Retro Review : Unremarkable and tonally jarring

Retro is one of the theatrical releases this week. Dubbed from Tamil, this action drama is headlined by Suriya. Telugu Funda tells you what the film is about.

Telugu Funda’s reveal of the Premise:

Thilagan (Joju George) and his fierce wife Sandhya (Swasika) take in a scrappy orphan who rises to become Paari (Suriya), a name that echoes through the streets. Ready to shed his gangster skin for a quiet life with his love, Rukmini (Pooja Hegde), Paari’s dreams of peace ignite a blazing feud with his adoptive father. What unfolds is a saga of betrayal, bullets, and unbreakable bonds as Paari and Rukmini fight to carve out their freedom against a storm of chaos.

Telugu Funda’s take on the Performances:

1. Suriya: In Kanguva, he lacked the aura of a warrior. In Retro, he doesn’t exactly suffer from the demerit. Instead, he is inadequate and almost demotivated. Sorry, but this is not the Suriya we thought we would be seeing nearly two decades after his breakout hit, Ghajini.
2. Pooja Hegde: Thank God, finally, the actress has got to play a relatively impressive part. Her costumes and look may be a put-on, but she is confident in her own skin. She occasionally likes moving away from run-of-the-mill glamorous roles.
3. Joju George: The actor brings the required menace to the role of a heartless man.
4. Others: Jayaram is very good in the role of a naive laughter therapist who runs, well, Ha Ha Hospital. Prakash Raj doesn’t shine for the nth time. Why does he always look flustered? Just asking! Sujith Shankar is seen as a harasser.
5. The terrible cameo: Shriya Saran’s special song is a big letdown. Not that we were expecting it to be otherwise.

Telugu Funda’s take on the Technical Output:

Shreyaas Krishna employs a particular type of cinematography to justify the film’s title. The frames don’t look glossy and rightly so. Santhosh Narayanan’s background score is not trendy and that’s ok. But there is no attempt to stylize even potential mass moments. The Editor (Shafique Mohamed Ali) does the heavy-lifting in such cases. Of course, this must have been director Karthik Subbaraj’s call.

Telugu Funda’s take on the Merits:

1. The division of the story into three chapters (Love, Laughter, and War). The theme of laughter in the protagonist’s life is milked for some nuances.
2. No routine or forced flashbacks. This helps the film avoid cliches.
3. The film spans at least two different landscapes. If you can connect with the aesthetics, this film will partly work for you.

Telugu Funda’s take on the Demerits:

1. The Telugu audience have nothing much to look forward to. The Tamil nativity is so pronounced that the wedding song itself is enough to zone us out. Probably, Suriya and Karthik Subbaraj were aware of this limitation. Karthik’s movies don’t care for the tastes of the non-Tamil audience members.
2. Many scenes in the second half seem too random. None of them is forced or is extraneous. Yet, the treatment and the characterization turns (in the case of Suriya’s Paari) are unsettling.
3. Mixing comedy with the gangster tracks is jarring.
4. The tonal shift in the Andaman portions is too much to take after a point. You will find yourself scratching your head.

Telugu Funda’s Verdict:

Despite some fairly interesting narrative choices and decent performances, Retro falters due to Suriya’s underwhelming portrayal, a jarring mix of tones, and a pronounced Tamil flavor that may not resonate with Telugu audiences.

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