Karthik Subbaraj’s Retro is often deliciously retro. The mullets and soft pastel chiffons are back, as are characters with major daddy issues. But when Retro starts taking itself too seriously, the same vibe we admire in the beginning evolves into something of an overkill towards the end.
The Tamil film jumps between various time periods and places, including Tuticorin and Sierra Leone, but is primarily set on an island in the Andamans. The spiritually inclined gangster Parivel (a robust Suriya) arrives here to find the heartbroken Buddhist Rukmini (Pooja Hegde).
Parivel, in characteristic Subbaraj hero fashion, is not your typical gangster. He can karate-chop anyone in sight but he cannot crack a smile even when he tries. This could have something to do with his unstated parentage, a fact his foster father (Joju George) never lets him forget. When Parivel finds his emptiness reflected in the island’s daily wage workers (who have also forgotten how to laugh), he sets out to find his purpose.
In a genre overpopulated and obsessed with stories of revenge, Retro is on a more philosophical plane. The film wants to understand why anybody would engage or disengage with violence.
Scenes of bloody betrayal are interspersed with conversations on the Buddhist concept of dharma. These are also the moments in which Subbaraj has fun associating Parivel with both Krishna (he is born on Krishna Jayanti) and Buddha. But which path will he choose?
The first act is wonderfully fluid. It charts the growth of Parivel from abandoned child to local thug through economical and effective storytelling. What also helps is that everything in this milieu feels authentic and instantly believable.
Pooja Hegde speaks Kannada. Suriya’s Tamil lines have a delightful regional slang with a smattering of English. Santhosh Narayanan returns with his brand of spiky music – the musician has composed for most of Subbaraj’s films.
The action, too, is focused and smart, such as the single-shot red wedding sequence. But almost all of this dissipates in the second half. With the introduction of new characters, the canvas suddenly becomes bigger and harder to contain. The focus shifts from Parivel and Rukmini’s sweet romance to the angst of daily wage workers.
Vidhyashankar Neelamegham plays the antagonist Michael Mirasu, who enjoys feeding local folk to crocodiles in his free time. Michael is an odd mishmash of Joffrey from Game of Thrones and Commodus from Gladiator. Nasser plays Michael’s father with an exaggerated English accent, suggestive of his ties to colonial masters.
Subbaraj has always been fond of exploring social justice themes into mainstream formats. Jagame Thandhiram (2021) dealt with the lives of Sri Lankan Tamil migrants in London, while the superior Jigarthanda Double X explored tribal and land rights. Subbaraj applies a similar treatment to Retro, but the results aren’t satisfactory.
The 168-minute Retro spends too much time on mindless action sequences and suffers from a lack of powerful supporting characters who typically feature in Subbaraj’s films. You do have Jayaram playing a giggly doctor of laughter therapy, and a thug who only speaks in English catchphrases such as “cook the duck”. But none of these characters stands for anything deeper.
One of the supporting characters finally gets the last laugh (quite literally) towards the end. But by then, it’s a little too late.
