Titans Movie Review:
Jayasurya playing a loser is fun. We have seen him ace that part in the Aadu franchise. Antony Yakuza in Titans is cut from almost the same cloth as Shaji Pappan, just more cutthroat. Antony is a small-time thug in Peter's (Baby Jean) gang, boasting that he was once the right-hand man of Peter's late father. But now Antony has become a liability to the gang, constantly sneered at and mocked, and rightly so. In his introduction scene, as two gangs are caught in a Mexican standoff, Antony is seen in the last row with a tiny pistol, which he ends up misfiring. The sneering continues.
Director: Prince Joy
Cast: Jayasurya, Vinayakan, Nihal Nizam, Baby Jean, Sunny Wayn, Indrans
If you think this is some dark comedy about a 'mandan goonda', stop right there... The makers incorporate an intriguing fantasy angle to make things more interesting. This angle seems to be clearly inspired by a blockbuster Malayalam film released last year. It's made explicit in the film's very first scene itself, where a child is almost miraculously rescued from an accident by a supernatural figure. Remember that celebrated female superhero rescuing the male lead? Here also, we are told about supernatural beings leading ordinary lives among us, humans, waiting for their calling. The shady office setup, the supernaturals embracing new identities for each mission, the fight against injustice... everything keeps reminding us of that popular film. This overfamiliarity, in a way, robs Titans of an identity.
Antony's world collides with the fantasy part when he's looking for a getaway driver for one of his robbery attempts. Enters Vinayakan as Rejimon, the mystery figure. Initially, there's good fun when he joins Antony and his sidekick Anwar (an impressive Nihal Nizam). Rejimon faces far more insults and mistreatment, but he sticks on because he has a job to do.James Sebastian's screenplay takes time to get to the pulpy part of the story, but that's not the actual problem. It needed better writing to seamlessly blend these two distinct worlds, especially with the constant intercutting. The mystery around certain characters, their conversations, and motives is gradually built until the big, fancy reveal. However, one cannot help but think of the film's potential had this part been fleshed out better, with bigger stakes involved. The all-white evils, their efforts to prevent goodness from prevailing or curtail Rejimon… none feel like an actual threat.
It’s a letdown, especially considering how well the film scores on the technical front. There's extensive use of VFX, including a fantastic climax action set piece, that's impressive for a film of this scale. Cinematographer Vishnu Sarma's orange-and-teal-graded frames and Shameer Muhammed's slick edits also lend a strong visual appeal.
Thanks to their penchant for humour, Jayasurya, Nihal and Vinayakan manage to keep things lively. Their exchanges are largely fun, mostly sprouting from their recurring failures and the subsequent despair. Like when Antony says, "Ividunnu nokumbo nalla nilayila" while having a drink on a rooftop, or when he innocently asks Anwar, "Njan sherikkum mandan aanoda". Like most gangsters, Antony is itching to get out of the shadows and establish himself as a terrorising figure. In fact, the surname, Yakuza, is part of that image-building perception, but all it helps him with is getting eight Japanese followers on Instagram, who mistake him for some dreaded gangster.
But beyond his loser persona, we know very little of Antony, his past or how he ended up like this. Even when the screenplay offers answers towards the end, it fails to create an emotional resonance. Naturally, his sudden transformation also feels unconvincing, making it feel like a convenient resolution rather than an organically arrived closure.
Titans has two potentially entertaining worlds. One where it draws on the tested trope of supernatural beings helping mortals reform, and another a quirky story of a wannabe gangster and his lofty ambitions. However, just like Prince Joy's debut film Anugraheethan Antony, which also had fantasy elements, Titans too squanders a promising premise.
