For starters, Jigarthanda is a native drink of Madurai. It’s sweetened with different layers of essence. I happened to make a reference of this one in my review of ‘Sundarapandian’ a few years back.
‘Jigarthanda’ - one cannot think of a better title than this when the story is told with an effervescent and oft-used Madurai ethos (also I was mildly surprised at how film makers have till now left this title untouched, especially in Kollywood for every third movie hinges on the Madurai genre). Director Karthik Subbaraj who has captured the fancy of so many aspiring film makers with his ‘fairy-tale’ success story in Kollywood made a thumping debut with ‘Pizza’. Now Jigarthanda being his second movie, the expectations were naturally high, especially after the trailers went viral in the social media circuit. Also an itchy controversy like the postponement in release dates fueled its mileage, though I can undoubtedly admit that this movie would have not required such kind of publicity as it’s content spoke for itself and has strongly reinforced the fact that script is the real hero for any movie!
An aspiring director (Sidharth as ‘Karthik’) is faced with the challenge of developing a violent gangster script. In order to make the script look real, he decides to closely follow the life and times of a deadly gangster. He zeroes down on Sethu (Bobby Simha), a middle aged thug in Madurai who annihilates his detractors with poise. He goes about it smoothly until Sethu finds about it one day, where the twists and turns in the story start. From then on the movie was a total roller coaster ride until the climax where there was another twist which was awaiting.
The script was rock solid - every dialog of each character was carefully measured in order to make it linger with the mood of the narrative. The first half was really breezy and was a pleasure to watch, even though it was riddled with blood and gore. But the dark humor in the script kicked in when the narrative got overtly tarnished with bloodstains. Not sure if the director has done the research the same way as the lead in the movie did, but nothing can be taken away from the script as being overboard as it was made to look so very close to the reality.
Another major strength was the casting - the clear winner here is Simha as ‘Sethu’, the fierce thug of Madurai. An absolute delight to watch on screen. It required a matured and heavy performance with a streak of fickleness and psychotic traits. Simha has just grabbed the opportunity and has walked away with a ton of trophies. His body language was menacing, so were his dialogs and the way in which he delivered them. The scene where his killer gets trapped in a public toilet and his ensuing reaction is something that might be referred in future in some screenplay writing workshops. A fabulous job and a great gift for Kollywood.
Siddharth, though had a stereotypical role as that of a city-slicker, deserves a pat on his back for sheerly accepting to play an almost second fiddle to Simha’s role. Time and again he gets bullied by the goons and he doesn’t retard, just because he cannot. That was as well the strength of this movie as the director didn’t want to delve into something like a normal man turning into a superman when pushed to a corner. The facts were told as-is.
Karunakaran as the cliched side-kick for Siddharth was another revelation. A couple of years back it would have been Santhanam for such roles, but now that there are options which by itself is a refreshing change.
Lakshmi Menon is the typical demure heroine who is there for a few songs and some romantic interludes, but when compared to other beautifully written roles, her’s was the weakest, but that can’t be helped.
There were a bunch of cameos as well - however the pick of the pack was Vijay Sethupathy in the flashback scenes. His part was very catchy and garnered whistles from the crowd. Sidekicks for Simha were also hand picked well. Their variety in roles came in handy and made the dark humor get elevated to the next level. Another noteworthy mention is Guru Somasundaram as the acting trainer - truly amazing (watch out for his off-screen comment of “virgin rowdy” - I laughed with tears in my eyes upon realizing what he mentioned)!!
Music by Santhosh Narayanan was already a hit! His Gibberish song made its relevance felt to the audience only after it was watched fully! BGM was amazing, a lot many times Ilayaraja BGMs were used but segued well with the classy ones that has been heavily influenced by symphonies from the west!!
Cinematography by Gavemic was top notch - the camera traveled with the characters throughout - again watch out for the scene where Simha walks through a narrow passage only to reach a narrower passage that leads to a filthy toilet where characters converse, before the scene breaks into a mini warzone. Also the art department has played its part in detailing the scenes - watch out for the lights clad with a vehicle tyre over Siddharth and Lakshmi Menon during a conversation. The frames were brilliantly captured and Madurai was painted with his own colors - perhaps he has Photoshopped the city with his color palette!!
The length of the movie is almost 3 hours - the second half seemed a bit stretched by 15 - 20 minutes, but I’m sure Karthik would have his own reasons to dwell upon. I wouldn’t like to blame the editor for that. Editing on the whole had neat and intelligent cuts.
A hell lot of research would have gone into pre-production as this subject would have demanded a freshly brewed Madurai jigarthanda unlike what Kollywood would have tasted in the past. A slight representation of the ‘Saurashtra’ culture is one such example. We wouldn’t have seen that in any movie till now or even now people would be wondering whether such people even exist in Tamil Nadu. In another scene where a politician who romances his keep wearing a titanic mask and getting shot by Simha where he wears the same mask is another example at a brilliant piece of writing.
Renewed blood is pumped through this new age cinema from a new age director who is keen at mastering the language of cinema. I’m sure such efforts would not only be lauded but rewarded promptly.
PS: Blood, gore and usage of explicit language time and again has earned an adult certificate for this movie. Appropriate viewer discretion is advised.
Rating: 3.5 / 5
Verdict: Go for it!!
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