The second film is a crucial test for a director who gave us a cult classic thriller “PIZZA” to prove that he is not a one film wonder and Karthik Subburaj passes the test with flying colors. I liked this movie more than his first attempt. The theme of the movie itself is very new to Tamil cinema. It is a Musical Gangster film and its genre takes a complete U-turn towards the end, which if I reveal right now, would spoil the fun.
STORYLINE:-
Karthik (Siddharth) is a short film maker who aims to become a big movie director. He gets an offer from a leading producer to direct a movie for him on the lines of Nayakan and The Godfather. He plans to study the life history of a gangster called ASSAULT Sethu (Simha) who ruthlessly murders anyone who crosses his way. He begins to learn more about Sethu via Kayal (Lakshmi Menon) and spies on Sethu. Karthik’s life turns upside down and his ambition is put on jeopardy when Sethu finds out that Karthik is spying on him. What happens to Karthik and his ambitious first film forms the rest of the plot.
ANALYSIS:-
The biggest plus points of the movie are Simha’s excellent performance and Santhosh Narayanan’s Background Score. How many movies have we seen, in which the villain completely overshadows the hero? Simha gets the role of a lifetime here and after a few minutes we tend to ask if he is the same person who played a timid youngster in Soodhu Kavvum. Siddharth underplays his role perfectly and Karunakaran continues his fine form. The background score deserves a special applause. We have music directors who use the same BGM throughout the movie or manage the BGM from the songs itself but here is a guy who is very different. He provides a wide variety of music throughout the movie depending upon the mood and I can’t see any repetition of tunes. The songs are also very good especially “Puzhudhi parakkum”. Karthik Subburaj said he is a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, and it is quite evident in few of the shots like the trap for Sethu. The dialogues are also fantastic especially when we get to hear it in Sethu’s voice. In the series of Pudhupettai and Aaranya Kandam, this is a movie which takes the gangster genre in Tamil cinema to a whole new level.
On the down side, the movie is incredibly long (2:50 hours) and the transition of genre towards the end will not be accepted by many. There is also plenty of cuss words and violent scenes which may not go down well with family audience. It has been rated (U/A) for a reason.
For each and every Anjaan which tries to bring down Tamil cinema level with its brainless execution there is an equal and opposite Jigarthanda.
Well done Karthik!
The author, nicknamed 'IMDb' Shriram, is a CSE 4th year student who enjoys watching every single movie and reviewing them.
