Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/tik-tik-tik-movie-review-jayam-ravi-baradwaj-rangan/
Shakti Soundar Rajan’s Miruthan was billed “Tamil cinema’s first zombie movie.” In Tik Tik Tik, the director dreams bigger. It’s being promoted as “the first Indian space film.” The claim may not hold in a court of law, for we’ve had the MGR-starring Kalai Arasi (1963), where aliens fell for Bhanumathi’s singing and carted her off to a faraway planet. We’ve also had TP Sundaram’s fabulously trippy Chand Par Chadayee (1967), with Dara Singh, as Astronaut Anand, battling lunar wrestlers, space gorillas, and at least one Martian warlord. But Tik Tik Tik is certainly the first Indian film set in space as we know it from Hollywood adventures, with spaceships and docking stations and zero-gravity visual effects and a giant asteroid that, if not blown to smithereens, will crash-land in the Bay of Bengal and wipe out the south-eastern part of the country. What? No more Kovilpatti Kadalai Mittai? It’s a catastrophe, alright.
Enter Vasu (Jayam Ravi). He is an escape artist (a snooty character dismisses him as “a petty thief from North Madras”), and only his Houdini-like talents can save the day. The good news first. For a while, the screenplay mimics the ticking-clock rhythms of the title. We cut right to an emergency meeting of the defence department, where the Lieutenant General and Lieutenant Colonel are both women. The latter, Swathi, is played by Nivetha Pethuraj, and it’s a pleasure to see a heroine with practically no “heroine duties.” Swathi doesn’t sing or dance or wave around chiffon dupattas on Norwegian landscapes. There is a duet-type situation, sure — but it’s between Vasu and his cute kid (Jayam Ravi’s son, Aarav). In its own small way, Tik Tik Tik empowers its heroine all the way to the end, when she receives this order: “Load the missile, Swathi.” It’s enough to make you wonder if an asteroid has hit Kollywood as we know it. Whatever next? No romantic subplot?
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Rahini David
June 22, 2018
“The best bit imagines Tamil cinema’s indispensable sarakku scene in outer space.”
Like Captain Haddock in “Explorers on the Moon”? The one where the whisky becomes a sphere and floats around?
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Srinivas R
June 22, 2018
I haven’t watched the movie, nor planning to..but i have a feeling it’s going to get rave reviews in general
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Anu Warrier
June 22, 2018
What? No more Kovilpatti Kadalai Mittai?
You touched a sore spot, BR! 🙂
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Jayram
June 22, 2018
Whisky! Get down from there, thundering typhoons!
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sanjana
June 22, 2018
So chinese kept quiet all through the adventure.
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Vivek narain
June 23, 2018
At south eastern part of the country lies Sri Lanka, which used to be at south of south india before 2004. To save tamilnadu from tsunami sri lanka moved north. If an asteroid hits sri lanka it will be double whammy for the pearl island. mandelaeffect. com has an article on sri lanka.
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Aadhy
June 23, 2018
“At south eastern part of the country lies Sri Lanka,which used to be at south of south india before 2004. To save tamilnadu from tsunami sri lanka moved north. ”
Man that’s some trippy comment. I have three questions :
1) Are you typing all this with a straight face?
2) You must be scoring some good stuff, eh?
3) Pass me some and help a bro in need no? 😀
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Vivek narain
June 23, 2018
Here you are http://mandelaeffect.com/sri-lanka-location/
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Thupparivaalan
June 23, 2018
Aadhy: The only time he typed something seriously was regarding a audio codec called FLAC that let’s you store high quality sound without compression. He’s an audiophile. I deduced that.
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Vivek narain
June 24, 2018
Any self-respecting picaroon who plays with cloak and stiletto, may also indulge in sub woofer, woofer, mid range and tweeter. And be interested in, many worlds interpretation or quantum zeno effect or quantum anti zeno effect.
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jaga_jaga
June 25, 2018
@Thupparivalan
I am a huge fan of Vivek Narain’s language! For eg. “self-respecting picaroon”, what a wonderful display of paradox as a figure of speech!
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AK
June 25, 2018
Hi BR, It has been a while since your AskBR column. Has it been discontinued? Hope not, waiting for the next one.
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brangan
June 25, 2018
AK: Bringing up a Flashback episode soon. AskBR after that.
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Thupparivaalan
June 25, 2018
Jaga_Jaga: Half the stuff he types goes over my head, making me refer google multiple times. I enjoy his comments nevertheless. 🙂
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Vignesh
June 26, 2018
@brangan
“it’s a pleasure to see a heroine with practically no “heroine duties.” “…make you wonder if an asteroid has hit Kollywood”
I get your point but I think the following scenes negate whatever improvement they did to the women characters.
There is a scene where Jayam ravi holds in a secret while three other men of his team gets beaten by the Chinese Major but immediately gives up after watching Nivetha Pethuraj gets slapped. Woudn’t this qualify as a “heroine duty”.
Then there is the unncessary bikini scene where the men in the team ogle at her except, of course, our hero.
And another non-consequential scene where a murder attempt at the heroine leads to, her trusting only the hero (a criminal, who she did not know much about) and a kiss.
Also they make sure to show that the heroine gasps at all the magical feets the hero accomplishes through out the movie.
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jaga_jaga
June 27, 2018
@Thupparivaalan – You should be smart that Google helps you understand stuff. On so many occasaions, I find Google to not be helpful at all.
So far, I have the following impression about him:
He is a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland, and Lewis Carroll. Make the best use of the hidden philosophical Adavitic tone in that book.
The language suggests that he should be in his mid-50s or maybe older? Verdant, flowery language. Poetic in his prose.
He doesn’t use commas often. Compounds his sentences such that, they require at least two readings to first make sense of the grammer. Then a third reading to understand the meanings of the words. Then a Google Search. Then, a fourth reading to get the meaning of the sentences. Then a fifth reading to make out what he is trying to say. Then a sixth reading to give-it-all-up!
He is into metascience, likely believes that all things are connected.
Loves his popular science. I guess he is a fan of folks like Roger Penrose etc. How about Deepak Chopra though?? Draws comparison between the conventionally popular scientists with the not-so-popular ones.
Has never written directly about the film being discussed!!!
@ Mr. Vivek Narain, would value our inputs? How meaningful are my observations, sir?
And a compilation of your messages in this blogpost would definitely be worthy of a research dissertation, actually, IMO!
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Vivek narain
June 27, 2018
@jaga jaga, mostly spot on except that i don’t fancy penrose or chopra. Besides carroll i go for london and jung and charteris and chase. Except for a handful of 21st century movies like swordfish, casino royale and crank, i have come to realise that most of the movies were either insipid or mushy. i was a core member of mandelaeffect.com, which was a hot item until it became hot potato and fiona had to drop it, it is still a raging meme in US and the frozen site is still hot.
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Jaga_Jaga
June 29, 2018
Fantastic, Sir! Thy impeccable grammar and the compounded language makes me wonder if you finished grammar school from Eton?? If I may ask you, where are you from?
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