The question has to be asked – “Why does Suruli have to wear a veshti to a gun fight during a snowy London winter? And, how is he not freezing to death yet?” When heroism comes at the cost of unwanted infusions of culture references, it seems to be taking the audience for granted. Throughout the movie, it was very obvious that the primary focus was to show Suruli (Dhanush) in a gangster arena as soon as possible, but what did not work at all was that neither Suruli was shown notorious enough to be at the top of the ladder of a London mafia nor does he exhibit his street smartness before his London expedition. Just managing a Parotta shop with the technique to produce naatu vedi within seconds, and stopping a train to kill a North Indian jewelry shop owner just because he does not belong here does not make him street smart, it actually makes him casteist. This seems to be purposefully included in the character sketch of Suruli just to show the transition of how Suruli hated outsiders when in Madurai, and how he later strives for the freedom of immigrants in London, but all that did not materialize properly on screen.
When is Tamil Cinema going to stop making movies for their heroes and actually start making movies for what the story in hand demands their heroes to do? This has been one pressing question that keeps arising every now and then. It was utterly disappointing to see someone like Karthik Subburaj create such an underwhelmingly constructed film. For instance here, why is Suruli everywhere in the movie? He is a pawn in the bigger conflict between Sivadoss (Joju George) and Peter Sprott (James Cosmo). Why make the movie only about Suruli and his journey when you have something stronger and bigger in hand, which could have been made to hit Suruli personally, thus causing the effect of Suruli’s purpose more effectively?
And what’s with the innumerous references that do not even make an iota of a difference to the scene and the story. How does it even matter if an Ilayaraja song or an Oruvan Oruvan Mudhali plays when there are only English men standing around, it’s going to be Greek and Latin to them anyway. Why is there a need to constantly establish the “Tamizhan na gethu da!” tag? The references need to be organic and fitting to the context, ultimately elevating the scene, not some random thing to just evoke nostalgia. This was not a Petta to evoke Rajinism.
The kind of character sketch that Sivadoss was shown to be, in whatever time he was on screen, our hearts go out for the man. It was so disappointing to see that Sivadoss was not the one driving the movie but unfortunately, Suruli was. It’s like saying Chennai Super Kings (CSK) won the match but Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) won our hearts. It was brilliant to see Joju George slaying it on screen as Sivadoss with an attitude and temperament to handle a London mafia, and at the same time, do what he has been striving to do – to give an identity to the people who have suffered a disastrous past during the Eelam war. The problem with not giving Sivadoss his due is that when he dies, even we as an audience do not feel a thing, as we never know his struggles then. It feels like he was just another gangster who died in a gang war. It was supposed to be a shock for both Suruli and the audience during the reveal, but it was too late for resurrecting Sivadoss.
And, one word to describe James Cosmo as Peter Sprott is BADASS. The English dialogues for Peter looked as if it were taken out from a Hollywood gangster movie villain’s dialogue script. The cold blooded heart that Cosmo exhibits in Peter was so satisfying to watch. Particularly, the dialogues – “I am sorry to say that your “dishwasher” has snuffed it.“, “All you had to f’ing do is what you were meant to do.“, and another one on the lord Ganesha, looked so well written even for a Tamil movie. How I wish there was a bigger conflict shown on screen between Peter and Sivadoss!
The whole sequence of the movie was completely out of order just to make Suruli the protagonist. To somehow bring Suruli into the picture, the way in which he comes into the whole scheme of things was horribly written. One of the worst writing for Suruli was that he is shown as someone who has the brains to understand and uncover the Sivadoss smuggling network (how he did all that as just a Madurai gangster is beyond me), but then later is shown as someone who is not aware of the reason why Sivadoss was striving so hard to get an identity to the people who are in dire need of it. Poorly written.
The movie should have started with establishing who Sivadoss was and why he was doing what he was doing, his struggles and his purpose. Then, comes in Peter who wants wipe out the entire immigrant community out of London. There is your conflict. In the meantime, exhibit some sort of streetsmartness of Suruli while he is Madurai. Now, bring in Suruli as a planned scapegoat for Peter, but show how Suruli manages to use his “notorious” intelligence to wade through mafia waters. Then comes the redemption part where he takes revenge on Peter. This would have been perfect, had it properly established the characters and its standpoints at the start of the movie itself.
This was a great opportunity to become an epic gangster saga from Karthik Subburaj, but was missed due to the kind of compromises the directors make for actors. I am not really sure what was the need to show Dhanush in such a heroic manner, he can actually be your anything when you want him to be. Vada Chennai worked big time even with Dhanush being just a pawn in the whole scheme of things, that’s how Suruli should have been written. With Santosh Narayanan churning out top quality background score and with Shreyaas Krishna supporting it with some exceptional frames and angles, we sometimes feel that Karthik Subburaj was underwhelming with his writing.
Jagame Thandhiram is a big misfire that feels like a shotgun bullet fired using a Cannon, making us feel that the movie had what it takes to go the distance, but misses the mark with an effect that is diluted amidst the heroism of Suruli.
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