Who exactly is a hero? According to Google, it’s “A person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.” In movies, we also call the main character a hero because they are brave, face adversity with wit, show kindness, fight against evil and give inspiring speeches on justice. In Hit List however, a hero is someone who moves past their inborn shyness to stand up for what is right and fight for their family. Interestingly enough this time around it also happens that there’s a new hero in town Vijay Kanishka! Whether we consider this film’s definition of a heroic figure or Kanishka’s unconventional choice of script for his debut; this thriller leaves much room for discussion. While having its heart at right place may be true about the movie yet still only manages to sparkle in isolated moments instead of being consistently thrilling throughout the entire length.
Vijay Kanishka plays a man (Vijay) whose mother and sister get kidnapped by an unknown person wearing mask. Now he has no other option left but do as what his abductor says so that they can remain alive. On another side ACP Yazhvendhan (Sarath Kumar) too has been involved into investigation about finding out who might be hiding behind those masks.
First ten minutes could probably be weakest part among each minute of entire movie. Characters played by Bala Saravanan and Aishwarya Dutta try to make us laugh through a scene that introduces us to Vijay’s character traits but seeing as we were expecting suspense thriller one cannot help wondering how such scenes fit into larger scheme of things. Luckily after this slow start though things pick up speed when vijays family gets kidnapped quarter way through the story followed by phone call from kidnapper which he receives.
For the rest of the opening half and much of the second, the film goes in circles as the masked man sets Vijay up to do some evil deeds, like killing a chicken and then later killing another person. You may wonder why killing a chicken is on that list. Well, Vijay is described to follow Vallalar’s ideology and be against killing any living being. The movie does this so much wrong that it goes too far out of its way to establish this belief of Vijay’s. Vijay meets Yazhvendhan at an event where he promotes Vegetarianism by asking people to download an app named Go Vegan While it may seem like a small part in the movie, it is what makes up Vijay’s personality and we are left wondering if he is a vegan or vegetarian.
The film strength hinges on the last 30 minutes where we find out about why did masked man manipulate vijay and made him commit those murders. This message though important feels somewhat dated however having heart in right place with injustice reflecting real life but suspense lies at very end when who was wearing mask gets unveiled. What can be said for sure about hitlist is that who ever did identity reveal deserves praise as nobody could see it coming before everything else becomes traffic heavy.
But let us come back to our hero vijay Kanishka which throughout entire movie appears only as coyish coward with no heroic quality within himself whatsoever. Unlike movies where timid hero is used just so his rise can be more pronounced later on, Hit List stays true to its characterisation not shying away from showing audiences how much of scaredy-cat their lead really was until pushed against wall towards other extreme completely . And indeed during these final moments film does rights by him also giving some kind power back when fights were happening trying save mother sister . As credits started rolling over my mind hadn’t even begun thinking about this piece yet already heard clapping from people around cinema hall and instantly remembered words by actor Soori during an interview “the hero is any character audience claps for”.
For More Movies Visit Putlocker.