a few places. The female constable character is passable, and Vinodhini Vaidyanathan as the judge delivers an okay performance but in poorly staged scenes. Among the supporting cast, Thangadurai manages to earn a few laughs as a prisoner with witty lines. The rest—including the minister’s son, and the pair of young lovers played by Aditya Sivakumar and Yuvina Parthavi—deliver performances that are serviceable at best.
On the technical front, the film has little to boast. The music and cinematography add no impact. Even editor Nagooran Ramachandran, known for giving films a crisp polish, struggles here, with the flow of scenes lacking rhythm and sharpness.
In the end, Right misses the chance to be a gripping police-station thriller. What should have been a tense, edge-of-the-seat narrative slips into a forgettable, tiring watch.
Rating: 2/5