Japan (Tamil)

Starring Karthi, Anu Emmanuel

Written & Directed by Raju Murugan

Rating: * ½

Of late Karthi’s performances and films, barring Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan, have been regularly missing the bus.

Japan not only misses the bus. It misses every vehicle on the road to become a certifiable dud, best left unnoticed. But what to do? If a street performer insists on clowning in the middle of a crowded road, you have no choice but to stand and stare.

Japan ,in which Karthi plays the title role(no, he doesn’t have twin cousins named Hong and Kong) is an energetic abomination. It crowds you with heist episodes which writer-director Raju Murugan thinks to be funny.

We are all entitled to our delusions, I guess, Every joke, every gag and every heist in Japan lands awkwardly on its head. The screenplay is nothing but a bunch of carelessly written heist episodes sewn together hastily to give us a pastiche of preposterous plot propulsion in this trainwreck of film.

When we first meet Japan he has decelerated his thieving activities. During Japan’s sabbatical a huge jewellery-store robbery is undertaken and a politician owns that store.Japan didn’t do it . Then who did? Who cares!

Karthi is not just the main lead he is also the main problem with the film. Possessing neither the gravitas of Dhanush nor the sobriety of his brother Suriya, Karthi struggles to be a blend of Johnny Lever and, nearer home, Yogi. As Karthi possesses the comic timing of neither, he appears to be a caricature of a comicbook hero. His performance, including a style of dialogue delivery that requires him to sound like a goat about to be slaughtered, is a pain the posterior. It gets worse. Every time Karthi’s Japan plunges into a new adventure you hope he will finally have something even mildly engaging to offer. Tragically the aridity in the writing and unwarranted cockiness of the lead actor, is all-pervasive.

If you going to hang around for at least one episode to take home from this monstrously messy comic-caper, then be warned: you are in for a disappointment.

Oh yes, there is a leading lady too. Annu Emannuel, playing an actress who ghosts Japan after stardom(sensible woman) looks lost in the comic crime kingdom. She is the only character who seems to feel what the audience feels from the first frame to the last.

WTF!!!