Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/mr-chandramouli-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan-tamil-gautham-karthik-regina
Karthik fans looking for some nostalgia will probably enjoy Mr. Chandramouli a little more than others. There’s that title, first. And the lyrics of a club song, tuned by Sam CS, include phrases like “panivizhum malarvanam” and “rajadhi raja.” The actor’s performance, too, is reminiscent of the times he’d show up on screen, trying to be cool and funny and casual, and the audience would find it all wincingly painful. The character, after whom the film is named, is painful too. He has a Premier Padmini that’s clearly seen better days, though he says it was driven, in the eighties, by Al Pacino, Marlon Brando and Meryl Streep. I think we’re meant to laugh, as with this other line, uttered during breakfast, when he hands a visiting card to his son, Raghav (Gautam Karthik), and says, “Dosai nu nenachu saaptudaadhey.”
Is this a nod to the Agni Natchatiram scene where Karthik played the job-seeking son, and got a visiting card from his father? Hard to say. That could be your response to most questions in this loud, dreary film, written and directed by Thiru, along the lines of his much-better Naan Sigappu Manidhan. Is Raghav a boxer because the sport actually shapes the character in a meaningful way? Hard to say. There’s an action scene towards the end, but it doesn’t really depend on the hero’s boxing expertise. Maybe they thought it would sound cool to say “the hero is a boxer,” just as they thought it would be cool to say “the hero’s friend (Sathish) is named Padmini” or “the heroine (Regina Cassandra) is basically in the film because of a song in which she appears in a swimsuit.”
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Vivek narain
July 6, 2018
This err… Mr.Chandramouli rings a bell, i’m sure i’ve seen it somewhere in this blog.
LikeLike
bart
July 6, 2018
Now that you’ve trashed the movie, I am wondering how the people who are sane sounding, speaking all right-words and running a film school even (Dhananjayan) end up with messes like this? Weird
LikeLike
sundar
July 6, 2018
Another Friday release another br takedown 🙂 not that we don’t enjoy a good ” bad movie review ” but how abt skipping such OBBOT movies (Obviously gonnabe Bad By One lookat Trailer ) and reviewing new releases on streaming services. It would be great to know ur thoughts on lust stories and sacred games. May be with the renewal of bitty ruminations series also lights camera conversation type series also can be renewed. (of course the firstpost series is great but I am talking about your neither “review” nor “random thoughts” writing on/around/about indian cinema ….weekly dose of cud chewing like u used to call them ). Also from following u on twitter I know that u have been catching up on. Netflix/Amazon series. Would love love love to read a full writeup from u on any of those.
LikeLiked by 2 people
brangan
July 6, 2018
sundar: I wish. It’s not that easy, though. When you’re covering a beat, you pretty much cover it regularly. Had there been a better-seeming release this week, along with Mr C, I would have skipped this one, but in the absence of any other releases, I had to cover this 🙂
LikeLike