So you all know what an FRS is right? Right?
Disclaimer: We can only begin an FRS, we can never finish it convincingly.
And so we begin, with our invocation against gangsterism
Yes it is a genre of film but we don’t have to like it.
Yes it does seem cool, but all of us here at the FRS are in this endless process of ageing, which automatically means that we are against cool stuff like coloured jackets-wearing-beedi-smoking-at-the-same-time-smirking-gangsters.
Maybe you can sense there is some hate or you can also take the logical reasoning about how when you make gangsterism the main vehicle of your film you can give any reason to justify it, where lies all our problems with gangster movies. Yes it’s a genre and we (FRS writer’s room) don’t have to like it because supposed cinematic greats have an affinity towards it and even to risk earning the wrath of all film bros.
So yes gangsterism is against the law, whatever is the reason.
+101: No Narration. Good call.
<Trivia Thagaval Sponsored by Wikipedia>
The first half (divide as you will this is a direct OTT release) is very much a reworking of ‘A Fistful Of Dollars’ which itself is a remake of Yojimbo, which in turn Kurosawa said might have been inspired by the pulp novels of Dashiell Hammett.
#PulpisGood
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It is the story of an outsider who comes to town where two warring gangs compete for control, the smart outsider plays one against each other, of course for personal benefit.
Here the town is London and the man with no name, actually is named Suruli.
-45: In trying to paint the character of Suruli colourfully, the director has forgotten even to sketch the rest of the characters.
Even the most paraded character of London gangster Peter, here played by James Cosmo, who unceremoniously gets added to the list of foreign powers who pose no challenge.
-34: Reinforcement max: movie, characters keep saying that Peter is a racist and white supremacist, while we already got it with his nameplate which reads “WHITE POWER” and random Ku Klux Klan outfit in his room.
His introduction too shows that how immigrants fear him, but somehow Peter is not able to face the problems posed by the gang headed by Sivadoss (Joju George)
-69: Obsession with intros: the first ten minutes of the film is just intros, some with ultra-text splashed on screen ala Tarantino- most movies take time to introduce their characters and that’s not a fault by itself. But in Jagame, with every powerful intro, the acceptability reduces proportionately.
For example, you show Peter as the most powerful gangster in town, but then in the rest of the movie he hardly does anything menacing.
We don’t know anything about his philosophy, every dialogue of his is just reinforcing that he is a xenophobe, which as pointed out, has been already established.
This begs the question, was this really the character that Karthik Subbaraj wanted Al Pacino to play?
+21.9: Reasons: While the idea to make a cross over gangster film needs to be appreciated, the reason to take Suruli from Madurai to London is one of the flimsiest even by Kollywood standards.
+30: Intelligentally Eli: Hero finds out everything including complex smuggling networks about rival gang within one week which other gangsters (who are in the same smuggling business) could not for years
Suruli can start an online course on competitive intelligence; we would surely pay for such things.
-5: But if hero could find out such things, he could have surely been able to find out why Sivadoss’ gang is smuggling gold etc.
+78: Mahatma Gang Leader: For a gang leader, Sivadoss is too trusting.
Boss, like your job description to not trust anyone.
-34: Movie proceeds as thus, till it becomes about immigrants and the Tamil Eelam issue.
While there is nothing wrong in trying to address larger issues in films, but maybe if they had been portrayed with more conviction or convincing actors would have helped the cause.
D is an accomplished actor, the transformation Suruli goes through in the film feels more like the character’s ego trip rather than real internal change, we really cannot say more without spoiling the film.
-450: A Host of Issues: If immigration issues are not enough, movies marries another going nowhere plot for speaking against private prisons, the need for identification and living a free life without borders.
Hmm yeah, maybe that’s why every minute of Jagame feels like two minutes.
+23: Cameron-Kanni Spotted: Movie at some point shows a burning merry-go-round which we feel is a reference to Terminator 2: Judgement Day and so we are giving positive points like these.
Yeah like random.
+91.5: Cut to the Combat: It almost feels that the director and crew only wanted to film the final blast everything in our way to the villain’s room shoot-out.
Don’t get us wrong, it’s really done well with slow motion and all that, but it almost seems that the rest of movie, the emotions of characters, are just a ruse(wink wink, nudge nudge)to get us to here.
Well atleast you enjoyed filming that.
Maybe the Thandiram in Jagame Thandiram is to get us to watch 2:40mins of uninspired filmmaking for the last few moments of inspired action, if that was the intention, then we have a winner.
<Winks winks, nudges nudges>
Subam
Team FRS
The Lowly Laureate 