Michael Review

To make a movie about betrayal and revenge set in the '90s Mumbai underworld, you'd start with the perfect cast - say, Vijay Sethupathi, Gautham Menon or Varalakshmi Sarathkumar. You would then go to great lengths to perfect the visual aesthetics of the era, with golden yellow hues, plush furnishings and dusty industrial settings, showing men with mullets chain-smoking in the relentless monsoon rains. Finally, you would add some grungy music to create a mood of danger and tension. Story, setting, sound and cast - Ranjith Jeyakodi's "Michael" had all the ingredients to make a great drama. Or at least this was my impression from its teaser. However, in a classic case of "trailer bait", the experience of watching this movie was just one long stretch of anticipation - a never-ending wait to recapture the excitement I felt while watching its teaser.

It's not for Jeyakodi's lack of trying. As the writer of this story, he brings us colourful personalities. But then he lets them wander aimlessly in a shoddy script. There is a mysterious, grave, hero figure called Michael (Sundeep Kishan) who arrives in Mumbai as a wild child with a psychotic desire to find and kill his father, but instead gets pulled into the complexities of its criminal underworld. Michael is a textbook troubled man with mommy issues. He wields unlikely weapons - gas cylinders, slabs of raw meat, metal pipes. He doesn't talk much, and that's part of his charm.

Then, there is Gurunath (Gautham Menon), the kingpin of this underworld, who takes a liking to Michael and brings him into his inner circle, much to the envy of his son Amarnath (Varun Sandesh).

The setup has a distinct Shakespearean feel.

But instead of delivering a punchy drama, Jeyakodi becomes overly clever with the script. In place of good dialog, there is excessive use of symbolism and metaphors - close-up shots of Guru reading Macbeth, Godfather, and Old Man And The Sea. Rather than authentic emotional outbursts, there are meticulously composed shots that mimic dreamy Renaissance paintings. Jeyakodi may have imagined that we'd all flock to Reddit to dissect the hidden meaning of every frame, but without a well-crafted script, his attempts to add depth by using subtle cues are just empty distractions that evoke only eye-rolls.

One character, in particular, embodies this "style without substance" brand of storytelling. Theera (played by Divyansha Kaushik) is Michael's forbidden love - forbidden because Michael is initially sent to follow and kill her, but instead falls passionately in love with her. She is first introduced as an elegant dancer-cum-violinist, but then minutes later she says dumb things like "I like to slap before I kiss". With no consistent personality, she is just a vessel for whatever heroine's trope the script demands of her: a Barbie doll, a damsel in distress, a sultry lover, or an angelic figure.

Mob boss Gurunath, too, is plagued by inconsistencies. His actions, his inclinations, and questions of who he hates or trusts are unnecessarily shrouded in mystery. While his vibes are impeccable (silk robes, aviator sunglasses) his presence and purpose in the story feel hollow.

The entire script is a deceptive mess composed of a series of mafia movie scenes, like men smoking cigars, huddling under their black umbrellas in the torrential downpour, or setting off on Tarantino-style killing rampages. The story just hops from one fight to the next for no real rhyme or reason. Taken altogether, it's like trying to assemble a coherent picture from a mixed bag of jigsaw puzzle pieces from five different sets.

Just as you contemplate reaching for the exits, you remember that the trailer teased Vijay Sethupathi, and so you wait it out. Three-quarters into the movie, he arrives, shrouded in a haze of cigar smoke, riding a motorcycle in a lungi, sporting (again) aviators, and finally breathing some oxygen into the theatre. He and Varalakskmi Sarathkumar, who plays his wife, are spectacular, but it's too little too late, and like those of every other character, their arcs too are incoherent.

In a movie where everyone's acting notes seem to have read simply "show mute intensity at all times", Sundeep Kishan takes this advice most to heart. He is stoic and gritty. But there is no denying that he fades into the background when he shares space with other actors. Gautham Menon, at first glance, seems a great choice to play the dangerous Gurunath, but his tone and delivery are way off in crucial, dialog-driven scenes. Divyansha Kaushik is poorly directed too. Starting with an awkward interpretive dance number, her character only becomes more grating as the film progresses. Anasuya Bharadwaj who plays Gurunath's domineering wife acts like she is a vamp in a Star Maa serial. Among the entire cast, Varun Sandesh stands out, nailing his role of a mischief-maker with a sadistic edge, right down to the way he walks and gestures.

Michael is slick. But only visually so. The movie ends with one of those convoluted explainers about every character's true motivations. But no one cares, because the momentum is long gone.

In a word, Michael is a stylish mess. Skip it, and go rewatch the teaser instead.