TN 2026 Review - An unbearable political flick with no ideology!
Ashwin Ram
Premise: Natty plays a North Indian who becomes a superstar in the Tamil film industry. After a point, he converts his fan clubs into a people welfare association. Later starts a political party with public support and what happens after that forms the crux of the story.
Writing/ Direction: To orally narrate, we can simply say that it is a journey of an ordinary man who becomes a popular film actor, who later ventured into politics and changed the dynamics of the game. But as a film, it never feels that way, in fact there is no story at all is what we get to realise. The writing is as lazy as it can be, for example the hero acts in a Sci-Fi flick involving aliens, and it is named ‘Vetrugraham’. Leave out being sincere, even the smallest of efforts isn’t there. Umapathy Ramaiah’s direction is amateurish to the core, it's not just about the cringey comedies, how poorly he extracted performances or how bizarre the scenes are presented, a man out of nowhere rises to the peak, but no such moment is conveyed. The situations are as generic as it can be and the way it is transformed on-screen is painful to sit through. Even TV serials will be more coherent than the screenplay here, that has absolutely no redeeming qualities. The political portions are so cinematic, there are attempts to make the flow curious by throwing hints of the TVK party and giving a costume to the hero that replicates Thalapathy Vijay’s public appearances, none of them work. There are some moments mocking Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan’s political approach, stuffed inside the baseless climax. What could have settled as a pathetically made movie, the ending results being a pointless subject. The hurried filmmaking and lacklustre post-production is very much evident, probably to use the cheap mileage they can gain while releasing the movie during this hot and happening election time.
Performances: Natty plays a top movie star, but does not make it believable on-screen with his performance. His North Indian slang in the first half is mockery and the fake beard in the latter is so evidently bothersome. Usual performance from Thambi Ramaiah, comes throughout the film, no impact or whatsoever despite the fact that even the climax is directed on him. Dummy roles for MS Baskar and Ilavarasu who have no real purpose to be a part of the journey. Not even a single joke of Redin Kingsley clicks, in fact his presence creates an aversion, constantly shouting at people around.
Technicalities: Darbuka Siva is probably the only crew person who has considered it as a movie and worked to an extent. Natty’s introduction song is pretty good in the vintage pattern, however the other tracks are a bummer, especially the political one in the end is so random. With such a rushed narrative, there is no space for background score to provide any sort of momentum. Lacklustre cinematography and editing, the look and feel of the movie is extremely outdated like it was made decades ago. Poor VFX quality and some green mat shots even seem to be unfinished.
Verdict: Everything is haywire in this pretentious flick that follows the usual hero turning politician formula, in an attempt to make a subject covering the current events, the team has randomly mixed a set of irritating sequences that looks like a clumsy mess.
TN 2026 - An unbearable political flick with no ideology!
Rating: 0.5/5