‘Star’ Review: Kavin, Elan’s coming-of-age film falls short of excellence

2024 has been particularly dull for Tamil cinema. Except for one of two, none of the movies that hit theatres managed to create an impact. However, Kavin’s ‘Star’ was one such film, which piqued everyone’s curiosity, thanks to Yuvan Shankar Raja’s killer music and the brilliantly cut trailer. Will director Elan manage to impress the audience again after his debut film, ‘Pyaar Prema Kadhal’? Let’s find out!

Kalai (Kavin) loves cinema and the influence comes from his supportive father (Lal), who is a photographer. From selling tickets to Thalaivar Rajinikanth’s films to taking photos with cut-outs of him, Vijay and Ajith, Kalai does everything that a cinephile and an aspiring actor would do. He also goes to an engineering college to know that cinema is his true love, much like many youngsters.

He starts working towards it with great support from his family (except his mother), friends and girlfriend. When he gets an inch closer to achieving his dream, life throws a curveball at him. This destroys his confidence and takes him away from the cinema. How he re-discovers his zeal and runs towards his dream forms the story.

The coming-of-age film by director Elan chronicles Kalai’s life from 1989 to 2015 and beyond that. Elan’s story is so relatable as we would have all come across that one friend who hails from a middle-class background but wants to make it big in cinema. And it’s still so fascinating as cinema is one of the prime modes of entertainment. It is because of these factors that ‘Star’ generated positive buzz months before its release.

Here's the trailer:

However, ‘Star’ remains superficial despite having so much potential. The struggles that Kalai goes through don’t linger. The screenplay feels rushed, and it jumps from one emotional scene to another without giving the audience time to process it. That said, certain moments in ‘Star’ do grab your attention. Be it Kalai and his father’s camaraderie or his banter with his mother (Geetha Kailasam), the emotions are conveyed beautifully. The portions where Kalai goes to an acting school in Mumbai add much-needed gravitas to his struggle.

The main grouse with ‘Star’ is that the story meanders to a different tangent in the second half, which gives in to many clichés. While the first half stays true to the genre and Kavin’s dream, the second half lags because of this tonal shift. While it's justified that it is also Kalai’s struggle, it subverts the feeling it created in the first half.

After a while, the struggles become superficial. We get to see the Kalai’s problems in familial life and mental health, but not how the cinema industry functions, especially when a newcomer is trying to break in without solid backing.

The makers of ‘Star’ promised three surprises in the film. And all the three surprises become our favourite moments in the film. They become proper theatrical comments, which would evoke apllause and screams.

Kavin’s performance as Kalai works well for ‘Star’. It is mostly effective and also shows he has improved as a performer. It is Lal, who plays Pandian, who has our hearts with his act. Preity Mukundhan, who played Meera Malarkodi, has a great screen presence and her chemistry with Kavin is laudable.

Aaditi Pohankar does the classic ‘loosu ponnu’ (read: bubbly naïve girl) role with much conviction. She also scores in some of the emotional sequences.

Composer Yuvan Shankar Raja is the backbone of ‘Star’. His songs and background music elevate the film in many places. While they work as a standalone album, sometimes, his music forces us to feel the emotion. Cinematographer Ezhil Arasu’s frames took us back to the 90s and 2000s. Editing by Pradeep E Ragav complimented the vision of the filmmaker.

‘Star’ could have been a great coming-of-age film about an aspiring actor. However, it ended up as a showreel more than a emotional and inspiring documentation of his life.

2.5 out of 5 stars for ‘Star’.