Jagame Thanthiram: Charming Dhanush couldn’t save the Weak Plot!

What is Jagame Thanthiram about? 

Jagame Thanthiram: When a clever, carefree gangster is recruited to help an overseas crime lord take down a rival, he is caught off guard by the moral dilemmas that follow.

Cast: Dhanush, James Cosmo, Joju George, Aishwarya Lekshmi
Music: Santhosh Narayanan
Direction: Karthik Subbaraj

(Major Spoilers Ahead Alert!)

Dhanush is a great performer, but even he couldn’t save this predictable plot of Jagame Thanthiram. He’s just made to maintain his swag whenever the dope-ass music of SaNa drops by. Acknowledged by the director himself that he loved Dhanush as a performer in Pudhupettai, no one can utilize the potential of Dhanush as Selvaraghavan does.

Jagame Thandhiram is easily the most expected film in the past two years because a brilliant actor, Dhanush, joins with a talented film-maker, Karthik Subbaraj. Also the film had a character which Karthik wanted Al Pachino or Robert De Niro to play. Though he couldn’t manage to get those actors, he ended up casting James Cosmo for the role. The film is about a local Madurai gangster, Suruli (Dhanush) who lands in London where Peter (James Cosmo) is a gangster.

Racism’s Ugly Side:

In Suruli’s introduction he blocks a train, gets on it and kills the brother of a North Indian jewellery shop owner. He kills him because he opened a shop coming from North India. A few minutes before Suruli’s intro, we see Peter riding in a white car with number plate reading ‘White Power’. Both the characters are racist. The parallel doesn’t just stop there. We see both of them getting irritated when the blood splashes on their clothes.

Are these parallels enough to make a film interesting? No. The characters need to be well written. Suruli and Peter are only one-dimensional character which the respective actors try to elevate with their performances. The only character which had some depth was Shivadoss and Joju George’s performance was short lived.

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Apart from the fact that Peter Sprott is a racist, we literally don’t know anything about him. We don’t understand his extent of influence with the government. Logical side of our brain stops us from believing that a huge IT company in London is talking about Tamil gangsters in a group appraisal.

It stands against racism, and I believe that there is no other Tamil film in which a character has used the word ‘xenophobia’. It even makes note of the irony of these Indians. They are so ill-treated in foreign countries and yet oppressing each other through caste divisions within India.

Aesthetically pleasing for the Fans for sure!

The film has some interesting scenes like the scene where Shivadoss meets Suruli, the intermission scene where 360 degree man is used to induce tension or the scene where James Cosmo walking out with ‘Aruval’. Even the pop-cultural references are very interestingly used, especially ‘Oruvan Oruvan Mudhalali’ song. There are many scenes and body language that mimic the Superstar Rajinikanth. But do these interesting scenes make a good film? No. The film lacks a good screenplay which could cohesively tie together these interesting scenes/ideas. Karthik Subbaraj went all over the places in the screenplay.

His films are heavily inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s style and this film too has lot of Tarantino-esque moments. Karthik along with cinematographer Shreyaas Krishna and music director Santhosh Narayanan, whose background score was rage, creates an aesthetically great film. But these aesthetics or a few interesting scenes doesn’t make this a good film. A big miss for Karthik and Dhanush.

Police is extinct in the world of Jagame Thanthiram!

Mr. Karthik Subburaj needs to understand acquiring a gun in the United Kingdom is nearly impossible due to the strict laws. Even ISIS rehabs target unwitting bystanders with knives.

One thing which is missing in this movie is the Police – Cops! They seem extinct in the parallel universe of Jagame Thanthiram. There are crimes and violence everywhere, but there isn’t a single police officer or investigation.

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When Suruli was shot, no cops arrived, but an ambulance took him to the hospital and discharged him with IV saline to rest at home. This will never happen, even in our Tamilnadu or no matter where you are. Where are the cops and the investigation?

The director must understand that London is one of the heaviest guarded cities in the world. There are CCTV cameras everywhere, and people are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Ironically, this fact is quoted by one of the minor characters – Murugesan. He talks about the strict monitoring of the government but none of the cops show up when he was killed in the shop under the CCTV surveillance.

London Weather is no Joke!

We all adored the poster of Dhanush wearing a sweater and a veshti on London snow. Not gonna lie, it looks pretty dope. But, it is impossible for a guy wearing a veshti with frozen lower part and skimpy legs to go on a rampage in London. I’m sorry! impossible.

The Half-Baked Character of Attila:

That character, ‘Attila,’ an illegal immigrant, gets a job as a bar singer. The director haven’t done enough research on how the modern day London works. Karthik Subburaj doesn’t know a thing about ‘National Insurance number’. It is ridiculous that she gets bodyguards too.

Dhanush being a typical Tamil hero falls in love with her after a single song sequence. He persuades her saying he’s gonna marry her. Attila meets Dhanush immediately with her weird stalker/loverboy. God knows how she fell for the guy. There are zero developments towards that. It is filmsy and unrelatable to her. Audience doesn’t end up rooting for the characters which makes relating to her flashback a bit dull. Narration of the sensitive issue through her made the flashback bland. Aishwarya Lekshmi’s acting is weak and passable.

Juggling genres didn’t work this time for the Director!

Jagame Thandhiram is all about immigrants and their hardship where the coating of gangster drama is quite a joke. Karthik Subbaraj is one of my most favorite directors out there, he’s smart enough to fool the audience with genre-shifting.

He would’ve given his best if Jagame Thandhiram was two different films, like one being a solid depressing drama about Eelam and immigrants. Another being an extensive gangster flick, no emotions, no flashbacks, no hard feelings, nothing. The problem arises when these two subjects cut across, after setting up a frolicsome first half, it goes downhill from there.

Director doesn’t know the different between Immigrants and Refugees and the security protocols to admit a refugee to a country if he is from a war affected country.

I understand that Subbaraj wanted to express the tragedies of immigrants but choosing the platform of gangsters to emit those tales was a huge mistake. Petta had a similar error, after establishing a solid first half, he tries to attract the audience with the family sentiment but that heat between protagonist and antagonist keeps flaming. But in here, the spirit just expires after the first one hour. His intentions aren’t poor but his execution is.

Verdict of Jagame Thanthiram:

Just like Attila who’s unsure of whether to kill Suruli or not, we’re unsure if we like Jagame Thanthiram or not. But, we sure do enjoy watching James Cosmo eating parotta with salna!