Rasavathi - Medicine Man

Rasavathi: The Alchemist 

Tamil, 2024

Genre: Romantic Thriller 

Director: Santhakumar

Stars: Arjun Das, Tanya Ravichandran, Reshma Venkatesh, Sujith Shankar 

Mohan's Measure ⭐️ 

There is fine between film noir and romantic thriller that should be explained.  A film noir is a stylistic approach to film making that centers on character development and moral ambiguity to create a dark but effective plot. A romantic thriller is a movie that wants to be a film noir but just can't quite get there. In both these categories, however, Rasavathi fails.

The title is fetching, hearkening to tales of ancient Tamil magic and folklore. But there is very little of the mystic in Mr. Das' portrayal of Sadha Pandian to make his character fit the part. The same to be said for Ms. Richardson's character. She is far too charming and poised to convince us that she is a lonely pot smoker looking to escape the world. and the reasons for this fly by too quickly to remember in favor of an overtly long flashback about the leading man's woes.

Memories to the point of overuse is what we see in Mr. Shankar's character.  He plays the untreated psychopath that is often used to serve as villain. But this character is more comic than crazed, and we can only wonders at why the writers couldn't have been more subtle in their approach. He feels shoved into the movie, and the reasons he is there is too much of a coincidence.

It is supposed to be movie about a shaman.  But, there is little magic here.