Jana Nayagan’s road to release has been a long one. H Vinoth’s action drama took over 7 months to be cleared by the CBFC. Given that it’s Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay’s final film as he immerses himself into politics, expectations were high on this being a proper send-off. However, the film carries all the shortcomings of Anil Ravipudi’s Bhagavanth Kesari and more in its Tamil adaptation. Where is the ‘Thalapathy Kacheri’ that we were promised?
Event Context
Thalapathy Vetri Kondan (Vijay) (TVK – geddit?) is a prisoner who is serving a sentence for a crime we don’t know yet. He grows close to the prison warden, Srikanth (Gautham Vasudev Menon), and finds himself looking after his young daughter, Viji (Mamitha Baiju), due to unforeseen circumstances. Even as he endeavours to help Viji realise her childhood dream of joining the army and overcome her phobias, a looming threat returns in the form of John Himmler (Bobby Deol). Who are Vetri and John really, and what in Viji’s past stops her from fulfilling her dream, forms the story.
As a child, Viji thinks Vetri is Superman after she sees him beat up his opponents. So, Vinoth decides to turn this story into a superhero movie with his hero being a vanilla-grade vigilante. The weak VFX and CGI shots don’t immerse me enough to believe this. The film’s biggest drawback is how it props up Himmler to be this unbeatable force who can take over countries, but is, of course, weak before Vetri. Even worse is how his backstory is supposed to evoke some emotion in you, but the only thing it does is make you laugh.
As robots and drones randomly entered the fray, I wondered what Jana Nayagan really was about. Is there a parallel between empowering women and children as the way forward in safeguarding a country? Is it that caste and religion are the easiest political tools to divide us, but we’re more than just programmable bots in the hands of the system? Or did I just find too much free time as Vijay broke the fourth wall to warn those who want to destroy this country’s democracy with divisive politics? By the end of the 3-hour-long runtime, I still don’t know.
Match Outlook
The 2023 Telugu film Bhagavanth Kesari uses women’s empowerment and child safety as an emotional crutch to elevate its titular hero. Jana Nayagan hardly bothers to pretend it’s about anything but Vetri. There are some tender moments when the director remembers that this is also supposed to be Viji’s story, but they are few and far between. Like most masala movies, numerous characters are introduced one after another to exalt Vetri, his past, his capabilities and his power. But in a bid to set up a villain who seems unbeatable, Vinoth ends up turning Himmler into a caricature of evil.
Vinoth does enough to pepper the film with Vijay-isms so that fans are happy while watching the film, irrespective of whether it works as a whole. Vetri is given one moment after another in which he is hailed as the hero. If you’re a Vijay fan, the moments where he gets to deliver punch dialogues and look uber stylish as he’s on his way to beat up goons will tickle you pink. Even if you aren’t one, the fun of watching a mass moment land well is undeniable. The moment where Vijay indulges fans with ‘one last dance’ is a thrill to watch. The Bhagavanth Kesari references are also fun.
Where do I even begin? Vinoth does enough to change Jana Nayagan that he doesn’t come across as ironically misogynistic as Anil Ravipudi did. But there’s one ‘aunty’ joke cracked on Kayal (Pooja Hegde, 35) by Vetri (Vijay, 52) that still gets past. He does away with most of the fluff that Bhagavanth Kesari indulged in, only to make up his own fluff to fill the run-time. Scenes that seem to be written to move you, enrage you, inspire you, don’t land as intended. Mostly because Vinoth does not fix the narrative issues the original was bogged down with.
