‘Jigarthanda Double X’ movie review: Karthik Subbaraj’s heartfelt, most political film dazzles with duality
Starring Raghava Lawrence and SJ Suryah, Karthik Subbaraj’s ‘Pandyaa Western’ film brings together the soul of 2014’s ‘Jigarthanda’ and the spirit of a spaghetti western, becoming his most political and heartfelt film to date
(Originally published in The Hindu on November 10, 2023)
In 2014, Karthik Subbaraj made Jigarthanda, a fascinating meta-gangster movie that aimed to merge filmmaking and rowdyism. The film told the story of a filmmaker risking his head to make a film based on a notorious gangster, and the assured screenplay was peppered with enough surprises and ample tributes to the art form. After 9 years, a more mature Karthik is back with Jigarthanda Double X, which doubles up on everything we associated with the first film and more. Bringing together the soul of Jigarthanda and the spirit of a spaghetti western, Karthik’s plot-heavy sequel is a ‘political masala western’ that constantly surprises and is eager to impress with yet another ambitious task to achieve.
Jigarthanda Double X is Karthik Subbaraj’s true-blue ‘Pandyaa Western film,’ going by the aesthetics, the hero’s journey, and even the heart of the story which finds its roots in an incident from the ‘60s. During the shooting of an American film called Caesar in Melakuyilkudi near Madurai, the film’s hero Clint Eastwood (a digital incarnation of the American auteur) gifts a handheld Canon 8mm camera to a tribal boy Alli who had asked him for a pistol. Upon request, Eastwood even goes on to name him, as Allius Caesar. With a deep-rooted fascination for Eastwood’s spaghetti westerns, Allius Caesar (Raghava Lawrence) grows up believing that the camera is a gun. Later on, when this camera falls into the hands of Ray Das aka Kirubai (SJ Suryah), it truly becomes a ‘weapon’. And through it, Jigarthanda Double X becomes an explosive, vivid, one-of-a-kind love letter to cinema (…and elephants).
Karthik dabbles with a lot of duality in the sequel. The film interconnects two drastically different worlds to tell a massive story; one bursts with hues of orange, brown and red in the streets of Madurai, and the other is immersed in hues of green and orange in the forests of Kombai Sambala….
Read the full review here: