Gangs of Madras Movie Review

The history of Madras that involved some gangsters and roughnecks might have not look so much familiar to the contemporary generation. In this aspect, CV Kumar has seemingly picked up some research and detailing later followed by some fictional touch. Gangs of Madras comes up as the second directorial outing of producer turned filmmaker CV Kumar, whose maiden venture ‘Maayavan’ was a Sci-fi movie. This film has Sai Priyanka Ruth in lead role with Daniel Balaji, Velu Prabhakaran and Ashok in important roles.

Set against the backdrops of Chennai, Gangs of Madras delves into the life of an innocent girl Jaya (Sai Priyanka Ruth), whose life is mercilessly desolated due to the loss of her husband Ibrahim (Ashok). She marries him out of love and even embraces Islam with her name changed as Raziya. Things go awry, when Ibrahim’s greed for money gets him into the cocaine business as he gets killed in police encounter.

Well, you would instantly find an ample similarity between this film and Vetrimaaran’s Vada Chennai, especially for the character of Andrea Jeremiah. Of course, both the roles are identical as their revengeful desires have the same root cause. CV Kumar takes the business little serious and we must appreciation for the research he has gone through for certain moments in the film are fresh. Naturally, the ardent International cinema buffs would instantly relate it with some famous Hollywood films. There are few scenes that will definitely stand out to be ‘Power Play’ in theatres, especially the pre-interval block.

On the performance, it’s Priyanka Ruth who does an amazing performance. It is really surprising to see the ground work and preparations she would have put up for this role. When it comes to others in the star-cast Velu Prabhakaran steals the show with his brilliant act. However, it’s only the Priyanka’s character that remains stable in our minds. Daniel Balaji does what his role demands and is flawless throughout his episodes.

The screenplay is engrossing in parts, but it fails to maintain the consistently and momentum. As the story progresses, CV Kumar starts banking more hopes on violence. This might be considered as the justice to script by miniscule audiences, but again, things get overdosed that will eventually create a resentment among the audiences. The technicians have given the appropriate best in accordance to the demand of script. Be it background score by Shyamalangan or the cinematography by Karthi, they’re good. However, the songs are too mediocre.

On the whole, Gangs of Madras is interesting in parts, especially for twists, but the feeble writing and some underdeveloped characters leaves it incomplete