125. Dagaalty; movie review

DAGAALTY
Cert 12A
120 mins
BBFC advice: Contains  moderate violence, threat, sex and drug references, strong language

Good grief. What a mess of a movie Dagaalty is.
The very premise of Vijay Anand's film is so reprehensible that it is astonishing that anyone could have seen potential comedy in it.
In short, a drug-fuelled rich womaniser draws pictures of females from his imagination and asks his henchmen to set about finding girls who match the image.
He throws in a huge wadge of money as an incentive and, consequently, every criminal, either petty or heavy, is brought into a race to find, her abduct her and give her to her potential abuser.
Oh, what fun we had.
Santhanam plays Guru, a trickster who is under threat to his life over unpaid debts to another criminal.
He becomes aware of the chase for the girl and vows to find her in return for money and being spared.
A convoluted path leads him to Malli (Rittika Sen), a film director wannabee who is desperate to carve her own career away from her family.
Thus, Guru cons her into going to Bollywood to make her fortune, preying on her naivety to get his way.
Merriment is then made of the way he protects her from those who want to make money out of her while always keeping his own eye on the prize.
And just in case the points weren't obvious enough, Yogi Babu comes in to make some slapstick fun out of the whole situation.
Clearly, I am not Tamil so I would not expect to have an appreciation of cultural and comedic nuance.
Consequently, I would love to know what anyone would find funny about duping a young woman, so she will consent to go halfway across the country where she doesn't realise she will be sold for sex.
I have seen some dark comedies in my time but that would be past the line for any of them and yet here it is being passed off as a jolly jape.
Bizarre.

Reasons to watch: Light and untaxing
Reasons to avoid: Its premise is too wacky

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 2.5/10

Did you know? Santhanam graduated with a diploma in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Meenakshi Krishnan Polytechnic College before pursuing a career in comedy.

The final word. Vijay Anand: "It didn’t feel like my first film. The entire process was very smooth. Shooting with Santhanam and Yogi Babu together was a blast. It is close to what you see on screen. Their spontaneity was incredible.” Cinema Express

Share this post