It’s an irritatingly ironic thing that a series that aims to showcase the ills of piracy, might actually be helpful in bringing out the case for the pirates.
When the Sony Liv series was announced, it had enough intriguing elements that made me seek it,
First was the writer-director Arivazhagan who has, in my book, one of the best thriller filmographies in recent Tamil cinema.
Next was the comeback of the storied production house AVM, whose last theatrical release was in 2011.
Finally, the story of Tamilrockerz, a renegade pirate group who had gained popularity for releasing pirated versions of Tamil movies on the same day of release.
As usual in this never-ending cycle of “expectation-leads-to disappointment”, none of the expected elements fired to push this thriller to even the bare minimum of what could be termed as thrilling.
Instead, what we get is for the 700th time in cinema, a police officer with a dead wife, running a rather uninteresting race against time investigation.
Ok let’s write an investigative thriller.
What should our police hero be called?
It must be one single name.
How about Rudra?
Super. Rudra it is. Basic police hero name. Ajay Devgn also used recently.
What should be his motivation?
A masked gang kidnapped his wife and killed her. Basic police motivation.
Super, put that in.
So, he becomes rogue and executes fake encounters at will.
Why?
Because we need to have at least one chase and fight for our hero.
What happens as a result of this fake encounter? Do they reprimand him?
No, he is in fact given the task to round up Tamilrockerz.
Yes, this series is as cliched as the Z that comes in Tamilrockerz.
Ok theek hai, that they didn’t have enough time to write better characters, maybe they spent that time in trying to find out how piracy networks work.
Nope!
But then that is too not the case, in fact the film is not about the inner workings of the piracy network, it is another careless revenge thriller.
Tamilrockerz are not faceless villains who wrecked the Tamil cinema industry, but it was all a personal score to settle with a certain producer. Someone from the producer’s past badly lip-syncs his way to become the villain of his future.
The Kollywood producer victimization meter too is turned to a 11, constantly trying to remind the audience that production of movies is both risky and noble.
Guys, feel for the producer.
Think about the families!
Think about the 300 people working on set!
Kollywood Victimization reaches peak when Arivazhagan decided to drop MS Baskar into the mix, as a failed producer who has lost it all.
In the 1970s this would have been considered cute. Cute but with tears.
It’s the magic of the movies, guys, it could lead you to madness. Don’t you get it?
Think about all the families!
But what about telling a story? What about characters? What about cutting down the bullshit?
Uh…um…think about the families!
Of course, there is no point in expecting a balanced take or even an in-depth take. Kolly simply doesn’t do depth.
Kolly also doesn’t give credit when it ‘adapts, nor is it fully accountable to the taxman, and fully exploits the emotions of fanboys but somehow wants us to feel for them producers.
Them producers who from their Audis and AC rooms want to convince us of their noble intentions.
Think about their families!
Tamilrockerz is streaming on Sony LIV.
As the swivel chair spins will return.
The Lowly Laureate 