It’s been quite the year for Vijay in and out of the industry. The censor board issues, delays to the release date, and leaked versions of the film are notable concerns. However, on a more positive note, his success in his chosen field led to his departure from the industry, which is a huge moment for him and his fans. The hype for Jana Nayagan was sky-high, especially for a star of Vijay’s stature, drawing curtains to his career in Kollywood. Helming this huge project is H. Vinoth, and supported by Pooja Hegde, Mamitha Baiju, Bobby Deol and Prakash Raj, with music by the forever sensation Anirudh. With every update of the film being a bigger hint to a remake of Balayya’s Bhagavanth Kesari, does Vijay exit on a high?
The film is about Thalapathy Vetri Kondan (Vijay), a former IPS officer who went to jail and was released, who helps his friend Srikanth (Gautham Vasudev Menon) raise his daughter Viji (Mamitha Baiju) after Srikanth’s demise. Simultaneously, John Himmler (Bobby Deol) targets India as part of his next destruction plan, and Vetri fights the adversaries to keep his nation safe, which forms the crux of this film.
The first half is a frame-to-frame copy of the original, Bhagavanth Kesari, with not a thing altered. It trudges along with bad dialogues, cringeworthy expressions and poorly written scenes. Thalapathy Kacheri somewhat lifts a dull half with energetic dance steps, and the song is worth grooving to. Even in the song and dance that was meant to lift a dull half, there are flaws. Poor sync between the steps and beats, laughable steps, and an unnecessary extra minute of Vijay doing what is “one last dance”, but with viewers just scratching their heads, wondering what he is doing. The first half is redeemed by a high-octane mass interval action block with the music giving you a high watching that scene. The second half stumbles further with a flashback sequence after the interval, which is a standard commercial movie template with political preaching running in parallel with no logic in the order and the way some of the scenes were written, making it a torturous and cringeworthy experience.
Vinoth continues his poor run of being unable to write and direct a subject with a huge star. Had he written the screenplay and directed it frame by frame like the original, it might have saved the film. However, the screenplay of the film feels like a cosine wave, where it just trudges along, then gradually gains momentum, then there’s a high moment, and then tumbles down again, and the wave continues. Further, he has decided to add his own flavour to it while mixing in the political commentary, and completely loses the plot with this one. The Africa portions made sloppily using AI add nothing to the narrative, and the decision to make the African characters speak Tamil is outright laughable.
A template role for Vijay, which he has done for so many years, with nothing new to offer. Some light-hearted moments, the dance moves, mass moments, unnecessary preaching, emotional moments and some cringe dialogue delivery in the mix as well. Pooja Hegde has a decent role compared to Kajal Aggarwal in Bhagavanth Kesari; however, due to poor writing, poor dialogue delivery and lacklustre expressions, she too continues her run of choosing poor scripts. Mamitha Baiju emerges as the film’s standout performer. As Viji, she understands the character well and portrays it just right without overdoing it or undercooking it. Prakash Raj is sufficient as the corrupt and notorious Roja Rangasamy. Bobby Deol is a letdown as the main antagonist, who struggles with bad dubbing and bad dialogue written for him.
Anirudh, as usual, is the backbone of the film. With chartbusters such as ‘Thalapathy Kacheri’ and ‘Raavana Mavanda’ and his background scores, he singlehandedly elevates yet another dull script to give us moments to cheer and whistle. Sathyan Sooryan has done a decent job with the camera movements in some of the scenes, but the VFX and AI-generated visuals are extremely unappealing.
Overall, Jana Nayagan serves as a film strictly to hype up Vijay’s political entry with a remake and with some moments to cheer. Otherwise, it is a film which just goes into the list of “don’t recommend” and one to avoid in theatres.
Rating: 0.5/5