Retro (Telugu) Review

The Jigarthanda director is back with Retro, starring and produced by Suriya. Like Jigarthanda and many of his other films, Karthik Subbaraj once again blends multiple genres. For the first half hour, Retro feels like a romance film (as Subbaraj and Suriya had hinted in the media), then it shifts into a gangster mass-masala with an overdose of Squid Game-type treatment, and eventually becomes so muddled that you're not quite sure what you're watching. Despite the impressive direction and clever use of cinematic techniques, it doesn't feel as well put-together as Pizza or Jigarthanda. But then, there's Suriya.

In 1960s Thoothukudi, Sandhya (Swasika), the wife of gangster Thilagan (Joju George), adopts an orphaned baby with a scar shaped like a spear, and names him Paari (Suriya). Though Sandhya raises him with love, Thilagan never accepts him. After Sandhya's death, teenage Paari meets Rukmini (Pooja Hegde) in Varanasi during their mothers' funeral rites. They develop an instant liking for each other. On their return train, Paari saves Thilagan from an ambush, earning some respect.

By 1989, Thilagan has remarried and has a biological son. Paari remains loyal to him, though Thilagan's new wife sees him as just a henchman. Paari reconnects with Rukmini, now a vet, and falls in love. After four years of dating, they plan to marry in 1993. But at the wedding, Paari declares he's leaving the criminal life. Thilagan, furious, accuses him of betraying a secret arms deal code-named Gold Fish, meant to support a PM candidate, Dharman (Prakash Raj). Paari admits guilt but refuses to reveal where the weapons are hidden.

In a rage, Thilagan tries to kill Rukmini. Paari fights back, severing Thilagan's right forearm, and is arrested. Hurt by his (Paari's) return to violence, Rukmini disappears. The rest of the story follows Paari's quest to win her back.

Retro is a 168-minute linear movie, divided into five chapters - Love, Laughter, Cult, War and The One. If you watch each chapter as a standalone piece, they shine individually. However, as a whole, the five chapters feel unnecessarily dense, overly layered and incohesive. Subbaraj tries to plug in as many plot elements as he can, and with as many interesting treatments as possible. While the treatment is refreshingly new, the narrative ends up feeling confusing.

The Love and Laughter chapters are well-developed and grounded in reality. Every sequence in these chapters - be it romance, fallouts, fights or flashbacks - is neatly presented. But from the Cult chapter onward, the plot becomes so dense and key sequences are given so little time that you can't help but pity Subbaraj, assuming he had the final say in the filmmaking or scripting process. To do justice to the story, the makers should have considered splitting it into two parts, with an equal number of chapters in each.

Also, from the Cult chapter onward, the movie starts to feel unbelievably fictional, in the way it plants a Squid Game-like dystopian existence against the backdrop of a modern-day rubber plantation on Black Island (shot in the Andaman Islands).

Across all five chapters, the narrative attempts to establish the Buddhist philosophy of Dhammam (truth and purpose), positioning Paari as the "chosen one" destined to uphold it for the greater good. For Rukmini, Dhammam means that Paari must leave his violent past behind. For Thilagan, it means Paari must obey him. And for the people of Black Island, it means Paari must save them from the rubber mafia. Meanwhile, Paari must discover his own Dhammam and win back Rukmini. It's a complex narrative - not really the straightforward (yet hard-to-execute) storytelling of Bahubali.

Suriya is in top form in this movie. You may blame the narrative, but not his performance. He wears many hats - a loverboy, a rebel, a devoted son and a saviour - and he pulls off each role with such conviction that he reminds us why he has always been a bankable star.

Pooja Hegde, too, does her part quite well as a deglamourised (for the first time) veterinarian who is in love with a principled yet violent man.

Prakash Raj, as the greedy prime ministerial candidate Dharman who keeps his hands clean while orchestrating sinister plots, and Joju George, as a gangster obsessed only with ill-gotten gains, deliver solid performances.

However, Nassar and Vidhu, as the father-son rubber mafia duo Rajavel Mirasu and Michael Mirasu, are a letdown. Nassar's character comes off as caricatured, and Vidhu's as cartoonishly narcissistic - they rule over the rubber plantations like British colonists growing corn and bananas with African slaves. The duo is excessively over-the-top. Both are capable actors, which makes you wonder why they played it that way. The answer likely lies in Subbaraj's misdirection or lack of vision.

Background score, song and dance sequences, action, cinematography - you name it, this movie slays it, as is the case with any Subbaraj film, even the low-budget ones. However, that's not entirely enough redemption.

Still, despite its many plot holes, Retro is worth a one-time watch, primarily for Suriya and Hegde.