Star Review | An Elaborate Coming-Of-Age Drama With Its Share of Highs and Lows

Kavin’s latest film Star, written and directed by Elan, is one film that has a huge timeline, making it a very eventful movie on the surface. But when it comes to the treatment of the movie, Elan has to find a balance between being a proper coming-of-age drama and also a star vehicle. While that aspect of the writing is inconsistent, the eventfulness of the story and the way it addresses the struggle of being a successful actor helps the movie in creating an emotional connection. With an impressive performance from Kavin managing to keep us interested in the film, Star is a watchable drama that has its moments here and there.

Kalai is our hero, and he is this aspiring actor. His father is his biggest supporter, and he is a photographer, who also had similar aspirations in his younger days. Because of the financial circumstances, Kalai was forced to do Engineering. At one point, Kalai decided to follow his acting passion, but that path wasn’t so smooth. The mental and physical torture Kalai had to go through for that is what we see in Elan’s Star.

In the movie’s first half, it is very much that star vehicle entertainer. The hero has an attitude, he is a stalker, and he also messes up stuff. Just when you think Elan is going to justify that dream is enough for someone to become an actor, he throws this acting camp subplot into the film. Even though it is a bit loud (not in terms of commercial Tamil movie standards) you can sense the effort to have genuine drama in the story. In the second half, we have a different mood, and there also we can see a lot of evolution happening in the main character’s psyche.

Star is very much mounted as a big project for Kavin, and in terms of performance, I would say more than the perfection of the performance I was impressed by the fact that Kavin was more interested in playing a complex and vulnerable character. The character’s journey is structured in a way that, somewhere the whole story feels like a beta Vaaranam Aayiram. The vulnerable parts of the character were played very convincingly by him. Preity Mukhudhan, as the love interest of Kalai, was really fluent in her performance. When it comes to Aaditi Pohankar, the quirky motivational character of Surabhi is a little too loud. The kind of comfort the movie wants the hero to feel when he is with Surabhi is not entirely there. Lal, as the supportive father, is fine in terms of the way performs the emotions. But the dialect was a bit problematic. Geetha Kailasam was also fine as the typical eccentric mother of the hero.

The necessity of life experiences and the ability to deal with rejection is essential when you pursue a passion. When you look at the elaborate script of Elan, you can see that he is trying to make Kalai a man with a wide variety of life experiences. He was a spoiled brat. When he got rejected by the acting coach he had to do all kinds of stuff to survive. Then when fate threw him under the bus, he lost hope, his heart got broken, and eventually with the support of the dear ones, he bounced back. Practicality forced him to do the mundane stuff for survival. The aspiration here is to create an eventful coming-of-age story, and it works in parts. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music fits well with the mood of the film. Considering the vastness of the movie, I would say Pradeep E. Ragav has done an appreciable job of keeping the film engaging for the viewer.

Star is ultimately a mixed-bag entertainer which isn’t lazy in terms of aspirations. Even though the foreshadowing may not give you the desired goosebumps, one can see the earnest effort to create a wholesome and dramatic story rather than a hero-worshipping lackluster creation. The drama in the story and how it never opts for a larger-than-life solution makes Star a passable drama with forgivable flaws.