Chennai City Gangsters Movie Review: A comedy of errors, minus the comedy

In an early scene from the first half of Chennai City Gangsters, Redin Kingsley’s Netta stirs up trouble with a man nearly three times his height. When the latter, understandably irked, calls for a fight, Netta responds by summoning his army of vertically challenged men. Until this point, the film seems to play it safe with its brand of comedy. But the moment the group assembles, the taller man quips, “Endha circus lerndhu da vandhirkeenga?” Problematic humour like this is sprinkled across Chennai City Gangsters, which seems more interested in pulling off a laugh heist than intelligent storytelling. The ensuing fight brings in some genuine chuckles: Netta pulls out tufts of hair from the tall man’s beard to escape like it’s loot to be stolen, and Vaibhav’s Pandi swoops in comically to bail him out. In the end, it’s easy to classify Chennai City Gangsters as a film that not only refuses to take itself seriously but also treats the audience like hostages to its half-baked jokes.

Directors: Vikram Rajeshwar, Arun Keshav

Cast: Vaibhav, Athulya, Anandraj, John Vijay, Sunil, Redin Kingsley, Livingston, Rajendran

Chennai City Gangsters is a comedy of errors that kicks off when Pandi and his friend Poochi (Manikanta Rajesh) team up with a motley crew of yesteryear burglars for one last score, hoping to loot some quick cash after misplacing the money of a notorious thug. But what drives Pandi to go all in? It’s not just about covering up a botched job; it’s about protecting the lives of his one-sided love, Jennifer (Athulya), and her family, who find themselves caught in the crossfire.

For starters, the love-at-first-sight setup between Pandi and Jennifer falls flat, despite the film insisting they’ve known each other since childhood. When he sees her again after a decade, he’s instantly smitten, so much so that he’s willing to give up everything for her, including his own love. While this romance could’ve played out as a spoof, the film muddles its tone by sneaking in emotional background scores now and then, as if to remind us that Pandi’s love is not just a side hustle; it’s the real heist. Unfortunately, this tonal mismatch robs the story of both its emotional payoff and comedic value, leaving the romance neither funny nor moving.

If an average commercial film asks us to suspend disbelief, Chennai City Gangsters demands we hand it over at gunpoint. The ragtag team of thieves—Split Soosai (Anandraj), Memory Das (Rajendiran), Kudi Kumar (Sunil), and Damar Lal (John Vijay)—are shown to have been betrayed by a friend who lured them into a bank job only to turn them in for goodwill. Later, Pandi learns that their time in prison has left them with physical and mental scars, supposedly making them unfit for another heist. Cue the melancholic music, nudging us to feel sorry for them. But while betrayal stings, the men who suffer it are not exactly saints. The logic or morality of it all is not something that the film bothers to make a blueprint of.

Absurdity in comedy can be a delight when done right. Its success lies in how well the exaggeration is balanced with believability. In Chennai City Gangsters, however, the characters are so wildly over the top that they feel more like caricatures. Take Pandi and Poochi, who casually barge into the home of an overweight cop named Abathu, beat him up, and walk away unscathed. Despite being assaulted in his own house, the cop makes no effort to track them down. Instead, he’s more interested in what a suspect has as a meal three times a day than in any actual evidence. In one scene, he even barks like a dog to decode the final moments of a dying man who barked before collapsing. These moments don’t just undermine the abilities of the police force; they fail to land as comedy, weighed down by tired stereotypes and forced gags.

To give credit where it's due, the film does manage to squeeze out a giggle every ten minutes, thanks to dad jokes that aren’t entirely basic. For instance, when the gang of four assures Pandi and Poochi that they’ll help rob a bank, Pandi deadpans, “Ungala vechutu oru power bank kooda kolla adikka mudiadhu.” These four with their individual limitations, such as deafness, memory loss, split personality and alcoholism, do have the makings of solid comic characters, but the writing barely scratches the surface. The setups are promising, but the punchlines fizzle out before they can crack the vault of real humour. In the end, Chennai City Gangsters feels like a heist movie where the biggest thing stolen is the audience’s time, with no getaway car in sight.