Jagame Thandhiram Movie Review
Cast-;
Dhanush,James Cosmo,Aishwarya Lekshmi,Joju George,Kalaiyarasan,Soundararaja ,Deepak Paramesh,Sharath Ravi ,Devan ,Vadivukkarasi,Ramachandran Durairaj,Roman Fiori ,Muthukumar,Sanchana Natarajan,Ashwanth Ashokkumar,Madurai Alapparai,Baba Bhaskar etc,
Crew-;
Directer – Karthik Subbaraj , Producer – S. Sashikanth ,Chakravarthy Ramachandra ,Written – Karthik Subbaraj,
Music – Santhosh Narayanan ,Cinematography – Shreyaas Krishna ,Editer – Vivek Harshan ,Production compa nies – Y NOT Studios ,Reliance Entertainment ,Distributer – Netflix Release date -18 June 2021 ,Running time – 158 minutes ,Country – India ,Language -Tamil , P R O – Suresh Chabdra , Rekha D’One.Nazar,and Riaz.K.Ahmed Etc.
Story-;
The movie starts with showing a boat detailed by the UK Coast Guard in 2012, off the waters of the English Ch annel. The Women and children are separated from the men. Then it shifts to a phone call received by a UK citi zen named, Matthew, o his girlfriend’s phone, who seems irked by it. He rushes out to confront the caller, but si nce his car has a wheel boot lock, he hails a waiting cab to go to Harrington. A Mercedes-Benz with 4 men in side (2 tamil-speaking) follows close behind. When the cab driver stops the cab to take a restroom break, he locks the cab in front of a building flying a UK flag. He then runs over to the Benz and gets in. One of the men in the Benz, Deepan (Kalaiyarasan), speaks through a walkie-talkie to one in the cab, “Sivadoss says Goodbye”. Imme diately, another man in the car triggers an explosion in the cab. The scene shifts to a seedy place where a man is being to rtured. The man from the Benz goes to the leader of the gang, Sivadoss, who is advising a Sri Lankan Ta milman who wants get asylum. Deepan says that the job is done, but Sivadoss corrects him, since the girlfirend is not de ad yet.
Then a Rolls Royce with “WHITE POWER” on its license plate is shown stopping in the middle of the street and a car of black men who were initially irritated by the car blocking the road, drive off scared when the gang leader, Peter, exits the car. He proceeds to the backyard of a nearly place, where he kills two handcuffed men, repor te dly from his own gang, who had not done their job well. He then beats the girlfriend of Matthew, with a shov el. The scene shifts to a town in TamilNadu, where Suruli is shown playing Spin-top with some kids. He is then show n with two other men, blocking the train tracks, when a train is approaching. The train stops right in front of the m and the driver directs them to the second compartment, which they approach with sickle, handgun and other weapons. They then threaten a man, Rahul, who is with his friends, to call his elder brother, Anil, who happens to be from a North Indian family of wealthy jewelers who have migrated to TamilNadu. Suruli threatens that he is going to kill Rahul and will kill Anil and family as well, if he does not leave. Rahul pleads for his life. Suruli then pr oceeds to ask him a question, and not getting a satisfactory answer, he shoots Rahul four times.
He then proceeds to his betrothal ceremony. His friend asks him to leave town with his new wife, after the wed ding next morning since Anil’s gang is angry and seeking revenge. It is then shown that the bride has run away, wr iting a letter that she is doing it since Suruli is a thug and a murderer. Suruli is shown working at his restaurant, w here an attempt on his life is made, but he successfully fends it off, after exchanging fire and blasting home m ade grenades to drive off the attackers. The next morning he meets a foreigner John, escorted by an Indian man, Vic ky, both of whom had been in the restaurant during the fight. He proceeds to tell him that he had talked about Su ruli’s legend at his software company’s appraisal meeting. He introduces the white guy as a gangster who is in se arch of a Tamil gangster to counter Sivadoss’s domination over the Tamil population. Vicky requests Suruli to ac company them for a month. Suruli asks for £200,000 per week, the same amount Vicky makes in one year, which is agreed to.Suruli reaches London and is taken to an estate house, where he meets Peter, who explains that Siva doss is the only known member of his own gang.
Vicky start recording the conversation and requests Suruli to play along as if he understands what Peter is say ing that is being translated by Vicky. Suruli is impatient and leaves, before which Peter gives Vicky a phone on which to contact him.Vicky’s white girlfriend is working as a PR person for a Minister Andrews, who is fighting against BICORE, a parliamentary bill that is being introduced to restrict immigration.Suruli meets Dharani, a Sri Lankan Tamil migrant from Jaffna, who claims to be a member of Sivadoss’s gang. Dharani without being pro mp ted reveals a lot about Sivadoss’s gang and smuggling tactics. He meets and is enthralled by Attila, a Sri Lan kan Tamil woman in a pub where she sings a popular old Tamil film song. He confesses to her in the first meeting that he is in love with her and wants to marry her.Suruli relays the intelligence he has gathered from his source about Sivadoss’s weapons smuggling operations from conflict-ridden countries (gold for guns), which is competing wi th Peter’s own smuggling. The weaponsVicky visits the wake for a North Indian man, who has died, where a van from the Aatma Funeral Service, a Sivadoss business, shows up.
Peter’s gang waylays the funeral van and confiscates the weapons which are being smuggled in the coffin’s false bottom.Rajan, Sivadoss’s right-hand man, suspects someone from their own gang, but Sivadoss disagrees. Suruli sets up a meeting with Attila through Vicky, but remains quiet in the meeting, till she threatens to leave. He rep eats that he is in love and wants to marry her. She admits that she is a widow and a mother of a 7-year old boy, D heeran. Suruli talks to a worker at that restaurant, Murugesan, whom he recognizes from his town. Attila is am used that Suruli introduces her as his fiance, even though they do not know each other well.Peter’s gang wears masks and conducts a raid on Sivadoss’s boat yard where the smuggling is in process under Rajan. Suruli, who is part of the raid, identifies Rajan and has all the surviving Sivadoss’s gang members shot, since they have seen him without his mask. It is then revealed that Matthew was Peter’s nephew. After consulting with Peter, Suruli blows up Rajan, similar to Matthew’s execution.At Rajan’s funeral. Sivadoss and his gang figure out that Suruli is the rat. Suruli is beaten up and kidnapped to Sivadoss’s hideout.
He convinces Sivadoss that it is better to keep him alive and that he has insurance against him that would be rev ealed to Peter if he were dead. Sivadoss turns Suruli into an informant with the promise of money. Suruli negoti ates to get paid £600,000 and a parotta shop in London, so that he can marry Attila and settle down. They decide to invite Peter for peace talks, but instead kill him. Suruli convinces Peter to attend the peace talks. They make plans to smuggle weapons inside the venue inside a clown doll and toy machine. And also to ensure that Peter do es not have any backup inside the meeting, where only leader and one member of gang from each side is allowed, they ensure to talk in Tamil, which means that Suruli will be present with Peter. In spite of warnings from Vicky, Suruli proceeds with cooperating with Sivadoss. At the meeting, Sivadoss, Velu, Peter and Suruli step into the ro om. Velu steps out to get Beedi, native tobacco, but retrieves the handgun which Sivadoss points at Peter. They all laugh, but Sivadoss finds that Suruli has trouble-crossed him and taken out the firing pin. After fighting Velu, Suruli retrieves a Aruval from the couch, which Peter uses to slash Sivadoss dead.
Before that, Suruli says in Tamil, “This is all common in politics” (a popular line from many movies uttered by Go undamani). Then Suruli ends up putting a bullet into Sivadoss with the same handgun. Outside, Peter’s gang re trieves weapons from furniture and shoot Sivadoss’s gang dead, with the exception of Dharani, who is left to live by Suruli. Deepan who was not present at the meeting, but listening on an audio device planted at the meeting, and Dharani plan vengeance, while Suruli and Peter celebrate the victory with a dance in the style of Tamilians. Suruli opens a restaurant, Suruli Vilas, with much fanfare, with his mother at the opening ceremony, Murugesan as the manager and other friends and family attending, including Attila and her son. Attila convinces Suruli to take things slow and start dating before deciding to marry.Politicians on both sides are shown campaigning for and against BICORE. Murugesan explains to Suruli the problems faced by immigrants especially refugees and un documented. On their first date, Attila conveys her love to Suruli. While they kiss, they are shot at and chased into a grove of trees by Deepan and a few remaining Sivadoss’s gang members.
Suruli is hit by a bullet in his gut, but grabbing a gun from his ankle holster, he shoots back and kills one. While he is shooting Dharani, Deepan and another gang member shoot him multiple times and Suruli falls into the lake. He is rushed to the hospital in a critical state.After time in the hospital he returns to home care, weak. Attila is show n to care for him, while her son is bonding with Suruli’s mother. She is shown injecting a mysterious drug into Sur u li’s drip bag. Suruli finds it out and slaps her, having found that she was the one who betrayed him to Deepan at the park. He questions her why she did it.A flashback shows Attila’s time in a village in Vanni, Sri Lanka, where s he lived with her family. She and Dheeran narrowly miss being bombed by the Sri Lankan military jets. Dheeran’s mother, grandma and Attila’s husband are dead in the bombing. Only her brother is the other survivor, who is al so Dheeran’s father. All the survivors of the village are displaced to refugee camps. At the camp, they meet a man who convinces them to join Sivadoss’s gang who take them to Rameshwaram. They are told to act as husband, wi fe and child instead of their real relationships, since it will cause lesser suspicion.
From there, they go via Chennai to Singapore, Ukraine, Poland, Berlin, Lecelles (France) using fake passports. The re they are guided to take a special tourist train to Calais and then Eurostar. At Corbehem, when the train stops, police detain the father, who does not have the necessary visa, having been separated from his son and Attila. Sh e explains that Sivadoss was the only one who provided her emotional support through the 3 years that she has been waiting for her brother to catch up. She explains that Sivadoss had been helping immigrants from various nationalities, by providing employment and legal resources. Sivadoss had turned to smuggling to support these activities, which is where he had developed enmity with Peter. She also explains that India aher nations that cla im to help refugees, in fact, are not so welcome in action that they claim in words. Suruli realizes that Sivadoss ha d good relations with immigrants from all nations and was the counterpoint to racists like Peter. The day be fore Sivadoss was killed, he had met with Attila and talked about keeping Suruli safe and that her brother was one of the people detained by UK Coast Guard when trying to cross by boat from France.
Sivadoss promises to arrange to get her brother released. All the philanthropic work that Sivadoss had been hea ding are stalled and fear and confusion was spreading among immigrant communities. Peter and his like were no w exploiting immigrants without their counterbalance. Suruli realizes his mistake for his treachery. He asks for her forgiveness and asks her what he can do to rectify. She says there is nothing that can be done and walks away with Dheeran.Peter asks Suruli to assassinate Minister Andrews. In return, Suruli asks Peter to release Attila’s brother and some of their friends from Peter’s private jail. Peter puts Suruli in his place when he asks why he is ag ainst immigration. Suruli returns home to find that his mother wants to return home immediately, since she is disappointed with him being a traitor, especially after listening to Attila. While talking peace with Deepan and ga ng, Suruli gets into a fight, but ends up asking for forgiveness. He asks them how to redeem his actions. Deepa n and Dharani explain that it will take thousands of pounds per person, to get legal status, which they do not have since the two people, one of whose son is studying in Coimbatore, who were entrusted with the funds have flow n to USA and Australia.
Suruli’s network finds the son, kidnaps him and threatens the father. While Suruli talks to his old gang member in Madurai, it is revealed that his mindset has changed, where he regards all Indians (and in turn immigrants) as one instead of the caste and regional barriers that he had while in India. They restart the legal help for immigrants. Sl owly with his actions and humor, he makes Attila like him back.Peter, having found that Suruli has been seen aro und Deepan and the old Sivadoss gang, confronts and threatens him, pointing a gun at his forehead. He wants Su ruli to leave for Birmingham the next day, to assassinate Minister Andrews. Vicky explains that Peter’s grand pl an is to use an immigrant (Suruli) to kill a minister who is helping immigrants (Andrews), thus turning public senti ment against immigrant and support BICORE, which would personally benefit Peter, who owns jails housing im migrants. Suruli goes to meet Peter and tells him to leave him alone and that he will not kill Minister Andrews. Pe ter calls Suruli one last time to find that his decision is final.
Peter’s gang destroy his restaurant by shooting at it and kill Murugesan by accident, who has been working in th e kitchen at night. Peter calls back to tell him that his men had to kill Murugesan who was already fatally woun ded. After being asked one more time, Peter’s gang shoot inside Suruli’s home, with no life loss. This time, he agr ees to go to Birmingham after Murugesan’s last rit es, which are held the same night on Peter’s orders. Suruli gat h ers materials and makes homemade explosives, being overseen by Peter’s gang. At the same time, Sivadoss’s ol d gang, organized by Attila, also gather weapons from their old hiding places. Sivadoss’s gang lay a trap on the wa y to Birmingham when Suruli is being taken there by Peter’s gang. Peter, who is in cahoots with a minister who is pro-BICORE, calls his gang to confirm that they are on the way. John is shot and executed on the side of the road. They meet up with more gang members and weapons and proceed to Peter’s house. Peter gets a phone call from his minister that the rally has been cancelled due to a security breach.
Peter calls John’s phone, but Suruli picks it up and tells him, “I am on the way!”. Suruli and gang launch a full-fro ntal attack on Peter’s compound, pelting homemade explosives and guns blazing. In spite of the numerical supe riority, they are able to get into the house, where Peter is waiting in his office with a machine gun. Peter’s gun do es not fire and Suruli ignites a homemade explosive, which throws red chili powder on Peter’s face.The minister in cahoots with Peter is arrested, BICORE proposal defeated and public demonstrates against the use of private prisons to hold undocumented immigrants. Suruli’s gang smuggles Peter to a war-torn land that sits between Ira n, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, all countries to which Peter had smuggled weapons to. Suruli explains to Peter tha t he had destroyed all documents and references to Peter being a UK citizen. The only document he has left is a “passport” document claiming Peter to be from “Mattuthavani”, a non-existent country. The driver of the truck asks if he can give Peter some water, which Suruli allows. Suruli explains that one can only start a war, not end it, and that Peter will be back, hinting at a possible sequel.
Watch The Trailor-;
Movie Review-;
Karthik Subbaraj’s Jagame Thandhiram comes across as a very ambitious film about immigrant politics. Unfort unately, what it ends up being, in spite of its promising premise, is a convuluted gangster drama about a local go on, Suruli from Madurai, played effortlessly by Dhanush. Jagame Thandhiram opens in London, where a key me mber of a local gang, headed by a man named Peter, is killed by member of a rival gang, headed by Sivadoss, an immigrant from Sri Lanka who is gradually strengthening his grip over the city. Peter employs Suruli (who gets a gallery-pleasing introduction stretch in Madurai) to help him take care of Sivadoss.Dhanush as the flamboyant village youth who lands in London shines in his role. In fact, he shoulders the entire film with his spirited perform ance. He is at complete ease in the Madurai as well as the London episodes. He is effortless in dances and fights, as usual. Acclaimed Malayalam actor Joju George once again gives a commendable performance and makes a st riking impression. Game of Thrones fame James Cosmo’s presence adds depth to the film.
Malayalam actress Aishwarya Lekshmi is elegant and emotes well in her role of a singer. Other actors too make their presence felt in their given roles.Lackluster script and screenplay are the main drawbacks of Jagame Tha ndhiram. After starting off the film on an interesting note, and following it up with an engaging Madurai episode, writer and director Karthik Subbaraj slows down the proceedings when the story heads back to London.Too ma ny characters, incoherent characterisations, especially for the female leads, and pointless scene setups act as ro adblocks to the narrative. As a result, the film’s main objective of highlighting the immigrants plight is lost in tr anslation.Acclaimed Tamil composer Santhosh Narayanan’s blazing background score is one of the main highli ghts of Jagame Thandhiram. A couple of songs, Rakita Rakita and the title track Suruli, stand out from the rest of the album. Cinematography too takes a major credit for making JT look top-class and stylish. Shreyaas captures the London underbelly quite well. The main plotline of the film and the rich production values are the other high lights of JT.
It’s interesting that a native gangster becomes an unwitting saviour in a foreign land in unusual circumstances. In This made him look like a caricature. In ‘Ja game Thandhiram’, which has been touted as an action-comedy gangster film, the British racist is packaged to lo ok like a typical landlord-like figure hating the landless in an average South Indian movie. He makes his White su premacism obvious, much like a zamindar would make his supercilious attitude obvious elsewhere. And be ca us e he is an anti-immigrant barbarian who is too busy reve ling in his White supremacism, he is clueless about how to save himself when the enemy is at the gate. All too conveniently!Writer-director Karthik Subbaraj, who is us ually averse to pandering to run-of-the-mill sensi bil ities, expects the audience to buy into the farce because the challenger is a true-blue Tamil hero and the villain is a lowlife foreigner.
This becomes the biggest undoing of ‘Jagame Thandhiram’, which doesn’t push the envelope in its portrayal of the David Vs Goliath fight.Suruli (Dhanush) moves from Madurai to London when Peter Sprott (James Cosmo, a racist White gangster) enlists him to remove the nuisance called Sivadoss (Joju George), who is a Tamil-speaking gangster in his own right. Since Suruli is a Tamil-speaking gangster, Peter believes he is best suited to know the w ays of Sivadoss, who games the system in London. In no time, Suruli cracks his modus operandi and Peter is thor oughly impressed. In an unexpected turn of events, Suruli realizes that he may be a pawn who doesn’t understa nd the complex web of politics he has willingly walked into. Can he redeem himself?As a storyline, this film wor ks. It’s interesting that a native gangster becomes an unwitting saviour in a foreign land in unusual circumstan ces. It’s also to the film’s credit that it infuses the themes of xenophobia and statelessness with a fairly engaging backstory.But the hits don’t outweigh the misses. ‘Jagame Thandhiram’ doesn’t come into its own before or after the segment where Suruli finds a new direction in his life.
It feels generic beyond the pro-refugee sentiment it promotes and the anti-racism politics it so strongly denoun ces.In the initial portions, Suruli takes a cancelled wedding in his stride. He always assumes an attitude that can instantly win the respect of Peter, who is an embodiment of racist pride. But the film can’t shake off its itch to be comical in a Kollydoodian way. So, we have a jester for a translator. The situational reference to Mani Ratnam’s ‘Nayagan’ and the pop culture references to Rajinikanth would have worked as a Tamilnadu theatrical experien ce, not as an OTT ride meant for a pan-India audience.James Cosmo, who rises above the very ordinarily written character, would have been way better had he been depicted as a narcissist in a shocking scene. It’s stunning that it takes the precious insights of a relatively rookie gangster for him to even know of the modus operandi of his sworn enemy. Like in Anushka Shetty’s ‘Nishabdham’, the Tamil-speaking characters bump into Tamil-speaking people by design or accident in a foreign land. Karthik Subbaraj establishes the smiliarities between Peter and Suruli quite effectively.
When they are introduced, we see them killing someone, but more than the killing, they seem to be getting their pleasure in the wise-cracking, complaining about their clothes getting ruined by the blood. Like Peter, who doe sn’t want immigrants taking over his country, Suruli doesn’t want a ‘Saettu’ running a jewellery shop in ‘his’ land. So, we know that Suruli will see the error of his ways at some point, but it is in showing us the how that the direc tor disappoints.One reason for this is that Sivadoss isn’t a fleshed out character. We see him from Suruli’s point of view during the first half and later, when Atlia shows him what the gangster actually stood for, we are suppo sed to respect him. But the character is written in broad strokes that he doesn’t come across as someone unique. The rest of the characters, including Atila, are strictly functional. Actors like Kaliyarasan, Sanchana Natarajan an d Vadivukkarasi are pretty much wasted in minor roles.The xenophobia in London is thus portrayed with a matt er-of-factness. Subbaraj here adds a topical dimension with migrant anxiety, which in fact lies at the root of mo bster mythos.
Every fresh group of migrants were marginalised, oppressed and force d to live in the fringes of society. So, they turned to illegal means to gain a foothold. The stories of the rise of Vito Corleone, Satya and Sivadoss are all mig rant narratives in a way.In search of a fuller accounting of the crisis, Sub baraj sets a flashback during the Eelam War. But the trials of the escaping refugees are given the quick montage treatment, which doesn’t allow for a pro per reckoning with our own past — and extended present. India has cont inued to deny citizenship to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees it has hosted in camps in Tamil Nadu for decades. Thus, ma ny of them make the perilous boat jour neys from Asia to Europe in search of a better future. Subbaraj opens the film with a similar scene.In interviews, Subbaraj spoke of the idea of home being a key theme in the movie. The id ea of home for the refugee is coloured by the experiences carried from the country of origin as well as the host country.As refugee communities often live isolated from the host society, it leads to a conception of home as a no man’s land, where they do n’t know wh ere they truly belong. This applies to the Sri Lankan Tamil migrants still suffering from the fallout of the civil war. Subbaraj thus serves a wake-up call to not just the Brexiters, Trumpists and all the white suprem ac ists, but also the Tamil Nadu locals who distrust the refugees, referring to them as viduthalai puligal and agadig al.
This IS MY Personal Review So Please Go And Watch The Movie In Netflix OTT Platform Only
Written By- T.H.PRASAD -B4U-Ratting-3 /5
