Spoilers ahead…
After an utterly generic (and quite terrible) first half, I practically gave up on R Ajay Gnanamuthu’s Imaikkaa Nodigal. The story has Anjali (Nayanthara, as a CBI officer who sports a Bulgari watch) on the trail of a serial killer who calls himself Rudra (Anurag Kashyap, unleashing his inner ham, as though imagining the slow tortures he wants to inflict on people who keep wanting him to cut scenes from his films). Could Rudra have something to do with one of Anjali’s older cases? It’s hard to care. Rudra’s OTT-ness is close to unwatchable. (Kashyap gets the lip sync right though.) The love track between Arjun (Atharvaa) and Krithika (Raashi Khanna) is awful. (It features the Vodafone ZooZoos.) There’s not an iota of personality in the filmmaking. If I bring up Mindhunter, someone will protest that we don’t have the budget, the resources, blah, blah — but this isn’t about money. It’s about mood and atmosphere and staging. A shooting at the ticket counter of a theatre complex is unintentionally hilarious. I’ve seen school plays with better reaction shots.
But post-interval, the film picks up… a bit. The annoyances are still there — a kid who won’t shut up (and there are people who’ve told me they love her), unconvincing motivations, a score (by Hiphop Tamizha) that drowns out dialogue, a bladder-testing run time (some 170 minutes). But at least, we finally see the big idea. We see that the film isn’t a serial-killer thriller at all, but really a revenge saga. What a cunning twist on the vigilante-hero film that’s a staple of our cinema! But it remains an idea, on paper — on screen, it becomes the equivalent of the boy who keeps raising his hand in class only to find the teacher won’t look in his direction. The only stretch I enjoyed was the one with guest star Vijay Sethupathi, who infuses much-needed lightness into this self-important film. In his company, Nayanthara lightens up, too. How I wish this good, old-fashioned star power had been hived off into a movie of its own.
Copyright ©2018 Baradwaj Rangan. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Anu Warrier
September 20, 2018
Rudra (Anurag Kashyap, unleashing his inner ham, as though imagining the slow tortures he wants to inflict on people who keep wanting him to cut scenes from his films).
Laughing so hard. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cholan Raje
September 21, 2018
Am I the only person who’s always HATED the way kids have been portrayed in our films? With the kinda-sorta exception of Kaaka Muttai (and maybe Goli Soda) I want to do what Rudra does to his victims to those kids. In the name of cuteness, they jump onto the stage like Barbie dolls tossed onto a toy store aisle. They exist to do nothing more than make their mostly-adult audiences go “ahh so cute hehehe” at their soulless faces. Like the girl here, all they do in the name of entertainment is imitate what gets kids the most views on Vine or YouTube. Real kids have more of a personality than what they’re made out to be. Real kids are more self-aware than what they’re made out to be.
Can’t forget that scene in Theri where that school bus falls over the bridge, and I wanted Baby Nainika to die. Dammit, Mahendran should’ve shot her when he had the chance. Or the time I imagined myself unleashing a Kalashnikov on the kids AND adults of Pasanga 2. Fuck me.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Siva
September 21, 2018
BR: ” …. a score (by Hiphop Tamizha) that drowns out dialogue …. ”
This is exactly how I felt after listening to Sam.C.S’ score eat up a good chunk of several fast paced dialogues in Vikram Vedha.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anu Warrier
September 21, 2018
Nope, Cholan. I’ve often wanted to drown cinematic kids – honestly, if I’d watched any more of them on screen, I might never have procreated!
A few kids-in-film have been real – at least in Hindi: Gulzar’s Kitab. Shekhar Kapur’s Masoom (and even Mr India) Sachin in Bhabhi ki Chudiyan… (off the top of my head).
LikeLiked by 3 people
The Ghost Who Walks
September 21, 2018
Your title couldn’t have been more on point.
With the motivation they ultimately gave Rudra which was so mundane (for the lack of a better word), i wondered why did he have to be so.. psychotic?
And for a while during Rudra’s flashback, i actually thought they were going to flip the roles and reveal that Rudra was the good guy all along and Nayantara’s character as the stone cold villain. At least that would have been something..
LikeLiked by 2 people
boredguys
September 21, 2018
Cholan Raje I second your opinion bro. Portrayal of kids were much better during the nineties (Sooryavamsam is a prime example) but now kids are forced to do stuff in films/serials/comedy shows/reality shows that doesn’t carry even an iota of innocence. The door opening scene in the film coulda conveyed the kid’s cautious behaviour without making her sound arrogant. This is the result of the post-kutty chutties phenomenon (that horribe sun tv reality show).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sathya
September 23, 2018
“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so” – Anton Ego 2007
LikeLike
arampesu
September 24, 2018
Sathya
“In many ways, the work of a crticOfcritic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their criticismOfrwork and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism of critics, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we criticOfCritics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk criticism of art is probably more meaningful than our criticismOfCritics designating it so” – Me 2018 JustNow
LikeLiked by 2 people
thinkanewblog
September 24, 2018
Reblogged this on DailyHunt and commented:
Even I felt the same thing about the kid..who never keeps quiet…also, the comparison about “teacher’s attention never goes out to the student who raises hand in class”
LikeLike
Sathya
September 24, 2018
“When they were quite young, Gene Siskel took his daughters Kate and Callie to an animated children’s film. On the way out, he asked them what they thought of it. One said, “I didn’t like it, daddy.” Gene replied, “Honey, you’ve just made me the proudest pop in the world.” – Roger Ebert 2008
Anton Ego : fictional character from Ratatouille
Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert : need no introduction
Me : Average citizen and not a CriticOfanything
LikeLike
Arun Pradeep
September 24, 2018
Thalaiva.. Saamy2 review enga? We are waiting 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Voldemort
September 24, 2018
We want Saamy square review!
LikeLike
Amit Joki
September 24, 2018
BR, have you listened to Vada Chennai songs?
LikeLike
Srinivas R
September 25, 2018
Read this in Sreekar Prasad’s interview
“I have not been able to do that something special in terms of a story. I do have a few scripts ready, including one on which I have collaborated with the film critic Baradwaj Rangan.” – hoping this comes to fruition.
https://scroll.in/reel/895699/the-man-in-the-middle-how-acclaimed-film-editor-sreekar-prasad-has-stood-out-while-blending-in
LikeLike
Honest Raj
September 29, 2018
Thanks for the scathing review. What a forgettable debut for AK in Tamil cinema! In many ways, he reminded me of Upendra in Sathyam.
The “love track” is easily the worst part about the film. It seemed the sole intention behind making the character the child of separated parents was to slut-shame her (and her mother) in the end.
Nayanthara might end up as Tamil cinema’s greatest ever lady superstar. I felt like shouting “enga akka vandhutta da” when she appeared onscreen. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Srinivas R
September 30, 2018
@Amit Joki – I am intrigued by the Gaana songs in VadaChennai. They sound true to life and not designed to create a chart busting album, IMO. Actually the two traditionally melodic songs – Karkuzhal and maayavi are the ones that feel a little out of place. The theme music bonkers though.
As an aside, I was lucky enough to meet Dhanush while on a vacation last week. Looks like he has started his directorial venture with Srikanth, Aditi Rao and Srikanth. The whole film crew was at the resort. Shooting in progress around Karaikudi. He looks really muscular rather than the slim guy on screen. Eagerly waiting for VadaChennai.
LikeLike
sridharraman
November 18, 2018
Speaking of atrocious film-making, the scene at 5:30 in the morning at the Town Hall was so so bad! Having early morning walkers march past in columns was hilarious!
LikeLike