[SPOILERS AHEAD…]

Official Trailer:

How does it feel to watch continuously 15 10-minutes porn movies stitched together with the intent of getting a release every 10mts? Jailer feels like one, going from one mass scene to another every 15mts with no plot. No effort to make a connection between the scenes. There is no build-up to the action. The only connection is Rajni. I guess the assumption makers have made is that it is enough to show Rajni’s boots to give us a high. Or Rajni in slow motion. Or Rajni is spitting out cool one-liners. Rajni slices the guy’s neck and another high. Then he plunges a knife in someone’s throat, and you get the idea. Sample these sequences. Muthuvel’s (character played by Rajni) son is murdered by Varma (played by Vinayakan), the dangerous smuggler. Rajni meets with Shivrajkumar. Shiv is a reformed person, thanks to Rajni. What is his business now? Provide snipers for hire. Accompanied by few snipers, Rajni then goes to meet his next friend, Mohanlal. When we see Mohanlal, he is whacking few guys’ heads with a baseball bat. But wait a second, this guy is a reformed person too, thanks to Rajni, the jailer. Next friend is another cool guy, Jackie Shroff. He throws bombs in people’s cars just for fun, but he is a man of principles. We are plunged into this world looking for some sliver of a story, actors with a little character arc. Wrong place. Personally, I get into a movie even with a simple premise as long as it has interesting characters. John Wick and Mad Max series is a great example. I know it is a not a right comparison, those two series are way out there.

Rajni is an honest person. How do we know? We are told. The flashback falls flat – we see him as a brutal person than someone honest. Rajni’s son is an honest cop. How do we know? We are told. There is no sequence to show that. Later towards the climax he becomes a bad guy. How do we know? He says it himself. From what I saw, I didn’t see him committing any crime other than his claim that he wants to get to the side of Varma to make more money. Papa Rajni is so upset that he sends him up to heaven (I presume you will not go to hell just for having bad thoughts, right?) and I sat there wondering what is wrong with the picture. Indian and Thangapathakkam movie story lines ran in my head, movies with father-son conflict, where the character arcs were so organically and strongly built, we rooted for the father in the final act.

Vinayakan’s Varma starts of as a fierce villain and ends up as a foolish villain. His friend Jackie Shroff knows about Jailer, but he doesn’t. Talk about bad writing. But he is the only saving grace in the movie, he gives his best when the writing and staging supports. The scene where he negotiates with Rajni to smuggle the crown is a sample on what he can do, what this guy is capable of with even with a simple set-up. The way he delivers Entha Saare, awesome!! Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley, VTV Ganesh reprises their roles from Beast. Redin extracts few laughs in Blast Mohan sequence, but the sequence itself feels out of place in the movie. Ramya Krishnan is there because Rajni with a wife will make Jailer a family movie. In the whole movie, she gets to say 10 words max. On the other hand, I don’t think the daughter-in-law even spoke a single word in the whole movie. Shivrajkumar, Mohanlal, Jackie Shroff each show up for around 3mts including the slow-motion. We register them, thanks to their star power. Anirudh’s background score leaves with you mixed feel, it is loud and overcooked, but without that most of the scenes will look bland. Watch the pre-interval sniper scene with no sound and you know what I mean.

Director Nelson Dilipkumar is a fan of Breaking Bad series. You can get the glimpse of the impact in his earlier movies Kolamavu Kokila and Doctor. Rajni’s Muthuvel character seems to be inspired from Mike Ehrmantraut’s character from Better Call Saul. Murdered son, daughter-in-law and grandchild are not the only similarities. The bar to the dark alley sequence, hijack of the trucks, snipers, underground den, you can go on. For all the crores that has gone in to making this movie, how I wish few lakhs are spent on getting a good script taking off from Better Call Saul’s Mike 🤔