Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Vishal Menon reviews Jana Nayagan, Vijay's final film before his full-time entry into politics, and finds an ordinary film that delivers a set of extraordinary feelings. Directed by H Vinoth and remade from Bhagavanth Kesari, the film follows Vetri (Vijay) and his relationship with Viji, played by Mamitha Baiju, before widening its scope to take on a corrupt local politician played by Prakash Raj and a far more international villain with dictatorial ambitions. Vishal notes that Tamil cinema has a century-old tradition of the superstar breaking the fourth wall to address his audience directly, but argues that no other film has pushed the star-audience dialogue so far that you can no longer tell where the film ends and the manifesto begins.
There is no subtlety in Jana Nayagan's symbolism, which Vishal concedes is part of the fun, but the film is also overstuffed and overambitious, cramming in women's safety, good touch and bad touch, electoral corruption, democracy, communalism and even a robot army into a single runtime. Unlike its source text, which stayed with one or two themes, this one grapples with everything in its star's manifesto and struggles to say it cohesively. Anirudh's music and Sathyan Sooryan's visuals feel placed in service of the messaging rather than finding new ways to convey it. What lingers instead is the surreal experience of watching one of Indian cinema's biggest superstars perform on screen for the last time and walk away at the top of his game — the post-credits alone can tear you up. And that is the THR Bottomline. Jana Nayagan is now playing in theatres.
#JanaNayagan #JanaNayaganReview #THRIndia
Vishal Menon reviews Jana Nayagan, Vijay's final film before his full-time entry into politics, and finds an ordinary film that delivers a set of extraordinary feelings. Directed by H Vinoth and remade from Bhagavanth Kesari, the film follows Vetri (Vijay) and his relationship with Viji, played by Mamitha Baiju, before widening its scope to take on a corrupt local politician played by Prakash Raj and a far more international villain with dictatorial ambitions. Vishal notes that Tamil cinema has a century-old tradition of the superstar breaking the fourth wall to address his audience directly, but argues that no other film has pushed the star-audience dialogue so far that you can no longer tell where the film ends and the manifesto begins.
There is no subtlety in Jana Nayagan's symbolism, which Vishal concedes is part of the fun, but the film is also overstuffed and overambitious, cramming in women's safety, good touch and bad touch, electoral corruption, democracy, communalism and even a robot army into a single runtime. Unlike its source text, which stayed with one or two themes, this one grapples with everything in its star's manifesto and struggles to say it cohesively. Anirudh's music and Sathyan Sooryan's visuals feel placed in service of the messaging rather than finding new ways to convey it. What lingers instead is the surreal experience of watching one of Indian cinema's biggest superstars perform on screen for the last time and walk away at the top of his game — the post-credits alone can tear you up. And that is the THR Bottomline. Jana Nayagan is now playing in theatres.
#JanaNayagan #JanaNayaganReview #THRIndia
