Vishal’s Magudam is ‘therapeutic,’ ‘kidney-touching’ and makes many bad movies look good

I know, I know! Last time, I did promise you all this would be a “Thalapathy week.” But hear me out. When Puratchi Thalapathy comes out with an absolute banger, how can we overlook it? Yes, my dear readers, I finally subjected myself to “Puratchi Thalapathy” Vishal’s directorial debut, Magudam, and it’s a treat for all the senses.

If any of you haven’t watched this “cinematic tour de force,” I recommend it. It’s very “therapeutic.” I mean, Magudam makes us feel our problems and mistakes are far smaller, considering there’s a star actor out there who thought he could create something like Mani Ratnam’s Nayakan (1987) from a pathetic story, even without any visible directorial skills.

A pointless origin story

Vishal appears in a dual role in this action drama — as Don Linga and his estranged son, Kirubakaran (Kiruba), a medical representative. You know what that means, right? Instead of one, we are going to be tortured by two Vishals this time.

Must Read | Wile E Coyote meets Rajinikanth: How KS Ravikumar’s Lingaa became an unintentional comedy

I have never seen a more unimpactful origin story of a don like the one in Magudam. One might think that the prelude will end with a bang, as is the convention, but no. The movie starts by showing a young Linga and Jana (the adult version is played by John Vijay, who delivers the same templated performance in every movie) simply trying to make a living by selling scrap metal. One day, Linga tells Jana that he will buy a ship. That’s it. That’s the sequence.

Don’t get me wrong; I am not making fun of their jobs or dreams. The issue is that this prelude doesn’t even hint at what Linga will eventually grow up to be or who he is at heart. Instead, it only shows that he wants to buy a ship one day, which is the least important detail in Magudam.

Plus, what did he even achieve to deliver the mass dialogue, “When we grow up, this entire city will join hands to give me something precious: Magudam (this is where the movie reveals its title)”? Why does he deserve a Magudam (Crown)? The movie doesn’t even bother to hint at the reason.

Story continues below this ad

Even worse is Kiruba’s intro scene, where a doctor pointlessly discusses numerology, adding nothing to the moment or the movie as a whole. It ends with Kiruba losing business with the doctor because he isn’t ready to sell medicines that threaten people’s lives and health. Yes, this sounds like a good premise, but the way the scene is written makes one have a newfound respect for outdated, tasteless skits on TV comedy reality shows. At least they have setups and punchlines.

Car drama, comedy missteps, and unrealistic characters

Magudam features some of the most atrociously written characters in recent Tamil cinema. Kiruba’s father-in-law, Thambi Durai (Thambi Ramaiah), is an ex-military personnel who, for reasons incomprehensible to average human beings, believes that owning a car will earn anyone immense respect. He even says at one point that military personnel won’t easily get loans. In which world? Has writer-director Vishal even met a real military personnel?

Magudam features some of the most atrociously written characters in recent Tamil cinema. (Credit: Facebook/@VishalKOfficial)

While the car sentiments might have sounded “kidney-touching” to Vishal, they come off as outright ludicrous to normal people.

Thambi Durai is essentially a character added to inject humour into the narrative from time to time. However, Vishal’s writing is so poor that the so-called comedic moments may induce yawns. Comedy doesn’t have to be logical, but the scenes in which Kiruba tricks Thambi Durai with various lies about his non-existent car are so poorly crafted that they might even offend Army personnel, as they make them look foolish. I mean, Thambi Durai is shown believing that Kiruba, who earns just Rs 25,000 per month, changed his seventh car because “a crow pooped on it.”

Story continues below this ad

I am also shocked that Honda hasn’t filed a defamation case against Vishal yet for portraying the company in such a poor light. One scene shows employees at one of its showrooms publicly insulting Kiruba and family over their financial situation just for visiting various companies’ car showrooms for test drives. It’s understandable that Vishal may have lost touch with the grassroots after becoming a film star, but in which universe does he live to write a scene like this?

Don’t Miss | Dorothy movie review: Karthik Subbaraj’s film will make everyone uncomfortable

His direction is so poor that almost none of the emotions resonate. The shot of Kiruba dreaming of driving a car in his sleep brought tears to my eyes, making me dread the fact that there are over two more hours of this torture left before the movie ended.

Double the Vishal, double the disappointment

After all that, we finally meet Linga. Although his intro scene lasts about nine minutes, the movie never shows his face properly, even once. Sure, Vishal might have thought his aura could do the work, but he and the scene have zero aura here. Finally, when his face is revealed in a subsequent scene, his makeup looks so bad that it resembles a school drama. What makes it worse is his voice modulation, which sounds more robotic than deep.

Story continues below this ad

Magudam features a story similar to director Sibi Malayil’s Parampara (1990), where Mammootty played a similar dual role, with elements from Nayakan sprinkled throughout. However, marred by illogical scenes and poor filmmaking choices, the Vishal-starrer ends up looking like a cheap copy.

Cringeworthy romance and poor action sequences

Just when we think Magudam can’t irk us more, we are introduced to a flashback showing Linga’s rise and his falling in love with Annapoorani (Anjali). But the romantic scenes between them are as cringeworthy as Kanguva’s “Hey, yo yo, pudichathu naan than. Hey hey, mudichathu naan than” moment.

The scene in which Annapoorani, an orphan, seeks the sea’s permission to marry Linga, regarding it as her mother, could have been poetic had it been handled by a director with some skill. But the way Vishal has crafted it turns it into the movie’s biggest laughing stock.

What makes it even worse is Vishal’s emotional acting here, which makes us emotional too — wondering how he keeps landing movies despite showing virtually no growth as an actor, even after all these years in the industry.

Story continues below this ad

Unlike usual mass actioners that at least have elaborate plot devices, Magudam is pulled down further by unimpactful ones. The movie shows Linga, and later Kiruba, fighting duplicate automobile spare parts. Wasn’t that a subplot in Anniyan, which came out two decades ago? Bro?! Mind blown!

Also, why did Linga punish himself by concealing the truth about Annapoorani’s death from Kiruba? It’s not like he killed her. She died because of her own foolishness. Who else would stay in the same place, and that too with her son, despite knowing that rivals were coming to kill them?

I honestly feel like literally everyone around Vishal stitched him up here, almost like what happened to Mohanlal in Barroz (2024). I mean, did not a single person realise that they were making an absolute abomination? Not even cinematographer Abinandhan Ramanujam, who captured the visually brilliant Mark Antony (2023)?

Vishal’s lack of filmmaking skills is further highlighted by the abysmally shot fight scene set against Ilaiyaraaja’s iconic song “Muthumani Maalai,” where the cuts and action choreography are totally out of sync with the track’s rhythm.

Story continues below this ad

While the climax fight might have sounded super cool to the makers in discussions, by the time we see it, we are convinced Magudam is an absolute joke, and this scene only adds to its clownery. But I have a doubt: how did all those women, and even Kiruba for that matter, learn to fight so well and in such a choreographed manner? How?!

Had Vishal put even one per cent of the effort he put into making the BTS videos into writing the script, Magudam wouldn’t have been this big a mess.

I think it’s high time Vishal gave up his “Puratchi Thalapathy” sobriquet. It’s almost similar to Dileep’s situation. Both he and people working with him still refer to him as “Janapriya Nayakan” (Popular Hero). They should all understand that those ships sailed long ago and at least take a hint from their back-to-back flops to realise that they are no longer “Puratchi Thalapathy” and “Janapriya Nayakan”.

Not to sound insensitive, but I would say Magudam is the worst thing to happen to Super Good Films in 2026, even more tragic than the death of the production company’s founder, RB Choudary, earlier this year. Magudam has become an ugly stain on RB Choudary’s cinematic legacy.

Story continues below this ad

Plus, the best thing Ravi Arasu did for himself was stepping down as Magudam’s director.

It’s a coincidence that last week we discussed one Lingaa and this week an even bigger Linga came to torture us. Anyway, we promise that we “villu” be back next week with the Vijay movie.

Memories of Blunder is a column in which we dissect some of the worst South Indian movies and performances of all time. No offence to anyone whose name surfaces here. They may all have potential, but they blew it that one time. However, don’t play the song if you can’t face the music, right?