Runtime: 166 long minutes
Directed by: Nelson Dilipkumar
Starring: Rajinikanth, Vinayakan, Ramya Krishnan, Vasanth Ravi, Yogi Babu
From: Sun Pictures
Perhaps something got lost in translation...
I hate to do this; besides not viewing enough Indian movies for the at least dozen Letterboxd mutuals from that part of the world, but too often I've selected modern efforts that don't exactly jive with me. It's not easy to track down those movies between various different platforms, they sometimes vanish without warning, then trying to determine what could be to my esoteric tastes... still, I should try to choose better.
The premise sounded promising. The film starred Tamil language legend/superstar Rajinikanth as a former jailer who has a police officer son and an incredibly irritating grandson who loves having a YouTube show with 96 followers. Boy, the “humor” in this “dark comedy” more often than not really didn't jive with me. After all, the beginning of the film (after disclaimers about cigarettes, booze, and drunk driving) shows the main villain dunk three henchmen in sulfuric acid (?!) after one of them is a turncoat... then we get the irritating grandson and awkward comedy, which this is full of despite the brutal opening which also features two of the men being hit in the head with hammers! WTF? Like in some other movies from that country, there are small warnings displayed at the bottom whenever a character drinks or smokes. In this case, just seeing cigarettes is implied to be more offensive to the viewer then seeing people bashed with hammers then dipped in acid!
There was about a 20 minute stretch in the opening act which was rather dire. After that, it improved but too many of the characters (including the lead) I didn't really enjoy so it took the hilariously convoluted plot and some catchy songs to even keep me watching through the almost 3 hour runtime. I've now learned that when it comes to this part of the world, apparently I need to choose either the classic cinema from decades past or the modern movies that are hysterically, bombastically over the top like RRR. For now, I'll shrug my shoulders & move on.
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