Bhagyashri Borse, Bijesh Nagesh, drama, Dulquer Salmaan, Gayathrie Shankar, India, Kaantha, movies, Nizhalgal Ravi, P. Samuthirakani, Rana Daggubati, Ravindra Vijayc, reviews, Selvamani Selvaraj, Tamizh Selvi
December 20, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Selvamani Selvaraj
Tamil with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed part of India, in the 1950s (with some flashbacks to the 1930s), the dramatic film “Kaantha” features a predominantly Indian cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A film director and his movie star “frenemy” become the prime suspects when their movie’s leading lady is found shot to death.
Culture Audience: “Kaantha” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and noir-styled movies that are murder mysteries, even if a movie’s total running time is a little too long.
“Kaantha” is a stylishly filmed but bloated noir murder mystery about a film director and his movie star “frenemy” as suspects in the death of their leading actress. The movie’s ending drags on for too long, but it’s an intriguing story. At 163 minutes long, “Kaantha” doesn’t get to the murder mystery part of the story until about halfway through the film.
Directed by Selvamani Selvaraj, “Kaantha” was co-written by Selvaraj and Tamizh Prabha. The movie takes place in the 1950s in an unnamed part of India. The story has some flashbacks to the 1930s. “Kaantha” has a “movie within a movie” plot, where the movie within the movie is shown in scenes filmed in black and white.
The first half of “Kaantha” is about the filming of a movie that is also named “Kaantha.” In the second half of “Kaantha,” the production of the movie within the movie is put on hold because of the murder investigation. Needless to say, the second half of the movie is more interesting than the first half. The first half of the movie is the movie’s most redundant section that needed to be reduced.
“Kaantha” begins by showing the murder being committed by a shadowy figure, who shoots a gun at someone in a room on a rainy night. It isn’t until halfway through the movie that the murder victim is revealed to be an actress named Kumari (played by Bhagyashri Borse), who is the star of the “Kaantha” movie that is being filmed. The director of “Kaantha” is named Ayya (played by P. Samuthirakani), who is considered an “auteur” filmmaker. Ayya is a bachelor with no children. He wants to make the movie as a tribute to his deceased mother.
An early scene in “Kaantha” shows Ayya going to Modern Studios to visit producer Martin Prabhakaran (played by Ravindra Vijay) for a meeting to get financing for the movie, which was originally titled “Saantha.” “Saantha” is described as being the first Tamil-language horror movie from a major Indian studio. It has long been a passion project for Ayya, who is reviving the project after it had been languishing in development for years.
Ayya says he wants to have complete control over casting this movie. Martin says that he can give anything that Ayya wants, but Martin expects the movie cast’s leading man to be Ayya’s former protégé: a superstar actor named Tiruchengode Kalidas Mahadevan (played by Dulquer Salmaan), who has the nicknames TK and TKM.
Ayya and TK have an up-and-down personal history together. Flashbacks show that about 20 years ago, TK was a teenage orphan when Ayya when Ayya decided to mentor TK, who wanted to be an actor. Ayya let TK move in with him. And together, they made critically acclaimed hit movies together.
But during his rise to superstardom, TK became very self-absorbed and arrogant. In order to make TK experience humility (or humiliation), Ayya framed TK by making it look like TK was blackmailing a character actor named Parthasarathy. TK was arrested and spent time in jail for this fabricated criminal charge, which TK knew was a false accusation masterminded by Ayya.
Not surprisingly, Ayya and TK have been estranged ever since. However, they are forced to work together on this movie. As soon as TK arrives on the movie set, he acts like he’s the director. One of the first things that TK demands is that the movie’s titled be changed from “Saantha” to “Kaantha,” because TK thinks the title “Kaantha” suits TK better.
TK has more clout and fame in the movie industry than Ayya, so TK is allowed to act like he’s the boss of this movie set. TK also ignores Ayya’s direction on how to perform in a scene. “Kaantha” gets repetitive in showing multiple scenes of TK and Ayya having clashes on the movie set. These clashes usually end with Ayya going back to his director’s chair and fuming and sulking because TK got his way.
Meanwhile, the movie’s leading actress Kumari is being mentored by Ayya. Kumari is young and relatively new to moviemaking. An early scene in the film shows Ayya telling Kumari in a dressing room that he cast her specifically for this leading role, in which she will be playing a version of Ayya’s mother.
Ayya says to Kumari: “I saw my mother hung herself to death. This story is my wish of how she would have lived. It was only after seeing you that I decided to make this film again.” Ayya makes Kumari promise that she will not let anything distract her from working on this “Kaantha” movie.
However, Kumari does get distracted. Kumari and TK (who is a married man) develop an obvious attraction to each other. Of course, Ayya doesn’t like it one single bit. In the “movie within the movie,” Kumari and TK also portray each other’s love interest.
The plot of this “movie within a movie” is very muddled and one of the weakest parts of the story. The scenes showing the filming of the movie don’t make much sense and only seem to exist to show all the friction that is going on behind the camera. An assistant director named Babu (played by Bijesh Nagesh) is sometimes caught between conflicting orders that he gets from Ayya and TK.
“Kaantha” also has a subplot about TK’s life with his wife Devi (played by Gayathrie Shankar), who comes from a prominent and wealthy family. TK is constantly trying to impress Devi’s father Sivalbalan Mudhaliyar (played by Nizhalgal Ravi), who is very protective of Devi. In a scene that takes place at Sivalbalan’s 60th birthday, TK gives a valuable watch to Sivalbalan as a birthday git. TK brags that the watch’s previous two owners were Humphrey Bogart and Winston Churchill.
TK and Kumari become closer, which causes Ayya to get even more upset. Something happens which then sets off a series of events that result in Kumari being murdered. The detective in charge of the investigation is Inspector Devaraj (played by Rana Daggubati) also known as Phoenix, who thinks he’s the smartest person in any given room. One of the people who goes through an intense interrogation is Kumari’s best friend Rani (played by Tamizh Selvi), who knew a lot of Kumari’s secrets.
“Kaantha” is more than just a story about a movie production gone awry. It’s an incisive observation of what can happen when egos get out of control and people become more concerned with appearances than reality. The murder mystery is fairly easy to figure out, but the movie has a few twists that ensure that the final outcome will not be conventional.
The movie is elevated by interesting performances from the principal cast members. Samuthirakani plays the part of brooding and mysterious Ayya very well. Salman is somewhat fascinating as a charismatic and egotistical movie star. Borse is perfectly fine as a trusting ingenue Kumari. Daggubati adds sly touches of comedy in his portrayal of supremely confident Phoenix. “Kaantha” requires a lot of patience to watch from beginning to end, but there’s enough substance to the story that should satisfy viewers who are inclined to like murder mysteries that don’t have predictable endings.
Spirit Media released “Kaantha” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on November 14, 2025. Netflix India premiered the film on December 12, 2025.