CON CITY Review - The engaging final act makes it a passable flick!

Ashwin Ram

Writing/ Direction:

    The one-line is convincing, despite having a heavy Lucky Bhaskar hangover, just that it is a family here instead of one man. The audience is expected to root for all the leading characters, the intent goes in vain due to lacklustre writing. They all have separate dramatic quotients, but too generic to be impactful. There are some fun moments in the flow that are commercially viable, but the screenplay is extremely sluggish. A film that could have easily been improved at the edit table, every scene in the first two hours is filled with lags. The smart heist ideas settle just for momentary excitement, but not developed enough in the execution to provide enough cinematic punch. Most comedies fall flat, especially VTV Ganesh’s portions felt so repetitive. Taking time to establish the happenings with respect to all characters might have been restricted to the beginning and not every stage of their lives, sometimes too much information is of no use and in the process the core is bound to get diluted. The last 30minutes is the saviour of the film, packed with nice timepass scenes with some decent twists.

Performances: Good to see Arjun Das in a non-intense role, plays a conman but has handled it in a cool manner. Anna Ben is subtle and speaks Tamil so well in her debut. Vadivukarasi gets a prominent role, appearing throughout the film and also entertaining with her quirky presence, there were apt sequences too that gave her the scope to do so. Yogi Babu and VTV Ganesh are more like side artists, the comical element didn’t really click in their favour.

Technicalities:  Sean Roldan’s songs are a huge bummer, such weak tracks that don’t impress even to a basic extent. The background score is somewhat better, however it is not up to his range. Camera work is neat, he has composed the shots as per the director’s inputs without ruining anything. Such lazy editing with nothing going in the right way, leave out some thought-provoking cuts and transitions, the basic reduction of lags is also not done, such a dead slow flick.

Verdict: Reminiscent of some recent con flicks, the plot is sufficient to make a decent outing despite the familiarity factor. The last half-an-hour is the saving grace, but the first couple of hours are way too draggy due to poor editing.

CON CITY - The engaging final act makes it a passable flick!

Rating - 2.5/ 5