‘Pichaikkaran’ (2016, 2023): From Creativity to Vanity

Directed by: Sasidharan [1], Vijay Antony [2] || Produced by: Vijy Antony [1], Fatima Vijay Antony [2]

Screenplay by: Sasidharan [1], Vijay Antony, K. Palani, Paul Antony [2] || Starring: Vijay Antony [1, 2], Satna Titus [1], Kavya Thapar [2]

Music by: Vijay Antony [1, 2] || Cinematography: Prasanna Kumar [1], Om Narayan [2] || Edited by: Veera Senthil Raj [1], Vijay Antony [2] || Country: India || Language: Tamil

Running Time: 130 minutes [1], 148 minutes [2] || 1 = Pichaikkaaran, 2 = Pichaikkaaran 2

I have conflicted feelings over A-list stars who try their hand at writing and directing. Actors who become producers later in their careers are nothing new, as at a certain point even many successful character actors, let alone the big names, have accumulated enough money, industry reputation, and experience to expand their career into funding their preferred types of cinematic projects. Oftentimes these ambitions involve actors founding their own production companies like Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, and Aamir Khan’s Aamir Khan Productions. When a given film involves a well known star who also writes, produces, and directs said film, however, my mind gravitates toward two lines of thought: (1) This actor wanted to try their hand at filmmaking but couldn’t muster the funds for this project unless they also lent their starring face to the cast; or (2) they wanted complete creative control over every major aspect of some sort of vanity project.

It is a credit to the mononymously named writer-director Sasidharan, who is not also the star of the 2016 film, that his romantic subplot stands on its own two feet, including and especially Satna Titus’ female lead.

In the former situation, a rookie director’s debut may struggle due to their attention being spread over so many different parts of their film’s production, while in the latter scenario, a star-writer-producer-director’s efforts may come across as tone-deaf or like self-important attention-seeking. It is for these reasons I ignore the directorial efforts of most stars-turned-directors (e.g. James Franco, Olivia Wilde, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Keanu Reeves, Angelina Jolie) unless given explicit reasons otherwise. For every Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, or Ben Affleck, there are oh so many overwhelmed to vane auteur implosions…

That brings us to the case of the Tamil Pichaikkaran (“Beggar”) franchise. Pichaikkaran is an interesting case study of how a property can falter when it is taken over by an inexperienced filmmaker, which, in this case, is its star and music director, Vijay Antony. Antony is the sort of jack-of-all-trades film industry worker (he has multiple credits as an actor, musician, and film editor) one would think could adapt well from acting to writing, producing, and/or directing, but his takeover of the Pichaikkaran franchise’s second and most recent installment as of this writing, Pichaikkaran 2 (P2), is one of the worst sequels as well as one of the weakest directorial debuts I’ve seen in years. His poor efforts from behind the camera are made all the more noteworthy given the sequel’s contrast with the 2016 original, one of the more modest, effective, and intelligent mainstream South Indian features I’ve seen since I was introduced to Indian filmmaking.

To set the stage better for this burgeoning franchise, Pichaikkaran and its sequel play with the classic trope of lifestyle swaps, where a wealthy protagonist (Antony) becomes a poor man and an impoverished protagonist (also Antony) becomes a wealthy man in the 2016 and 2023 films, respectively. What I like about this pair of films is how they’re standalone entries, sharing obvious thematic overlaps, inverted premises, and a lead actor, but otherwise they have fun in their separate creative sandboxes. Neither film is shot with much style, whether obnoxious or experimental, but instead get as much mileage as they can with their oddball screenplays and very different supporting casts.

The original Pichaikkaran showcases Antony’s lead as a rich businessman out of Palladam, Tamil Nadu whose mother falls into a coma after a freak accident in their family textile factory. Desperate for a solution after months of futile healthcare, a local Hindu sage (Shaman? Priest?) convinces Antony to live as a beggar on the streets in secret for 48 days, after which God/the gods/karma will reward his suffering by curing his mother. P2’s premise inverts the original’s by way of a comical, throwaway science-fiction plot-device that swaps the literal brains of Antony’s dual roles (I’m not kidding), one street vagrant and one oligarch, as part of a convoluted scheme by the latter’s corporate rivals (Dev Gill, John Vijay, Hareesh Peradi) to take control of the latter’s company.

Aside from these movies’ differences in screenplay believability, tonal consistency, and supporting castmembers (all are much weaker in the sequel), the biggest problem with P2 is its direction by Antony. Though writer-director Sasidharan’s work on the original is nothing memorable, the veteran filmmaker doesn’t get in his script’s way, while Antony makes his sequel look like a cheap Asylum mockbuster through his repeated use of obvious digital composite backgrounds for both indoor and outdoor settings. When you’re not constantly distracted by Antony preaching at you in front of a cartoon backdrop, feel free to cringe at multiple laughable action sequences shoehorned into the film for no reason at all.

Minor antagonist Dev Gill glares at many costars in Pichaikkaran 2, but is unable to provide much of an obstacle to Vijay Antony’s bland protagonist.

Part of me feels guilty for berating Vijay Antony’s directorial debut given how much work goes into making even a crappy movie, but all I can evaluate in this review — all my reviews, really — is the final presentation of the movie itself; and boy, oh boy, does Pichaikkaran 2 look like a piece of crap in stark contrast to Sasidharan’s competent rendering of the original. Both movies embrace the peculiarity of their premises to an extent, but the original generates comedy, a halfway decent romance (see costar Satna Titus as a memorable female lead), and a satisfactory narrative conclusion, while the latter feels like an overly long (~148-minute) melodramatic fan film.

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SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: The Pichaikkaran series is based around an interesting concept and is far from mindless blockbuster schlock (there are no bloated digital FX set-pieces, nor any cringeworthy comic relief side-characters), but only the first movie’s screenplay is well executed. Vijay Antony sucks any and all life from the sequel through distracting green-screens, brief yet pointless fight sequences, and way too much dialogue.

—> The 2016 original comes RECOMMENDED, while its 2023 sequel is NOT RECOMMENDED as yet further evidence why most starring actors make for poor directors.

? I never considered how awkward begging must feel before these movies.