As I said in my Rocky review, director Arun Matheswaran has created his own identity with a unique voice in the Tamil film industry. The unprecedented experience that he made me feel with his debut "Rocky", I didn't see that in his latest outing, and it fails to recreate the same. The cinema of revenge is infused in every frame with both violence and subtexts which doesn't pay off and feels rushed especially the caste and toxic masculinity angle felt poorly written.
It didn't surprise me that the director divided the narrative into chapters and It is stretched out to 136 minutes. Once the epilogue starts with the blind boy, i realized that it has taken too much time and it doesn't make much sense only prioritise an orgy of violence and gore. I must say the choreography is fantastic and the fight scenes are original, at times comical due to the overacting of Keerthi Suresh which looks ridiculous. I must say the climax portion was bad, she tries too hard to show her emotions. At no point throughout the film, we learn she doesn't call Sangayya by his name. When she does, he is dead and the scene was too artificial, even the scream before she rams the Matador van was very funny. Be it using a pistol, a knife, acid or bare hands, Keerthi's willingness to exude revenge seems to work strictly in parts. I can't say she was awful; we must appreciate her for trying such a role, but the best is, without a doubt, Selvaragahvan, who transmits to the spectators all the emotions he is feeling. He Is at his best here, whether he's interacting with the daughter of Ponni, trying his best to save the blind boy or when he lights the beedi and I want to give extra brownie points. There are more characters roaring seemingly without good writing, like scumbags and losers.
Coming to the writing, not much seems to happen in the 2-hour film, and it was boring to see Arun repeat himself, the supposed paedophile, Malarndhum Malaradha song, and i was pissed that Dhanraj character from "Rocky" was not used properly in this film during the pre-climax portion. The police interrogation which was in the trailer did't make it to the final cut. I was expecting to see how the scene unfolds but it was a letdown. I would say this film was a huge slog through the wasteland, literally, and as viewing experience it was average. There is a huge exaggeration in the fight scenes, which in my opinion was unnecessary and a little pointless, but other than that it's an above average attempt with mediocre writing that can be watched once. If you think i don't have the stomach to watch these kind of films, just peep the reviews i have posted and i bet that not even 70% of shallow cinephiles would have heard about the titles or directors mentioned by me.
