DC - Alls fair

Despite his recent slip-up with 2024’s ‘Captain Miller’, director Arun Matheswaran is a talented and capable filmmaker with a taste for the wretched and violent. For his latest feature ‘DC’, director Lokesh Kanagaraj turns lead actor for the first time, starring alongside Wamiqa Gabbi, who returns to the Tamil industry after her debut in 2023’s Thiagarajan Kumararaja episode of ‘Modern Love: Chennai’: ‘Ninaivo Oru Paravai’. The film sees director Matheswaran back in form with a gritty romantic action-thriller. 

The film follows Das (Kanagaraj), a Robin Hood type gangster with a short temper who, whilst on the run, crosses paths with Chandra (Gabbi), a trapped sex worker. These two characters’ lives intertwine as they both attempt to escape the systems that hold them captive. The plot is a reinterpretation of the story of ‘Devdas’, first conceptualised in the Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay novel of the same name. The three central characters of Devdas, Parvati and Chandramukhi are reimagined in a modern, more brutal setting. The film takes its time in the first half to gain speed, but once there, the film does not let its foot off the accelerator until the finale. 

Although the plot, archetypes and themes are quite raw and stripped down, Matheswaran thickens the film with metatextual references aplenty, rich visual texture and visceral emotion. The references vary from blunt inserts such as the use of a ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ poster and 1982’s ‘Moondram Pirai’ playing on a television at a brothel, to more nuanced additions, such as a mural of Salvador Dali’s ‘The Persistence of Memory’ on the wall of a room, suggesting the liquid temporality of a character cooped up in a building for eighteen years. 

The cast play their roles very well. Lokesh Kanagaraj manages to summon the more stoic side of Rajinikanth’s Surya from 1991’s ‘Thalapathi’ in his portrayal of Das, and was an excellent choice for the role. Wamiqa Gabbi is a fantastic actress, and she depicts the demanding role of Chandra with panache. Sanjana Krishnamoorthy is an underrated performer who has done well in every role she has acted in, with this being no exception. 

Technically, the film is great too. Two separate instances of characters framed through shattered glass stick in your mind - bringing to the forefront the themes of breaking the confines of institutions. Mukesh G’s cinematography is often very tactile, with exceptional aid from the lighting team. The makeup, art and set design teams do a wonderful job of bringing this tale to life. 

The biggest flaw in this film, unfortunately, comes courtesy of composer Anirudh Ravichander. The score itself is some of Ravichander’s best. The tracks ‘Raga of Revenge’ and ‘Namaste’ incorporate Carnatic influences to build a thumping backdrop for the onscreen carnage. However, the soundtrack is a different story. The songs ‘Hangova’ and ‘Ain’t Nobody’ are let down by the lazy lyricism of the elusive Heisenberg, and their placements are an unwelcome juxtaposition to the intense film. 

Overall, ‘DC’ displays many psychosocial wounds with raw, bleeding intensity, and Matheswaran does a great job at eliciting emotion from his audience. The director has managed to regain composure following his slight hiccup in his last feature film. If you enjoyed ‘DC’, I would heavily recommend Matheswaran’s 2022 film ‘Saani Kaayidham’, which remains his best work to date; if ‘DC’ displays psychosocial wounds, ‘Saani Kaayidham’ jams a finger into them and feels around. 

Gopis rating: 3.5 stars

___

Official trailer for film below.