‘Good Dangerous Ugly’ film overview: Ajith Kumar and Adhik’s pop-culture goldmine delivers regardless of hollowness

Who knew {that a} character sending a particular somebody’s photograph on a WhatsApp group would make for one of many ‘massiest’ sequences we have now seen in current instances? Director Adhik Ravichandran, who, during the last ten years, has gotten us used to his use of vibrant colors, dutch-angle pictures and quirky humour, takes it up a notch along with his fifth movie Good Dangerous Ugly (GBU), and along with his idol Ajith Kumar headlining it, the younger filmmaker pulls off what netizens would time period as a “fanboy sambavam.”

In GBU, AK (Ajith Kumar) is a retired gangster who has spent his due share of time behind bars and needs to steer a cheerful life along with his spouse, Ramya (Trisha), and son, Vihaan (Karthikeya Dev). However hassle comes knocking his manner when his son is wrongly arrested and put behind bars. For the sake of the very son for whom he put down arms, AK now has to enter a world he vowed by no means to return to.

Mark Antony will stay unchallenged as Adhik’s most advanced movie but as he goes again to his roots to conjure a wafer-thin plot for GBU. So what does he replenish the movie with? There’s Ajith to save lots of the day, and when he isn’t strolling or speaking, we have now a slew of characters that mouth references to the actor’s yesteryear movies. These references are stuffed to the brim in Good Dangerous Ugly. If nothing else, it makes for an excellent ingesting recreation: in case you took a shot every time an Ajith movie reference is made, you’d be out chilly earlier than it’s intermission.

To run with the Gen-Zoomers, I might name GBU a ‘vibe.’ You’d both discover it to be your cup of soothing tea or an ostentatiously made smoothie of senseless reel-worthy sequences stitched collectively. The movie actually takes time to get going, and in case you are like me, it does develop on you and may even go away you questioning if it truly will get higher when it picks tempo or whether or not you have got gotten used to this world that Adhik has elaborately crafted. No surprise he begins the movie with a card that goes ‘Welcome to the world of GBU’ and he isn’t kidding with it. On this world, logic doesn’t take the again seat; it’s tied to the again of the automobile and dragged for miles solely to grasp that the rope snapped a very long time in the past. In case you are conversant in Adhik’s work, logic and emotionality can be the final belongings you would look forward to finding right here.

And in case you are not conversant in Ajith’s physique of labor, GBU isn’t for you. The references to his earlier movies begin proper from the very first scene, which features a voiceover by Mahanadhi Shankar, the person whose dialogue in Dheena gave Ajith the nickname ‘Thala.’ After all, as anticipated, there are references to different hits corresponding to Billa, Varalaru, Mankatha, Villain, Amarkalam and Vaalee. What comes as a pleasing shock are the references to comparatively lesser-known titles like Pink and Kireedam. In reality, it’s not simply Ajith who will get this therapy. Simran, who seems in a cameo as Priya from Vaalee, talks to AK about his ‘Sona’ (IFKYK). Trisha supples a Lesa Lesa callback, Prabhu repeats a line he as soon as mouthed in Billa, Prasanna will get a Sneha reference… the listing retains going. There’s even a Vijay reference!

Simply as you surprise if Adhik is relying solely on these callbacks, he brings the most effective of Tamil popular culture to the display — proper from the trending meme jokes such because the ‘Irunga bhai’ line and the ‘card mela irrukura 16 quantity’ joke to remixing the long-lasting ‘Puli Puli’ track by Darkkey Nagaraja (aside from crooning the track, the Samba Rock icon makes a cameo too). Talking of yesteryear songs, if Adhik hadn’t warned you with the ‘Panju Mittai’ remix in Mark Antony, we get all the pieces from a remix of ‘Oththa Roova’ from Nattupura Pattu, a sampling of ‘En Jodi’ from Vikram and utilization of ‘Sakalakala Vallavan’ and ‘Thottu Thottu Pesum’ tracks.

Arguably, the most important trick Adhik pulls off is how he stacks easter eggs and references to cover the utter lack of an intriguing plot. However, cracks seem a number of instances within the facade that he has fastidiously sculpted. The secondary characters not often have something to do moreover praising AK, and with even Arjun Das’s The Status-inspired villain failing to intimidate, GBU suffers with out a captivating battle. At its core, GBU is the story of a gangster husband and a authorities official spouse who use their brawn and mind to save lots of their son from being wrongfully punished by the regulation. Nonetheless, the movie by no means builds on this. As a substitute, it turns into a showreel by a fanboy who has gotten to work along with his favorite star — which, surprisingly, works in locations. What comes as a pleasing shocker are the references to worldwide titles, which, we hope, don’t land the staff in troubled waters over IP points.

Ajith Kumar and Trisha in a nonetheless from ‘Good Dangerous Ugly’
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association

With an awfully predictable story that leaves little or no room for plot twists or surprises, GBU banks on its star and his unabashed, unhinged persona that followers have missed for years, making it an entertaining watch. From ‘Thala’ references to letting the supporting solid sing reward of how he’s the Pink Dragon, Ajith lets his hair down. To see him shake a leg or pull off quirky traces like ‘financial institution ah, mottai ah’, is unarguably a deal with, particularly for his followers who had little or no to get pleasure from in his different current movies. Even when we low cost the annoying one-liners (one goes, “I’m not Frank, it’s only a prank”), it’s finally his dialogues with which Adhik blurs the road between actuality and fiction, a private favorite being one on how AK disbanded the golf equipment whereas he was an lively gangster.

In his most technically sturdy movie up to now, Adhik’s staff behind the digicam have achieved an excellent job. Whereas Abinandhan Ramanujam’s digicam work splendidly captures the large but intricate units and huge open air of Spain and Mumbai, editor Vijay Velukutty does the laborious job of placing collectively a sequence of sequences with jarring tonal jumps. Anu Vardhan’s costumes deserve particular reward for making AK look dapper, no matter whether or not he’s wearing an uber-cool Versace silk shirt or a smooth three-piece go well with. GV Prakash’s songs won’t have hit the bullseye, however his background rating amps up the star automobile.

Contemplating how there’s a scene the place AK breaks the fourth wall and has a dialog with the director, we are going to in all probability by no means get used to the foundations of this ‘world.’ Even when his movies like AAA and Bagheera missed the mark by miles, Adhik’s sturdy go well with has all the time been his cinematic language and use of nostalgia, which he majorly banks on for GBU. The minor examples of a automobile quantity plate being his jumbled title or going with a loopy casting alternative — corresponding to roping in Usha Uthup for the position of a decide — stand testimony to his wacky concepts, which do wonders once they work, making you would like there have been extra laced between the umpteen references.

That the movie’s title is a hat-tip to the legendary The Good, the Dangerous and the Ugly reminds one of many well-known line from the Sergio Leone directorial, “When You Have To Shoot, Shoot. Don’t Discuss”. Adhik has taken his largest shot, and it might probably be the most effective fan service Tamil cinema has ever seen. Even when it’s removed from good and seems like a brass-knuckle punch to our senses, Good Dangerous Ugly is loving work of nostalgia.

Good Dangerous Ugly is presently operating in theatres