Spoilers ahead…
After watching N Lingusamy’s Anjaan, I feel compelled to campaign for a new award category: Best Supporting Toothpick. The aforementioned sliver of wood, lodged permanently between Raju Bhai’s (Suriya) teeth, is in nearly every frame, and it delivers the film’s most stylish performance. It moves slyly from side to side. At times, it takes a cue from Rajinikanth’s cigarettes, vanishing into the mouth and reappearing most miraculously. It is, all told, the sum total of Raju Bhai’s character delineation. It’s as if the writers sat down and thought of what could make this bhai character different from all the other bhai characters down the decades, and came up with nothing. After all, this isn’t a Ram Gopal Varma outing. This is a U-certificate don movie – you cannot have Suriya bathed in blood. This don doesn’t smoke, he rarely drinks, and even when he visits a house of ill repute (I’d call it something else, but then, a U-certificate movie deserves a U-certificate review), it’s only to hunt for clues. What is the exact nature of his business? How did he get into this line? How did he rise through the ranks? We know nothing. How, then, to make this chap interesting? That’s when someone must have piped up: “Let’s at least give him a toothpick.”
Yes, I’m afraid the film is that uninspired. It runs a posterior-numbing 170 minutes, and there isn’t one surprising moment – not one line of dialogue worth recalling, not one tune worth humming, not one action sequence worth upping the pulse for (they borrowed the doves from the John Woo films, but none of the moves), not one juicy character worth caring about. These are the basics of a masala entertainer, and without them, what’s left? Just the plot, which, as usual, revolves around revenge – and that’s fine. No one walks into these films expecting to be riveted by the protagonist’s struggles with the scientific establishment to slap a new element on the periodic table. What’s shocking is the utter lack of LiFe. This is a dull, dull movie. Lingusamy unleashes the technical arsenal and fractures the narrative and expects us to follow a trail of clues as if this were a twisty noir nail-biter, but it’s no use because the story has all the suspense of a housewife shopping for vegetables. Will her eyes fall on – cue dramatic background score, fast cutting, looping camera moves – potatoes or carrots? Ooh!
Why is Anjaan set in Mumbai, when there’s so little local colour? (The heroine gets a tattoo that says “Raju Bai,” which, unfortunately, makes the man sound like a cross-dressing maidservant.) Why did Manoj Bajpai sign up for a part where he’s asked to appear in a burgundy bow-tie while stripped down to his underwear? And why is this movie named Anjaan, fearless, when it timorously ticks off all the audience boxes? There’s a nod to Madurai and the aruvaa culture. Telugu viewers are appeased through a cameo by Brahmanandam. Rajinikanth fans (or maybe Shah Rukh Khan fans) are lured by an impromptu Lungi dance jig. Potential reviewers are wooed by the strategic placement of Tamil magazines on a cab’s dashboard. And if you love to count clichés, you have the good Muslim, the loyal friend (who really needs to get a room), the love interest who happens to be the enemy’s daughter… Samantha gamely performs the requisite loosu ponnu duties, apparently auditioning for Sridevi’s role in a mega-serial adaptation of Moondram Pirai – and her costume designer seems to be the only one who decided to do something to perk up the proceedings, with micro-shorts and a bikini top. You go in expecting a meal and you end up with a… toothpick.
KEY:
* Anjaan = the fearless one
* Rajinikanth’s cigarettes = see here
* a house of ill repute = see here
* doves from the John Woo films = see here
* Manoj Bajpai = see here
* aruvaa culture = see here
* really needs to get a room = see here
* Moondram Pirai = see here
An edited version of this piece can be found here. Copyright ©2014 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Aravind
August 16, 2014
watched the movie in the first day of release,and am still regretting.the interval scene appeared to be like a twist because tamil audience are being fed these cliches for ages and talents of arthouse actors like manoj bajpai and chitrangada singh were wasted.Now i feel tempted to watch KTVI.
PS I would LIKE TO recommend njan steve lopez ,the film is really good .
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Ashutosh
August 16, 2014
This review is a riot! Much needed catharsis after sitting the movie down first thing yesterday morning.
What’s shocking is the utter lack of LiFe.
That was super clever. Initially, I thought it was a typo and then I went… aaah 🙂
But, I should say, I am disappointed that your review is excessively glowing re: Surya’s toothpick… not even a single word about the fine thespian abilities of Vidyut Jamwal’s one-rupee coin?! 😦
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nagharajabishek
August 16, 2014
I think nobody got this work of genius. It’s a paradigm altering movie in every sense. See, the film is a very cleverly veiled “find waldo”esque challenge except it’s more like “spot the skimpiest skirt samantha’s wearing”. The really genius bit is that the director has only 2-3 seconds of these at a time and pretty much just 5 mins of the girl wearing anything sexy, but that, ladies and gentlemen, is the key to understanding this film. I cant seem to see it as anything but obstacle ridden gauntlet that has to be suffered through for 3 hours so as to enjoy peeks at a Tamil lead actress wearing a (sorta) two piece for a few seconds. Hurrah! who says tamil films are not inventive. This is inventiveness at it’s effervescent best.
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MANK
August 16, 2014
Brangan, Super fun review. This is the only fun i expected from this movie. Of all things in a 3 hr movie the only thing you care about is the toothpick. house of ill repute,cross-dressing maidservant – Boy you are truly in your elements here. I think the worst treatment is meted out Samantha – who is currently the no.1 heroine in telugu-I liked her in a couple of telugu films she did with Mahesh .She is far more demurely clad and a much likeable presence in them than here.
All the problems that you mentioned about this film in your Goliaths and davids piece is visible here. The attempt to appease every state and every age group that surya’s film has a market seems to have ended up creating a unique brand of film in itself.- which is neither here nor there.
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Gradwolf
August 16, 2014
Chemical Engineer nu prove panreenga
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oneWithTheH
August 16, 2014
lol..the only thing these movies deserve are reviews.. like yours and this one. can’t stop ROTFL-ing.. 😀
http://maamapiskothu.blogspot.in/2014/08/gang-bang-gangster.html?m=1
கையில் குச்சி = தம்பி ரோல்
வாயில் குச்சி = அண்ணன் ரோல்
சூரியா…கையோ, வாயோ..நான் குச்சியைப் பிடிப்பேன்…
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Rakesh
August 17, 2014
Using euphemisms like “ill-repute” only because the movie was granted a ‘U’ Certificate ? How did it get a ‘U’ certificate in the first place ? A receptionist of the antagonist, helpfully bends down, shoves her ample cleavage down our throat, before informing us about the hero’s visit to the office a week ago !
The house of “ill-repute”, has a scene, where the ..err.. “worker”, is busy stripping down to her bra(which is highlighted in blue)…
Chitrangada Singh prancing around with that diaphanous dress of hers, which reveals more than intended, one of the most talented actresses in the country, doing item songs to keep her kitchen fires running…
Samantha in a blink-and-you-miss-it shot in a bikini !! Whoa some “U” certificate this was…
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brangan
August 17, 2014
Ashutosh: That was super clever.
Thanks 🙂 Had fun writing it, but I think that second para could have been toned down a little. Reading it today, there seems to be too much happening…
Gradwolf: No sir. This is Chemistry — very different 🙂
MANK: Thanks. ROFL at “கழுத கெட்ட குட்டி செவுரு ” மாதிரி “ரவுடி கெட்டா பாம்பே ” லாஜிக்படி…
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Pranesh
August 17, 2014
@brangan: key for LiFe?
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Satish Selvam
August 17, 2014
BRangan … wow, Lingusaamy seems to be going the Sajid Khan way. Bheema…Paiyya ..Vettai and when e’one thought he couldn’t go lower..we got Anjaan.
I still love Anandham, Run and Sandakozhi ..I will watch it n-number of times.. somewhere down the line, Lingusaamy seems to have become a different director than what he once was :(.
What is saddenning is that we seem to be in the middle of a change .. a good change .. which is giving us quality cinema down south. And folks like Lingusaamy seem to content taking the progress back!! This movie was a sheer waste of talent (Santosh Sivan..Anthony..Yuvan..Surya..).
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Jerina
August 17, 2014
Lol. You had me at “best supporting toothpick”. There’s something about a bad movie that simply simulates your humor cells, I think. :-D. Even the comments are such fun to read.
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Sid (@Tweet2Sid)
August 17, 2014
I’ve not seen this film yet. But it’s safe to say every negative review does not have to be unfair just for no reason. If most reviews are negative, then it can only mean the film has genuinely earned them.
What to say if Suriya really had to listen to 3 or 4 scripts from Lingusamy and okay-ed this? What to say if Suriya really had chosen to dump GVM’s Dhruva Natchathiram just to go with this?
Santosh Sivan is open to be part of commercial entertainers and he was part of Thuppaki, alright. What made him choose this one?
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MANK
August 17, 2014
What to say if Suriya really had chosen to dump GVM’s Dhruva Natchathiram just to go with this?
I was very angry with Surya when i heard that he had dumped GVM. But perhaps that wasnt entirely his fault. GVM has a reputation of being quite mercurial . But i wish that film had happened.No matter what film he makes , GVM films are well crafted and always has his auteur touch. I think surya and Vikram are the more perfect actors for him than a Vijay (another film that got shelved) or Ajith – with whom he is currently working and vice versa. I really dont feel that surya has that starry chops to take him through a superstar vehicle like Vijay or Ajith. I find it really baffling that his stardom is spoken in the same breath as both of them. Is it all media blitz? or are there others who agree with that assessment?.
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oneWithTheH
August 18, 2014
MANK:
There is this scene in Pudhuppettai where amaichar tells Kokki Kumar – “yethi vittu azhagu paakaravan da naanu….. dhuttu mattum anuppidu kumaru…”.
Somewhere along, probably around Singham 1/Ayan(Ayan was the last Surya movie I liked), he has been given this massive ego boost of being a crowd puller and that he needs to choose scripts accordingly. He seems to have lost it since then. His choice of scripts, acting been sub-par. Suriya is not an instinctive actor. He toils. And in these commercial avatars it’s really telling. Singham for instance. Compare it with the macho-cool cop that Vikram so effortlessly played in Saamy, both helmed by Hari. Surya’s was over-the-top. And IMO this quality doesn’t lend itself well for mass-hero type material.
Among Vijay, Ajith and Surya, only Vijay according to me commands the persona and the screen presence of a crowd puller. He is a natural in front of the camera. That he worked on so many horrible flicks is altogether another matter. But then he has reevaluated himself and seems to have got his mojo back(to an extent) starting with Nanban.
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rajesh
August 18, 2014
br – you always give 1 para review for a mokka film. but i guessed you will not let this film just with a 1 para review. it wast super fun reading this review. Surya needs to do soul searching. .. i remember that once Karthi said like this ..when he said to Mani Rathnam that he is going to act – Mani replied – do good films… time has come for surya-karthi brothers to do some soul searching to do good films.
i know i have used my last sentence harshly and sorry about it. but i strongly believe surya and karthi will leap boundaries in future
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ThamizhMA
August 18, 2014
Excellent English. Nailed it like a toothpick. What an horror of a movie. Even the masala element sucks. Hype and no substance. Surya chose this script – he is not what we think he is. Flop of the year
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Santhi (@k_santhi)
August 18, 2014
I will hand it to you for delivering a more stimulating (review) piece than the movie (which I enjoyed tremendously)…
sometimes, viewers just want to Entertainment – period.
different strokes for different folks! ;))
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MANK
August 18, 2014
oneWithTheHead
Completely agreed. I think only Vijay has that superstar quality and to an extend Vikram – who is also a toiler as you put it but still he can generate coolness far better than surya.. I liked vijay in thuppakki, or rather i liked thuppaki because of him. You only need to watch the horrible hindi version- holiday where akshay kumar totally failed to enthuse me – to realize vijay’s abilities.
Surya on the other hand – the films that i liked Kakka kakka,varanam ayiram,..- was more the case of being the movie being good or appealing , rather than surya using his star charisma to get those pics through.Ajith is the unique case and i suppose we had discussed his stardom in earlier threads enough. He is very much like Pawan Kalyan in telugu for me , who is this big star for no apparent reason , unlike a totally cool, charismatic and born for the screen Mahesh Babu, who is Vijay’s counterpart in telugu. As for Surya I hope he learns his lessons soon and get back to working with good directors and scripts..
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MANK
August 18, 2014
Btw, what happened to Singham returns review?
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Srinivas R
August 18, 2014
One good thing about this movies is that , for the first time in my memmory , your The Hindu readers are sparing you from the ” this is so confusing, is the movie good or not?” kind of comments
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brangan
August 18, 2014
Srinivas R: Haha. But for most people, a “good review” is one that concurs with their views, otherwise it’s a bad review. It just happened that this film was universally hated, so I lucked out 🙂
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venkatesh
August 18, 2014
The only question i have , Is this even worse than Maatran + 7am arivu ; if yes, then that’s sad.
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Shankar
August 18, 2014
Baddy, having read your review…I went in with really low expectations. All the things that you said are true…the film was completely hollow with so many moments where one could only ask “Really?!” 🙂 However as I exited the theater, I couldn’t help thinking that this film unfortunately will be a hit…for the masses, it had so many “hero” moments packed in that I could visualize a common viewer, who doesn’t analyze films deeply, going really satisfied with some entertainment. That is unfortunate since it will only spawn more films like this.
That said, I thought the film bore more than a striking resemblance to Baasha…*Spoiler alert*…think about it….hero in disguise, former don, close friend, revenge, traitors….
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Arun
August 18, 2014
Unrelated to the movie.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/censor-board-chief-arrested-by-cbi-allegedly-for-taking-bribe-577833?pfrom=home-lateststories
Is this how things work at the CBFC?
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Sriram
August 18, 2014
last line – super super
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Ravi K
August 19, 2014
Is the toothpick thing inspired by/copied from Stallone’s “Cobra” or is it just a coincidence?
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Vikram
August 19, 2014
Someone mentioned in a website that “Anjaan” is similar to Van Damme’s “Maximum Risk”. Is it true Rangan?
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Prabhu
August 19, 2014
Waste movie and they selected wrong heroine. Surya thinking that he will do like baasha. One request from lingasamy. Plz don’t do direction. Your spoiling good actors..
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vijay
August 20, 2014
Surya has taken a mild jab at the critics and says that the movie has made money and that’s all matters to him. So if we are going to blame somebody for movies like these to be made and released on a regular basis, it should be us. Our makkals, who have been preconditioned to consume “fully packaged clean family entertainment” with big stars on every festival day.
And why is Yuvan dhanda Raaja still allowed to make musick? His singing could be substituted for waterboarding at the Guantanamo bay camp
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MANK
August 20, 2014
His singing could be substituted for waterboarding at the Guantanamo bay camp
ROFL
Vikram ,Maximum Risk is a masterpiece compared with this one. I wish they had copied MR frame by frame ,- that would have been a better film than this one- , rather than being inspired. . And that was only 1 1\2 hrs as well.
Btw , the latest buzz is that 20 mins have been cut from the film. So Brahmanandam is not starring in the tamil version anymore.Ah! the perils of having a market in multiple states. 🙂
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jithu
August 24, 2014
It is a Mass entertainer
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karthiknach
August 25, 2014
Rangan: this is a god awful movie. Apalling at so many levels. Lingusamy and Surya should get their head examined or head back to film school. Sound was especially bad and the voiceovers horrendous. Think they wanted to make a straight telugu film in tamil from the end product. I agree – the toothpick was the redeeming factor. I think you were anodyne in your review. This was trash, served straight up with impunity. Did you restrain yourself?
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Subha
September 18, 2014
Sir.. there is humour.. and there is brangan’s humour. Your sense of humour is so classy.. IO.. vaarthaigal-la solla mudiyaadhu sir.. It’s such a welcome change amidst tons of cheap sarcasm. Salute you! Ippo ellaam padame pakkaradhu illa Sir. Unga review dhaan padame. Avvalo entertainment.. This is certainly a new level of film criticism.
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