Andhagan movie review: Prashanth’s picture attempts desperately to emulate Andhadhun, a cleverly produced black comedy thriller, but falls short.
When the Hindi film Andhadhun (The Blind Man) debuted in 2018, it was praised for its complicated narrative and inspiring performances by Ayushman Khurana, Tabu, and Radhika Apte. Tamil star Prashanth’s father, actor-producer-director Thiagarajan, purchased the remake rights and produced Andhagan. While the film was completed in 2022, it has taken two years to reach theaters. (See also: Santhosh Narayanan distances himself from Prashanth’s The Andhagan Anthem: ‘Audio label is also playing blind’)
The plot
Andhagan stars Prashanth as Krish, a blind pianist. He lives alone with his cat and works at a restaurant bar in the evenings to supplement his income. This is where he meets Julie (Priya Anand), and the two become close. Former actor Karthick (who plays a similar character) is a frequent visitor to the pub and falls in love with Krish’s music. Karthick invites Krish to his home for a private concert to celebrate his wedding anniversary and surprise his wife Simi (Simran). Krish arrives at the actor’s house only to discover that he is not there, and he is taken aback. There is a murder, and Krish becomes a witness. What will happen next?
The performance and more
Andhagan is a faithful adaptation of Andhadhun, and filmmaker Thiagarajan has followed the script to the letter. However, while I appreciated the original Hindi film and the performances, the Tamil remake falls short in a number of areas, including casting and soundtrack.
Andhagan marked actor Prashanth’s return to Tamil film after six years away. The 51-year-old actor, who has had some good films in his career, such as Shankar’s Jeans, hasn’t had any major hits in the recent 20 years. In Andhagan, the actor appears jaded rather than fresh and youthful, which is required for the role of a charming piano player. This character may not have been the best fit for his comeback, despite the film’s outstanding script.
Simran, on the other hand, excels as Simi, who was played by Tabu in the Hindi version. Priya Anand is also fine as Julie, and various other characters, such as Urvashi, Yogi Babu, Manobala, Leela Samson, and Vanitha Vijayakumar, have been thrown in to provide weight and comedy value to the picture, but they don’t do much for it. Karthick, a former Tamil celebrity, is an odd choice as Simi’s spouse, and his dubbing does not match what he says on screen, which is quite distracting. Samuthirakani returns as a cop for the hundredth movie in Tamil cinema, and it’s clearly a piece of cake for him.
Santhosh Narayanan, the music director, is known for his stunning songs and background music, however the songs in Andhagan are simply dreadful. Krish is a great musician who makes his living by playing at a pub, but the songs he performs are, to put it mildly, tacky. This was quite unexpected from this excellent music director, who had just released the enormous Kalki 2898 AD.
Thiagarajan was forced to take over as director of Andhagan after two other directors left the project. With a blueprint already in place, it would have been simple to direct this film, but Andhagan has failed to captivate the audience. The Tamil story is flat, and the twists that come do not explode on screen, but play out rather matter-of-factly for the audience.
It would have been beneficial if the director had taken the script and changed it to make it more engaging in Tamil. Pattukotai Prabhakar’s dialogues likewise fail to elicit any emotions in the audience as they witness Krish’s character ride an emotional roller coaster from happiness to astonishment to terror.
Andhadhun, a cleverly created black comedy thriller by Sriram Raghavan, kept you guessing and on the edge of your seat. Prashanth’s Andhagan attempts frantically to replicate the original, but fails.
