One of the recent, welcome trends in Tamil cinema is the willingness of new directors to not get stuck in the same genre after a successful debut. After Lingusamy, who made the action-packed Run after the family drama Aanandham, we now have Gautham who has branched out to a completely different genre for his second film. While his debut Minnale was a fluffy, light-hearted love story, his follow-up Kaakka Kaakka is a gritty, violent and hardhitting police story.

In police lingo, an encounter refers to the pre-arranged ambush and killing of rowdies to eliminate having to take them to court and probably see them get released. Anbuselvan(Surya), the Assistant Commissioner of Police, is one of four fearless policemen who are encounter specialists. He is a single man with no real hold on life until Maya(Jyothika), a school teacher, enters his life. The foursome gun down Sethu, a dreaded rowdy in another encounter. But this leads to unanticipated repercussions as Sethu's brother Pandya(Jeeva) swears vengeance and tries to hit out at Anbuselvan through Maya.

Kaakka Kaakka is brutally raw and avoids the romanticization of the life of a policeman, that most cop movies end up doing. Gone are the upright police officer who always follows the law, the lighthearted encounters with villains, as in scores of Vijayakanth movies, where the policeman escapes without a scratch or the happy life where he walks off into the sunset with his lover. The policeman here is known for his success in encounters, which are basically illegal, and undergoes an enormous amount of hardship, both physical and mental, in the course of performing his duties.

The romance between the lead pair is pleasant and proceeds without altering Surya's image of a no-nonsense, strict policeman. The two share some nice moments during both the initial, awkward meetings and later, after they have fallen in love. Their meeting in the elevator, the two meetings where Surya gets information about her and the meeting in front of her school are all handled in a mature but cute fashion. At the same time, Surya's methods to dispose off the rowdies keep the movie racing along. Though not too violent, the first scene of the bruised and bloody Surya makes it clear that worse things are coming.

Once Jeeva comes into the picture, murder and mayhem explode on the screen. Murders are piled on with the end that one particular character meets being particularly shocking (the way the others are informed of this and an offhand comment that Jeeva makes about the body are even more so). There are several implausible scenes and unanswered questions but Gautham deserves credit for keeping them unnoticeable until after the movie has ended, with the racy screenplay. But one of the disappointments is that the movie is all brawn and no brain. Unlike Saamy, Surya does nothing particularly clever to beat Jeeva and the same goes for Jeeva.

Surya gives a strong performance but credit for that actually goes to Gautham for fashioning a character that plays on his strengths. Jyothika looks great and shares good chemistry with Surya. Jeeva's body language and voice prevent him from being really menacing but he passes muster solely on the cold heartedness of the character. The three actors playing Surya's friends and Devadarshini, as the wife of one of the policemen, provide adequate support. Harris Jayaraj proves his consistency with another great soundtrack and the picturisation is innovative and fresh. At the top of the heap is Uyirin Uyire... with its catchy tune and fast camera movements. There is good variety in the picturisation of the others songs as Ramya Krishnan does an 'item number' for Thoodhu Varumaa..., Surya and Jyothika go on a drive during Ennai Konjam... and Jyothika is introduced with Oru Ooril.... The only other duet Ondraa Rendaa... is tastefully picturised.