What do you say about a comedy that comes alive only in the final stretch, where bloodthirsty villagers begin to dance to Gangnam Style in the midst of a kabaddi tournament, surrounded by pompom-bearing cheerleaders and banners for Nijam Paakku and Aachi Masala? Had this crazy-surreal tone existed throughout, we may have had on our hands a free-association laugh riot. Instead, we’re faced with a ghastly mix of brutal drama and casual one-liners. The director Ezhil cannot land on a tone, and so we have, at interval point, a father who’s killed in front of his daughter by a javelin that pierces his heart. And a couple of scenes later, we’re in a wedding night scenario whose laughs are meant to rise from poisoned apples. Desingu Raja is about the union of a couple (Vemal, Bindu Madhavi) from feuding villages, but it’s really a cautionary tale about making movies with five jokes and no script.
An edited version of this piece can be found here.
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Kaushik
August 24, 2013
An edited version of this review? ROTFL 😀
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Anuja
August 25, 2013
Ouch!
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brangan
August 26, 2013
Kaushik: I see the humour. But just wanted to add this because it can never be said enough times.
Whether in writing or in the movies, editing is not just cutting down words or snipping out scenes. it refers, also, to the shaping of the article, to words being replaced, to choices made in terms of what needs to be added/removed, and sometimes even the architecture of the piece.
I say this because too often we see a long film and people will comment that it needs to be edited — that’s not the only function of editing.
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