TN 2026 Movie Review:
Blur. Tamil Nadu is a state that wears its politics and cinema on both its sleeves. From using cinema to amplify their political stance and using politics to shape their cinematic trajectories, many find themselves at the center of this Venn diagram. Whenever one among the many in the center gets the lion’s share of the attention, there comes a satire that is either a scathing commentary on the politics-cinema sphere, or a trend train that aims to milk the cash cow for a satirical spoof that is neither biting nor sardonic. Unfortunately, for all those involved in Umapathy Ramaiah’s TN 2026, the film firmly falls into the latter category.
Director: Umapathy Ramaiah
Cast: Natty, Thambi Ramaiah, MS Bhaskar, Ilavarasu
From the moment Dravidian politics gained the electorate's backing, cinema has played an undeniable role in the ideology's expansion. It also meant that stars of a certain caliber were elevated to demi-gods, and even heads of State. There is a film to be made about cinema stars conflating popularity with political ambitions. In Maha Nadigan, Sathyaraj plays a superstar who rises from nowhere, becomes the CM, and preaches that choosing the right leader determines their fate for the foreseeable future. In TN 2026, we see Natty play a superstar who rises from nowhere, starts a political party, harbors CM ambitions, and… while I’d like to say the inspirations end there, unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Sathyaraj and director-actor Manivannan set the gold standard for political satire with their Amaithipadai. In many ways, TN 2026 borrows the premise by having Natty and Thambi Ramaiah reprise the roles made iconic by Sathyaraj and Manivannan, respectively. The film dedicates the entire first half to elevating Gulkand Kumar, a random North Indian guy with Tamil roots, who gradually becomes the State’s demi-god. Through these scenes, Thambi Ramaiah, who wrote the film, highlights how society’s erosion accelerated as it began idolising the wrong kinds of on-screen heroes. This was one of the better parts of the film because it blurs the line between reel and real and lays bare the impact of cinema on the psyche of its largely naive audience. It also showcases his love for his matinee idol, MGR, who was known to never put a wrong step in his films. In a couple of scenes where Gulkand Kumar has to choose between his allegiance to his industry godfather and his own superstardom, Natty is a lot of fun. But the scenes before and after this changeover are supremely flat and obnoxiously loud. While it plays right up Thambi Ramaiah’s alley, it reiterates that he is an actor who needs to be reined in by a filmmaker, and in the absence of such a voice, he doesn’t know where to stop. And using every woman in the film as an afterthought or an archetype does no good either.
The film also lacks a clear ideology, becoming gratingly one-note in an attempt to appease everyone. We are asked to believe Gulkand Kumar is a demi-god, but the writing never establishes it. Instead, it asks you to think of Gulkand Kumar as a version of Rajinikanth and Vijay, and join the dots yourself. This lowbrow effort is evident throughout the film, with writing that is superficial and borrows heavily from the current political climate. It draws on various narratives about Vijay’s recently floated political party and tries to weave an entire second half from them. There are also allusions to incidents from the lives of superstars like Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. However, there is no doubt that TN 2026 wouldn’t exist today if Vijay weren’t a political force.
Instead of investing in the machinations of the characters, the audience is busy connecting the events on screen to those off it. While this is obviously expected in a satire, the writing relies heavily on just this and doesn’t weave together a semblance of a plot. Some characters appear in person in one moment, and in the next, they are in an AV on screen, and suddenly, you are not sure if they were actually there in the scene or if it was a figment of your own imagination.
The dishonesty in the making and writing of the film is its biggest bane. This also means that none of the technical departments, barring composer Darbuka Siva, really stand out. This must also have been the easiest paychecks for competent actors like MS Bhaskar and Ilavarasu, who sleepwalk through half-baked roles. It is clear that the film was rushed, and scenes were meshed together without any coherence. There is also an attempt to whitewash actors with political ambitions, and it comes across as such a copout after all the grandstanding the film tries to do.
There was a time when cinema was indeed the biggest tool in a political agenda’s arsenal. But seeing the assembly line of toothless, rudderless films hitting the screens in recent times, and the kind of political discourse ruling the airwaves, one wonders if anyone actually needs a satire to show a mirror to reality, and even if they did, would it be TN 2026?