There is nothing wrong with making a film with a short runtime if you know how to properly pace your story. On the flipside, if your film runs long, at least try to keep things interesting so the audience doesn’t get bored.

Unfortunately, PV Shankar’s latest effort, “Kalvan”, has a lot of time to kill and wanders aimlessly a fair bit. It is quite different from the movie one would expect from the trailer, which seems to put elephants front and centre.

“Kalvan” follows Kemban (GV Prakash) and Soori (Dheena), two small-time crooks who “make a living”, as it were, in their home village. Kemban dreams of becoming a forest ranger but must first raise a large amount of money to qualify for the position.

Craftily, he adopts an elderly man (Bharathiraja) in the hope of getting him killed in a freak elephant attack, which would entitle him to financial compensation. Of course, things are not so simple, with elephants proving scarce and the old guy proving to be more than just a dawdling geriatric.

Speaking of dawdling, the film’s biggest flaw has to be its overly long runtime of 2 hours 22 minutes, with the main plot only kicking off well halfway into the proceedings.

What’s going on in the first half, you ask? A lengthy display of the shenanigans Kemban and Soori pull off on a regular basis.

There are some clichéd jokes here and there, but for a film that features elephants in its marketing material, the pachyderms sure are absent.

There’s also something to be said about the romantic subplot between Kemban and nursing college student Balamani (Ivana). The two first meet when he breaks into Balamani’s family home, only to be apprehended and trapped by the plucky lass.

Afterwards, the smitten Kemban keeps showing up at Balamani’s college, essentially stalking her, much to her alarm. He even follows her to an old folks’ home where she serves as a trainee nurse, taking up a job there so he can keep tabs on her.

In any other movie, the situation would be a woman’s worst nightmare – “creepy” doesn’t even begin to describe it. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, Balamani ends up being guilt-tripped into liking Kemban, and the audience is supposed to cheer the odd couple on.

Still, there are some redeeming points to the film. The cinematography is impressive, a testament to director Shankar’s good eye for tasteful shots.

Also, much can be said about award-winning filmmaker Barathiraja’s performance, which gives the movie the star power it desperately needs. There is some enigma to his character, and he does a great job of keeping the audience intrigued and entertained.

That said, when his backstory is revealed, it’s done through a slideshow of sketches. It’s an odd decision, given how Barathiraja’s knack for facial acting would have worked better here.

Then there’s the fact that while Barathiraja acts with all his heart and soul, the producers decide to put in a poorly animated tiger. Questionable choices all round.

At least the elephants – when they finally show up – are real animals. But given how late they appear, it really shows how impractical Kemban’s entire plan is. There are easier ways to commit insurance fraud than for an elephant to stomp on someone, you know?

Ultimately, this reviewer’s verdict might have been different if “Kalvan” had aimed to discuss the issue of human-elephant conflict in the face of development. Alas, this is a movie that clearly doesn’t have much to say to begin with.

As of press time, ‘Kalvan’ is screening in selected cinemas nationwide.