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★★ Stars
Directed by: #KarthikSubbaraj
Written by: #KarthikSubbaraj, #NickBain
Starring: #Dhanush, #JamesCosmo, #AishwaryaLekshmi, #JojuGeorge
“A nomadic gangster finds himself caught between good and evil in a fight for a place to call home.”
You’ll find almost every element you can think of within Jagame Thandhiram as it packs in violence, humour and approaches social issues. With its many locations and characters to follow, prepare yourself for an adventure that somehow stretches to be as long as the typical Spielberg epic.
Out of everything, the way actor Dhanush presents the character of Suruli is the most captivating. His charm and what he is able to brings to the screen so naturally breathes life into the film more than any other aspect from my own perspective. I wouldn’t use such exaggerative language if I didn’t mean it – seeing him appear throughout the film brought a new air of excitement each time, and I felt it each time. Almost as if I craved the spark his character has every second of this nearly three hour film. Throughout bloody fight sequences he still manages to maintain his chilled aura; that boils down to great acting on Dhanush’s part. All of these comments contribute to how I know for sure that the type of language I used is completely appropriate, even if it might sound like I’m suffering from a form of Suruli tunnel vision.
Scenes are constantly uplifted by colours and lighting to match the mood of the events taking place. A fight in a restaurant? Lights are low but with a haze of orange and red casting over the setting. A wealthy home of someone with power? The lights perfectly illuminate the setting, making every corner of the room sparkle. The cinematography (Shreyaas Krishna) fits in well with the expert colouring and lighting of scenes, further proving how technically sound Jagame Thandhiram is with things like the use of full camera rotation in specific shots to express the shift in power dynamic between the characters.
The only frustrating part of this film is how the writing and directing combined unfold in overly exaggerative ways when they really should be more poignant and hard hitting – especially when there are lots of opportunities to do so. Jagame Thandhiram includes themes of how immigrants in the United Kingdom and America are treated but, when it comes to actually showing these themes on screen, the true horror of the events related to this isn’t revealed. It is an incredibly important message to be included in cinema so the frustration here makes my head ache. Due to the film’s runtime the multiple twists and turns are fleshed out and built up to a good extent… I just wish that a message so important could have gotten the time, detail and exposure it needs throughout this duration.
Although Jagame Thandhiram is a little messy in storytelling and maybe a bit too long for the kind of plot it conveys, I don’t think you’ll regret watching it (now streaming on Netflix) mostly thanks to the enjoyable and definitely memorable visuals from start to finish.
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