ENEMY (2021)
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| Critic No. 248 |
Written by: Anand Shankar
Produced by: Mini Studios
Casts: Vishal, Aarya, Thambi Ramaiah, Mamta Mohandas, Mirnalini Ravi, Prakash Raj, Karunakaran
Music: S Thaman (songs), Sam C.S (score)
Language: Tamil
Genre: Action, Thriller
SYNOPSIS:
Chozhan (Vishal) crosses path with his long lost childhood friend (Aarya) when the investigation on the bombings happen in the locality where he loses few of his loved ones. Will he be able to stop his long lost friend who has now turned into a deadly enemy?
REVIEW:
Anand Shankar has always focused on giving the audience action driven thrillers in the span of 3 films in his career. While Arima Nambi worked wonders as a good debut, Iru Mugan has tons of commercial liberties though the film ended up as a blockbuster. With 2 strong actors in hand with a juicy plot this time, will Anand Shankar manage to give a more focused film with Enemy?
The film starts off with an epilogue showing an ex-CBI officer, Paarirajan (Prakash Raj) providing police training for two kids, Rajiv and Cholan (his own son and his neighbour's son) to make them competent at a very young age. He dreams to make both the kids efficient police officers in better ranks in future. Throughout those scenes, we see that the 2 kids are constantly competing with each other with a tint of jealousy. A tragedy happens and both of the kids go on their own path, out of the country.
Many years later, we see Chozhan (Vishal) leading a life in Singapore as a supermarket owner and helps the Tamil community in his locality with all the knowledge that he had gained in his childhood. Little does he know that he will encounter (Arya) in one of the attempts foiling an assassination.
The first problem I had with the film is the misinterpretation of Singapore and how they think that Indians/Tamil people are living together at a place called ‘Little India’. With tacky looking, claustrophobic sets, from one look, all the locations give away that the team has never stepped an inch in Singapore to film. For such a safe country like Singapore, the scenes do not depict a real setting of Singapore at any point of time with no signs of proper portrayal of Singapore police/law authorities. Everything looks far-fetched with bad research. Do they really think that riot is allowed in Singapore?
There is even a scene where Vishal organises a large surprise engagement party in a day with Mirnalini, just to gather all his loved ones at one place to see whether Aarya attacks one of them. Firstly, he risks all his loved ones' lives by gathering them in one place, where just one bomb can kill all. Secondly, the engagement he organizes is with a girl who he just met a few days ago.
Other than the setting issue, Enemy lacks the much needed character development in the film. We can never connect with Chozhan at any point of time as the film portrays him as a super intelligent person who cracks every single movement of his enemy without proper explanation how he does it. The only thing we see is him fiddling with gadgets and he finds out everything. A clear sign of very bad writing. However, even though Anand gives a nice backstory for Rajiv’s character and a stronger emotional spine, towards the end, the things he does to get back at Chozhan looks unimaginative. The climax especially when Rajiv holds hostage the children of the Tamil people, he appears on a large screen, threatening them to kill Thambi Ramaiah in order to save the children. This scene ends up as a joke when the Tamil people do not listen to him he has to find other ways to fulfil his objective.
Without much purpose of both characters and the lack of cops, the world that Anand has built looks self indulgent, making it very difficult for us to buy that no one else in Singapore steps inside Little India to get involved. Reflecting back to the root cause of the film’s conflict, the only question that runs in our head is why on earth did Prakash Raj taught the 2 children how to fight (with classes on even gun firing and pickpocketing) at the age of 12 where they are not in the age to decide what is right or wrong. With that reflection, we question the purpose of the film.
On the brighter side, the action scenes are well choreographed especially the climax fight and the car chase before climax. The rousing score by Sam C.S elevates the scenes greatly and out of all the songs by Thaman, ‘Tum Tum’ and ‘Pathala’ are catchy. The former, though very nicely shot, feels force fitted sadly. The sound editing and mixing are quite detailed as well that gives the action scenes an international look.
Good actors like Prakash Raj and Thambi Ramaiah are wasted in a functional role while Mirnalini looks a million with good expressions, but is again given in an underwritten role. With a runtime of almost 3 hours, the editing could have been much more crisper with about 30 minutes less. The romantic track doesn’t work at all and Anand could have used that time to build the main leads better. Vishal gives a competent performance while Aarya though does well in emotional scenes, lacks the menace due to the badly written character.
If only director Anand had focused more on the story than the setting and action, Enemy would have been a solid cat-and-mouse thriller. Instead, he has again taken tons of cinematic liberties with surface level scenes and character that gives us another loud, half-baked work from him. I hope he returns back to his roots and strikes back with a better film.
Despite the strong casting, Enemy is a generic action thriller that sinks gradually into its illogical, messy screenplay that diminishes the potential of the strong premise.
CELLULOID METER- 2.25/5:
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