Joker

My review: Joker

Raju Murugan after his impressive debut with "Cuckoo" turns his focus on political satire for his second movie, "Joker". As a political satire "Joker" must be one of the boldest ever attempted in Tamil. Unlike in movies of this genre in other languages, Malayalam in particular where they don't fear about using the names of political personalities and parties, in Tamil the approach has always been that of caution. But Raju Murugan has courageously used names of politicians, and tried his level best to hint at the follies and trickery of the current political establishment. He has not spared anyone in that regard. 

The strength of the movie is its dialogues. Though there are numerous instances they cross the line in becoming sermonising, Raju Murugan has tried his level best to reign in things. Though the dialogues take the centre-stage and the visual story telling is limited, he had made up for it with a poetic flashback portions that also reaffirms his mastery over romance. But then he is such a mood that even these portions are not bereft with the sermons but at least they crop here and there only. 

The problem with "Joker" is that for the most part of the movie, the screenplay is somewhat loose which fails to engage the viewers in a regular manner, hence the impact the movie ought to have made gets diluted. In spite of these shortcomings somehow I felt a tinge of sadness by the  time the movie ends. That is mainly to do with the acting of Guru Somasundaram, who is just terrific in such a complex character. His straight face is still haunting long after the movie got over. 

Movie's strength other than the dialogues is its casting. Everyone cast in the movie are perfect for the roles. Since most of them are unfamiliar faces, they come across as real people inhabiting the landscape the movie is set in. Guru Somasundaram, a grossly underrated and underutilised actor, has been used well by this movie's director. Ramya Pandian is expressive while Gayathri Krishna is  earnest. Mu Ramasamy is casual in her performance. 

"Chellamma" is a haunting number by Sean Roldan. His background score is another pillar of strength for this movie. Chezhiyan has captured the arid regions of  Dharmapuri district with panache. 

On the whole, though "Joker" talks a lot about the prevailing malice due to the politics of the country and how government and its machinery can wreak havoc in the lives of its innocent citizens anytime, the overt preachiness could have been toned down a bit.  

Bottomline: A hard pill to swallow.

3/5