Kanthaswamy (2009) (or Mallama, as the Telugu dub I just watched is titled) is a movie about a man who dresses up as a rooster in order to fight crime. Yes, it is a deeply strange movie, but probably not in the way that you're thinking.
It starts with a temple devoted to Mallama (who as the film points out is known by many names, perhaps most widely as Kartikeya, but here he's Mallama). A woman who needs money for her husband's operation ties a prayer to the tree, and that night a bag of money is placed at her door. She's suspicious and brings the money to the police, who "confiscate" it, by which I mean the station head takes the money for himself. That night, though, he's confronted by a masked, crowing, occasionally flying figure who claims to be Mallama himself. The money's retrieved, and the woman's husband is saved.
This Mallama is actually a CBI officer named Mallama (Vikram), who has assumed the god's identity in order to better steal from the rich and give to the poor. In this case, the specific rich being stolen from are the wealthy tax cheats Mallama encounters during his day job, and the poor he gives to are the devotees who tie their prayers to the temple tree. He does not have any superpowers, and instead performs his amazing feats with the help of a dedicated team of helpers, practical effects, and literal wire-fu.
Mallama's current target is PPP (Ashish Vidyarthi), who starts off smug but winds up faking a stroke mid raid in order to get out of answering questions. He is very devoted to the fake, pretending to be partially paralyzed, and doesn't even tell his daughter Subbalakshmi (Shriya Saran) the truth, so she in turn attempts to take revenge on Mallama, first by accusing him of rape and then by trying to make him fall in love with her. Mallama isn't fooled for a second, but decides to play along anyway, because this is a movie and that is what you do in movies.
This is a long movie, but instead of filling out the running time with padding, it fills it out with plot - PPP isn't even the main villain! Okay, there is a comic relief subplot which wasn't even subtitled in the version of the film I saw, and I don't think I missed anything, but apart from that there's a lot going on. And throughout all that, Mallama actually spends relatively little time dressed as a chicken; most of his heroic deeds are performed in his real identity.
Beyond that, he's an odd superhero in other ways. Mallama the "god" is cocky, graceful, and does everything with theatrical flair, while Mallama the CBI officer is dour, cranky, sarcastic, and totally focused on the job at hand. It's like if Spider-Man was secretly Bruce Wayne.
Mallama is also a superhero who focuses almost entirely on white-collar crime, specifically money laundering and tax evasion. Mallama is deadly serious about this Robin Hood business, and speaks often and eloquently about income inequality and how much good the corrupt billionaires he targets could be doing with their money.
But the really strange part of the movie is Mallama and Subbalakshmi's relationship. It is blindingly obvious that they're going to wind up together; several minor characters point it out as the the plot progresses. But she's kind of a terrible person, and he's really mean to her. Does Subbalakshmi becoime good? Does Mallama become nice? Well, kind of. But they still need all of the therapy, and a prayer tied to a tree probably wouldn't hurt.
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