The heroes — scratch that, antiheroes — of the "Marco" universe seem to use pain as fuel. Like the protagonist of that insanely violent (not in a bad way) film, Antony, played by another Antony, gets a similar intro. Only this time, it's not dogs that're torturing him, but men. It's just one of the few writing choices that make "Kattalan" a less violent entry in the universe, but also works against it. What "Marco" achieved in the violence department was one-of-a-kind, despite the laughable dialogues. Perhaps it's the criticism about going overboard with the violence that compelled the makers of "Kattalan" to go a bit... softer this time around, while still mounting a fairly violent film that justifies the 'A' certificate.
Thankfully, "Kattalan" doesn't go to extremes when it comes to violence against women. The most disturbing moment is implied instead of depicted, a creative choice that is more impactful than the alternative. Now, let's get back to this universe thing. "Kattalan" is indeed part of the "Marco" universe. The presence of Siddique's character in its predecessor, Adattu George, is the only common factor. Every other actor in this film who was part of "Marco" is playing a different character, be it Kabir Duhan Singh's Eddy (who is nothing like Cyrus; the actor is, once again, an effectively towering presence), or Jagadish's character Ali, who is nothing like Tony from "Marco".
Now you might ask where the logic is in these kinds of casting decisions. I say, why not? It's not so different from what Sergio Leone pulled off in his iconic "Dollars" trilogy. In those three films, Clint Eastwood played the same character, but he made Gian Maria Volonté, Lee Van Cleef and Luigi Pistilli play two different characters in two films of the trilogy. One "Marco" actor, however, plays somebody similar in "Kattalan", despite having a different name. Since he is part of a crucial twist, I can't reveal who that is.
In many ways, "Kattalan" is like the one of the films in the "Dollars" trilogy — the very first, in fact, "A Fistful of Dollars". When Antony first shows up, he is caught in the middle of two warring gangs involved in ivory poaching. If "Marco" was about gold, "Kattalan" revolves around the business of 'white gold'. Visually, the two films may seem similar at first, given the lavish use of amber lighting, but unlike the amber-and-grey palette of "Marco", the latter goes for a largely amber-and-teal palette. This is not exactly a new lighting choice in action films — in fact, we witnessed the overuse of it in recent South Indian action films — but "Kattalan", just like "Marco", employs it to impart a graphic novel-like aesthetic, with enough silhouettes, pyrotechnics, and menacing characters to boot.
But for all the exciting mayhem that the makers bring to the table — this is the massiest Antony 'Pepe' Varghese has been, even more than his part in "RDX" — there's also the deja vu sense that keeps following the film like a specter — the ghost child of "KGF" and "Salaar", especially when some severely unpleasant tragic third-act circumstances that once again remind us that this film belongs to the same universe as Marco, lest we forget, that become a catalyst for Antony to turn into this saviour-like figure. And the smuggling aspect alone makes our mind sing, "Pushpa Pushpa Pushpa..."
And Ravi Basrur's score gets so overwhelmingly loud that you begin to suspect that the makers didn't have enough confidence in their film to constantly rely on the composer's work to keep the energy from dipping. As for the score, it's nowhere near what he did in "KGF", which remains Basrur's gold standard. The music in "Kattalan", in comparison, feels like the recycled (or discarded) tunes from "Marco". It gets exhausting after a point, if you aren't already exhausted by seeing every character smoking, or Sunil doing a more violent version of his character in the "Pushpa" movies.
There are three post-credits scenes, but if you go in anticipating the "larger than life" announcements made by some folks on social media (probably started by those employed by the production team), you're going to be quite disappointed. However, if you, like me, went in with zero expectations, you might come away feeling moderately satisfied by a solid action film, even though it doesn't break any new ground in terms of action filmmaking.