Con Metropolis Overview: Heist Comedy That Retains Misfiring

Con Metropolis has a enjoyable premise and a handful of intelligent scams, however its largest con is failing to persuade you it is smarter than it truly is, observes Sreeju Sudhakaran.

IMAGE: Anna Ben, Yogi Babu and Arjun Das in Con Metropolis.

 

Con Metropolis, helmed by first-time director Harish Durairaj, is a comic book heist thriller a few household of con artistes whose very familial id is a fraud.

It’s positively an attention-grabbing thought. Exploring how and why these beforehand disconnected people — save two of them — live collectively as a household affords sufficient intrigue and, on the entire, there are just a few intelligent concepts and moments that make Con Metropolis watchable to an extent.

Though it behaves like a heist film, notably within the second half, Con Metropolis hates the phrase ‘heist’ and has its characters insist that they’re pulling off scams.

Potato, potahto, you possibly can say.

However I agree with the movie, there’s certainly a rip-off happening.

The rip-off is what the film is doing to itself by believing it’s good sufficient to hoodwink the viewer into considering it’s smarter than it truly is.

Manasilaayo?

Earlier than I clarify the ‘rip-off’, let me discuss in regards to the rip-off story.

The Rip-off Story

When the film begins, we meet a seemingly dysfunctional household comprising husband Saravanan (Arjun Das), spouse Mithra (Anna Ben), their bodily disabled six-year-old son Jeeva (Akilan), Mithra’s mom Janaki (Vadivukkarasi), and her brother Jackie (Yogi Babu), residing collectively and working a resort in Mangalapuram.

However when the child is kidnapped from college, we quickly realise they don’t seem to be actually a household, apart from Janaki and Jackie.

They’re truly con artistes who fled Chennai just a few years in the past and have been compelled to dwell collectively. Why they fake to be a household, and the way their previous has led to Jeeva’s abduction, kinds the remainder of the plot.

Con Metropolis is about throughout two timelines. Many of the first half unfolds in 2010, whereas the second half shifts to 2017. I assume the reason being as a result of the film is loosely impressed by real-life scams.

The precise purpose might merely be that the current technological developments and authorities initiatives would have rendered just a few of those cons out of date. Fastag, for example.

I additionally want the movie had been extra cautious with real-life timelines. Throughout the 2010 parts, there’s a sequence centred across the launch of Enthiran, together with a sparsely amusing bit the place Saravanan makes use of ‘Rajinikanth‘ to get himself out of a decent spot.

That is effective, however only a few scenes earlier, a personality mentions wanting to observe Rockstar, a movie that got here out a yr later.

For a film whose protagonists meticulously plan each transfer to keep away from getting caught, Con Metropolis ought to have been equally cautious about such slip-ups.

The Setup Takes Its Time

It takes time for Con Metropolis to construct momentum. As soon as the primary flashback portion begins, we’re proven the separate lives of the protagonists and why they’re drawn into the world of scams.

Saravanan works for the electrical energy board, is drowning in debt, and is underneath stress from his girlfriend to marry. A pregnant Mithra is cheated out of her rented home and finds herself broke and homeless. Jackie wants cash for Janaki’s surgical procedure.

All of them have comprehensible causes to be financially determined, however their sudden leap into high-stakes fraud is not notably effectively written.

The movie can be confused in regards to the tone it needs to undertake in sure scenes. For instance, when Jackie and Janaki meet a health care provider (Ramesh Thilak) who explains her sickness in an oddly complicated method, I wasn’t positive whether or not I used to be purported to snort or really feel sympathy. The dialogue is clearly written as comedy, whereas the background rating insists on seriousness.

Positive, the rationale behind the tonal dissonance of that scene is revealed later, however it’s troublesome to take a position emotionally when the scene itself is not positive the way it needs to play.

Nonetheless, as soon as the con-games start, the film gathers tempo. It’s laborious to disregard that these ‘protagonists’ are exploiting the gullibility of abnormal folks and their willingness to assist others, however the screenplay goes out of its approach to make sure their victims by no means truly lose cash whereas the scammers revenue.

As an example, Saravanan tampers together with his workplace printer utilizing a ball bearing in order that official receipts aren’t printed. He then invests the cash collected into quick-profit commerce offers earlier than paying the shoppers’ payments earlier than the due date. Mithra and the Janaki-Jackie duo run related scams of their very own (movie critic Baradwaj Rangan performs one among Mithra’s ignorant victims).

The fast-paced enhancing and handy character placements do their greatest to cease you from considering too laborious in regards to the logical loopholes. In Saravanan’s case, he’s additionally conveniently (and unknowingly) aided by his dim-witted senior colleague, performed by V T V Ganesh.

I will not deny there are a few good touches right here, notably in the way in which the separate scams finally turn out to be interconnected and the domino impact that follows when one among them goes improper.

The Methods Turn out to be Predictable

The second half has the protagonists combining their collective crafty to rescue Jeeva from the clutches of a randomly-written villain with spurious intentions. It’s basically one lengthy heist stitched collectively by a number of scams.

On paper, the plan could seem ingenious, however what unfolds on display by no means delivers the wow issue {that a} well-made heist thriller often does.

It is very important perceive that audiences strolling into these movies are good sufficient to comply with the sport. They anticipate the heroes to drag a rabbit out of the hat. The makers merely must be smarter than the viewers by ensuring we do not see the place the hat is hidden earlier than the rabbit seems.

Sadly, Saravanan’s grasp plan, together with the way in which he finally brings down the antagonist, may be noticed a number of twists upfront. The style by which he and his workforce pull off a few of the scams feels far too handy, akin to escaping a site visitors checking by speaking in Korean gibberish. Or one way or the other convincing a personality, who ought to have been indignant with them, in serving to them with their last plan with out exhibiting how that convincing occurred.

Even the twist involving the child suffers from the identical drawback as a result of the movie quietly hints at it a lot earlier by a flashback tune.

Positive, the screenplay throws in just a few roadblocks so as to add some stress they usually sometimes work extra so due to its comedian method. Just like the scene the place Janaki tries to persuade a possible goal that there are community points in a video name in order that they will get extra time to increase their con.

Even then, these moments aren’t intelligent sufficient to go away you impressed by the ingenuity of the escapes.

Performances Work To Some Extent

The performances are effective, although; Arjun Das, Anna Ben, Yogi Babu and Vadivukkarasi make their characters partaking even when the writing fails them.

Con Metropolis additionally fortunately does not overindulge in melodrama to provide weight to the characters’ motivations, however every time it does, it falters. Just like the aforementioned flashback tune the place the characters reminisce about bonding with the kid. Now we have barely seen them operate as a plausible household, so the entire tune sequence seems like an pointless drag on the runtime.

Equally, an emotional scene between Jackie and Janaki, when the previous realises his dream has slipped away, feels awkwardly positioned, although fortunately it’s temporary, well-performed and ends on a unusual alternate. The humour works in patches, notably the comical exchanges between Janaki and Jackie, although even that turns into repetitive after some extent.

None of those flaws would have mattered as a lot if the movie had delivered a genuinely thrilling heist plotline. However when your most-wanted characters idiot everybody just by dressing up as outdated folks, with out trying remotely unrecognisable, this does not even really feel like Con Panchayat, neglect Con Metropolis.

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