Shakthi Thirumagan movie review: An engaging update on the Shankar template of political cinema, let down by a lackluster second half

By basing the central themes of corruption and systematic rot in the shoulders of a political broker, the film divulges some behind-the-scenes information as to how the governmental decision-making and entire civic bodies are manipulated and controlled by vested interests and capitalist interventions, who call the shots. The film derives its momentum from a Rs 6,000 crore scam that looms over the protagonist, who upends the equilibrium by breaking free and disturbing the balance of the pecking order.  The screenplay wastes no time in setting up the intricacies and backstage dealings of political power plays. Scenes collide into each other and you are barely given the time to register the amount of detail and context that is provided into how benami dealings, power politics, and scams operate at the grassroots level and how the complacency and indulgence at the heart of our political decay proliferate. The film frames its anger towards the problems it represents with the same irreverence that we saw the director deploy in Aruvi, where a woman takes it upon herself to expose a compromised society.

 Also Read | Shane Nigam on his ‘dark phase’, headspace during the shooting of Ishq, and how the pandemic helped him to bounce back

Shakti Thirumagan is an angry indictment, that is reminiscent of an older style of filmmaking, where political issues are dealt head-on and the painstaking details gradually build up observations from an aesthetic and delivery device for educating the masses. The first half is a relentless exercise in narrative buildup and the pleasures of the larger-than-life stakes are set up with the hero being shown to set up a foolproof scam, making considered moves, while we are kept in the dark with regard to his real motives and his ultimate plans.

Vijay Anthony is well cast as the brooding small-time player, who starts out selling tea in the secretariat premises, only to make his way up the food chain to become an all-knowing mediator, who facilitates political machinations on either side of the law. Vijay Anthony is asked to be present in scenes that highlight a carefully implemented plan, and the actor has to lead from the front to showcase the layman’s frustration and hopelessness at a system that has already given up. This is one of his better performances in recent times, although his stoic demeanor in many instances does undercut the emotions heft needed to be conveyed through him in the story.

The actor looks comfortable here playing the dialed back, stoic hero, but sometimes you get the feel that the literalness of the material is weighing him down and he is not able to find ways to ground the larger than life implications at play. You feel the actor trying to make choices as a performer, but the writing is so ‘big picture’ focused that he is not given much to work with. Same goes for the supporting cast. All the major secondary characters are drawn as mere ciphers and caricatures stand-in’s for real life political figures and the superficiality begins to catch up with the tone. Kannan, Krish Hassan, Vagai Chandrasekhar, Cell Murugan, Trupthi Ravindra all deliver one note performances that are adequate for the plot but never land any emotional impact.

 Also Read | Kavin admits the audience’s response to Bloody Beggar was ‘disappointing’: ‘Seeing the cold reception…’

Vijay Anthony’s score keeps the film lively and never lets go despite the writing flailing in the late half. The editing by Raymond Derrick Crasta Dinsa keeps the information overdrive at bay and maintains the film’s rhythm. The flashbacks too don’t add any value to the overall structure and flow and hinder the flow of the story with its heavy handed messaging.

 Also Read | Nishaanchi movie review: Watered down and tepid, Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Kanpur lacks verve

Shakthi Thirumagan uses archival, online data and information overload as a narrative tool to demonstrate how real life cases and political discourse talking points operate at the ground level. You see the research, attention to detail and compactness with which so much data is packed into scenes with numerous real life political references jammed in without it ever seeming overstuffed in the first half. The smart withholding of critical exposition in the former half is not met by a similar payoff in the later half as the film nosedives into a sea of mainstream cinema’s most favourite conventions in presenting a hero-centric story. The texture of the political brokering, power maneuvering and filmmaking flourishes derived from the suspense are foregone for a straight down the middle second half that sees a hero playing mind games with the villain and the nuance of the political commentary is lost.

Shakthi Thirumagan is not a graceful, patient takedown of power politics because it doesn’t want to risk alienating audiences with half informed build ups and suggestive storytelling. There is no conviction in the storytelling to trust the audiences to keep up with the details oriented style of presenting serious issues in the second half. It wants to have its cake and eat it too by being a crowd pleaser and yet be specific in its style. This is definitely a new step for Vijay Anthony as a star that clearly is a indication of his ambitions to tackle more weighty themes and societal issues in his films, a scale above his previous work in mounting and scale. But the film ends up being a more detail oriented update of a Shankar film that doesn’t break any new ground, but is satisfied with the rousing, preachy political sloganeering.

Shakthi Thirumagan movie cast: Vijay Anthony, Kannan, Krish Hassan, Vagai Chandrasekhar, Trupthi Ravindra
Shakthi Thirumagan movie director: Arun Prabhu Purushothaman
Shakthi Thirumagan movie rating: 2 stars