23-05-2025
Ace Movie Review: Vijay Sethupathi's Dated Film Offers A Few Good Laughs
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Vijay Sethupathi's Ace would have been a lot more fun if the year was 2015. Unfortunately, except for a few good moments courtesy of Yogi Babu, the film is a tiring affair.
A question that remains unanswered till the climax of Ace is why it is set in Malaysia. Like many of our films, the geography has no bearing on the script. Ace could happen in Chennai or in any godforsaken place, and nothing would affect the film. It is like the songs of the past that were shot in picturesque locations, a supposed act of delivering a visual treat to the audience. But such questions will be considered silly as Ace is immune to rational thought because the film is supposed to be a mindless entertainer. The problem is that it is more mindless and less entertaining.
Vijay Sethupathi plays a mysterious character of questionable identity named Bold Kannan. When the film starts, he lands in India, and through his telephonic conversation with his friends in an Indian prison, we learn that the protagonist has a past life of crime. He is received by Arivu (Yogi Babu), and Bold Kannan begins his new life as a cook in a struggling restaurant run by Kalpana (Divya Pillai). She has a deadline to pay off her debt to a gang. Meanwhile, Kannan falls for a girl named Rukku (Rukmini Vasanth), who he meets during his commute to office. Ruku is also in a fix as she has to pay back a huge sum to get her stepfather, a rapist, out of her house. Kannan, in an attempt to get them out of such troubles, plays poker with a gangster named Dharma (Avinash), which lands him in a bigger problem. Now, the film becomes a heist as Kannan robs a bank and schemes to pin it on the villains.
The fresh aspect of Ace is that it tries to do the cliches of Tamil commercial films a bit differently. For instance, the meeting of Kannan and Rukku. Kannan ends up walking behind Ruku, a familiar scene in Indian cinema. However, he now has a reason to do so. He is a politically correct protagonist. Even a heroic party fight is subverted, where the two female leads get to punch and kick. At times, the film even undercuts such cliches at the cost of becoming a parody. More than all this, what actually works for Ace is Yogi Babu and his usual antics. While Yogi Babu's sporadic one-liners and sarcasm are some of the saving graces, it doesn't rise beyond being another version of the Parthiban-Vadivelu comedy from Vetrikodi Kattu.
It needed more creative ideas than just barely scratching the surface. For instance, we get a sequence of Kannan playing poker, which could have been a high point in the film. Instead, writer-director Armuga Kumar turns the sequence pedestrian without indulging much into the game, fearing the audience wouldn't get it. Such lack of confidence becomes unbearably visible in a trailer of sorts to the second half that is played just before the interval. I was left wondering whether the makers were worried that the audience would never come back after the interval. If that was the case, why not fix some obvious problems like the long-running time?
But what is putting off about Ace is its datedness. The film would have been a breath of fresh air had it come during the times of Ayan (2009) or even Mankatha (2011). While it would still be a bit drab then, the subversions would have been a bit new, but now, Tamil cinema is obsessed with undercutting its cliches, which has become one in itself. However, the catch is such subversions have now become a scope for humour and a statement from the filmmaker that he is self-aware.
The problem with Ace is that it could have been a Tamil version of Equalizer, which seems to be a heavy inspiration for the film. Yet, the tone here is too frivolous for such a cathartic revenge film. Ace tries to be a lot at the same time. It tries to be a film about a mysterious hero, a typical Tamil comedy-drama, a romantic drama, and a heist film. Unfortunately, it ends up being nothing sold.
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