Karthi In Japan Is A Huge Embarrassing Misfire

Japan (Tamil)

Starring  Karthi , Anu Emmanuel

Written & Directed by  Raju Murugan

Rating: * ½

Of late Karthi’s  performances and films, barring Mani Ratnam’s  Ponniyin Selvan, have been regularly missing the bus.

Japan not only misses the bus. It misses every vehicle  on the road to become a  certifiable dud, best left unnoticed. But what to do? If a street performer insists on clowning in the middle of a crowded  road, you  have no choice  but to stand and stare.

Japan ,in which Karthi plays the title role(no, he doesn’t have twin cousins named Hong and Kong) is an energetic abomination.  It crowds  you with heist episodes which writer-director  Raju Murugan thinks to be funny.

We are all entitled to our delusions, I guess, Every  joke, every gag and every heist in  Japan lands awkwardly on its head. The  screenplay is  nothing  but  a bunch of carelessly written heist episodes sewn together hastily to give us a pastiche of  preposterous plot propulsion in this trainwreck of film.

When we first meet Japan he has decelerated his thieving activities. During Japan’s sabbatical a huge jewellery-store robbery is undertaken  and a politician owns that store.Japan didn’t do it . Then who did?  Who cares!

Karthi  is not just the main lead he is  also the main problem with the film.Possessing neither the gravitas  of Dhanush nor the sobriety of his brother Suriya, Karthi struggles to be a blend of Johnny Lever and, nearer home, Yogi. As Karthi possesses the comic timing of neither, he appears to be  a caricature  of a comicbook hero. His performance, including a style of dialogue delivery that  requires him to sound  like  a goat about to be slaughtered , is  a pain the posterior .   It  gets worse. Every time Karthi’s Japan plunges into  a new  adventure you hope he will  finally have something even mildly engaging to offer. Tragically the aridity in the writing and  unwarranted cockiness  of the  lead actor,  is all-pervasive.

 If  you  going to hang around for at least one episode to take home from this monstrously messy comic-caper, then be warned: you are  in for  a disappointment.

Oh  yes, there is  a leading lady too. Annu Emannuel, playing an actress who ghosts Japan after stardom(sensible woman) looks lost in the comic crime kingdom. She is the only  character who seems  to feel what the audience feels from  the first frame to the last.

WTF!!!