Buffoon

Buffoon Movie Synopsis: Two koothu artistes become pawns in a political power game and are falsely implicated in a drug smuggling case. For how long can they evade a determined police hunt?

Buffoon Movie Review: A solid thriller that captures the nexus between politicians, gangsters and cops, the story of Buffoon is set in the coastal area of southern Tamil Nadu, but what sets the film, directed by Ashok Veerappan, apart from other films set in this region is how it uses the political landscape of this place to build a gripping story. Refreshingly, the film gets down to business right away when Rangarajan (Aadukalam Naren), a disgruntled politician, warns his party leader (VIS Jayapalan), who is also the Chief Minister, that he'd float a rival outfit unless his rival is kept in check.

The CM decides to go after Dhanapalan (Joju George, in a role that's more of an extended cameo), Rangarajan's muscle. In the process, Kumaran (Vaibhav, who is pretty effective as a naive young man who gets embroiled in something more complex and sinister), a therukoothu artiste who takes up a job as a driver, along with his friend Muthaiya (Athangudi Ilayaraja), is arrested by the police, who charge him with drug smuggling and portray him as the mysterious Dhanapalan. The duo manage to escape and try to flee the country with help from Kumaran's romantic interest Ilayaal (Anagha, who is somewhat let down by the dubbing), a Sri Lankan refugee, but the cops, led by a determined SP Haridas (Tamilarasan) are keen on hunting them down to facilitate the CM's political power game.

The sub-plot involving the plight of Sri Lankan refugees and the Rajinikanth tributes (Haridas's ringtone) give the Karthik Subbaraj touch to the film. The filmmaker is a presenter of the film.

Ashok Veerappan's writing is detailed and the filmmaking confident that he immerses us into the film's world quite easily. The only are that feels less convincing is the romantic track between Kumaran and Ilayaal. Even if it plays a crucial role in the development of the plot, we wish it had been written better. Santhosh Narayanan adds to the tense nature of the scenes with his score.