A lot of memes based on this movie can be seen on social platforms. Though half of that fits, the rest don’t. Karthik Subburaj has taken a sensitive topic and explored it in a brilliant way. We haven’t seen a lot of movies talking about the Srilankan issue. The flashback scene is well sketched. 

Crux

Peter (James Cosmos) doesn’t enjoy welcoming the immigrants. He decides to hire an immigrant goon. His place is to use the immigrant goon as a tool or a weapon to deal with a committee or gang formed by immigrants under the head of Sivadoss (Joju George). What happens, when that weapon (Suruli), gets to know that he’s on the wrong side forms the remaining plot.

Characters

Kudos to Dhanush for not only accepting a movie that speaks loud about the issues faced by Immigrants/refugees. Santhosh Narayanan is the real monster when it comes to the background score. He has pulled it off easily. The cinematographer Shreyaas Krishna deserves all the praise for giving us a visual treat. The entire cast including Sharath Ravi, Kalai Arasan, Aishwarya Lakshmi, Gajaraj, Joju George, and James cosmos have given their best.

Attilla – Narration

In the movie, Attila narrates the flashback to Suruli. While she is narrating her struggles and pain, we happen to see her in a simple costume. After her flashback, Suruli meets Peter. At that time, he thinks about Attilla’s struggles. In that particular scene, we happen to see Attila in a red colour dress. Suruli’s visualization of that particular scene is with Attilla’s red dress. Suruli meets Attilla in that dress first time in bat. We have seen Attilla’s lifestyle in flashbacks, Suruli doesn’t. So his visualization depends on his first meeting.  

Villain – Villain – Hero

The introduction scenes were excellent. KS’s order his villain or important characters, accordingly. He starts with Sivadoss, who is shown as bad in the beginning. Later we find, Sivadoss is helping people. Why we see the Sivadoss’s gang as bad/ Villain, is we find them killing two people (Mathew and Maddy gang’s men). Deepan says to Rajan to wait and he will come to complete the job(breaking the bone of Maddy’s gang men)

Peter and Suruli were introduced by killing someone. They react in an angry tone when blood spills in their dress. Both of them kill to remove/warn someone who is not part of a nation or region. That shows the similarity between these characters. The change from villain to hero in Suruli’s character is written well.

Circular Pan Shot – 360-degree shot

In the first circle, Sivadoss lits beedi while having the gun. Dhanush and Peter pretend to be in shock. Sivadoss has a dominating hand. In the Second Circle, Sivadoss’s man, Dharni starts enjoying their supremacy. Sivadoss starts laughing. Peter just gives a smirking, Dhanush continues to stare. In the Third Circle, Sivadoss and his mate continue to laugh at seeing Peter starting to laugh out loud. Peter takes the supremacy now Dhanush slowly gives a smile. In the Fourth Circle, Sivadoss and his mate stop laughing, instead, they were in shock. Peter laughs out loud and sees Suruli also laughs loud now Sivadoss and his mate were in shock. The camera stops for a sec while Sivadoss tries to shoot but he couldn’t. In the Fifth Circle, Peter and Suruli continue to enjoy ultimate supremacy. Kudos to Shreyas.

Favorite Shot

  1. There is a reference for “Ku Klux Klan” in Peter’s room. 
  2. Sound engineer and Sana’s work go hand in hand. In the beginning, scenes, where we hear bomb sound, hammer sound, gunshot and local gunshot sounds.  They were different sounds ordered nicely and rhythmically. 
  3. Suruli and Peter introduction scene – From a close-up shot to a long-medium shot, we might see Suruli, Peter and Vicky sitting on a sofa. In front of them, we might see a white dog lying down and two brown dogs guarding the white dog. This metaphorically says Suruli and Vicky might guard Peter against the problem he has created.
  4. Kudos to the dialogue writer for inserting humour in translation. Sharath Ravi has brilliantly carried the facial expression and touches of humour in each dialogue. He turns out to be a supporting character at the end of the movie while explaining Peter’s plot.

KS and Climax

Karthik Subbaraj is known for his genre shifts. He is a pro when it comes to changing the genre gears. For instance, ‘Pizza’ has horror +heist elements. ‘Jigarthanda’ has Gangster + Comedy colliding together. Similarly, he has tried something in ‘Jagame Thandhiram’. That has worked partially. KS is also known for giving twists in the second half of the film which no one can even imagine. But there’s no such thing in Jagame Thandhiram. This may disappoint a few people. 

The climax could have been written and conveyed more convincingly. Though the plot gets a closure, we are left with an open ending. Also, the pre-climax fight looks very similar to that of ‘Petta’. Karthik Subbaraj has sprinkled a lot of references from Rajini’s movies. 

In conclusion, Jagame Thandhiram seeks to be something more than a gangster movie. Overall, it might satisfy those who go with few expectations and are ready for Gangster – Docudrama gearshift. It might disappoint you if you wanted it to come out as an out-and-out gangster film. It is worth giving a watch. Stream it on Netflix and witness Suruli.

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